Pickled cucumbers are preserved by fermentation in brine or vinegar. Different varieties include sweet, sour, and Polish-style pickles. Kosher dill pickles are made with garlic, while lime pickles are soaked in lime before being pickled.
A pickled cucumber, often called simply a “pickle” in the United States, Canada and Australia, is a cucumber preserved by anaerobic fermentation in salt water called brine or by pickling in vinegar. The brining process converts the sugars into lactic acid, providing a tart flavor. Pickled cucumbers have a much longer shelf life than fresh cucumbers. There are many different varieties of pickled cucumber.
Pickling spices are added to the brine or vinegar in which the pickled cucumbers are marinated for added flavor. Sugar can also be added to make a sweet pickle. Bread-and-butter pickles include more sugar in the pickle than other varieties, and the cucumbers used to prepare them are often cut up before the pickling process. Bread-and-butter pickles are often eaten on sandwiches or hamburgers.
Polish-style pickled cucumbers are made without vinegar and rely solely on fermentation for the preservation and tart flavor of the pickle. The naturally occurring Lactobacillus bacteria on the skin of a freshly picked cucumber are essential to the process and must be added artificially if freshly picked cucumbers are not being used. Polish pickles are made in a glass, ceramic or wooden jar and a selection of natural spices are added to the brine, such as whole dill, garlic, mustard seeds, horseradish, bay leaves and dried allspice berries. The water used in the brine is first sterilized by boiling. The container is sealed with a cloth and stones can be used to keep the cucumbers submerged.
Due to the lack of vinegar in Polish pickles, a film of bacteria forms on top of the pickle and is removed before serving the pickles. The lack of vinegar causes Polish pickles to have a shorter shelf life than other varieties. Polish pickled cucumbers come in semi-acidic and acidic varieties. The more salt in the brine, the more acidic the final product will be.
Kosher dill pickles, another sour variety of cucumber pickle, are not necessarily strictly kosher or prepared according to Jewish dietary laws, but are made in the traditional way of the New York City Jewish community. This type of pickled cucumber contains a lot of garlic in the brine. This type of pickled cucumber is traditionally served in New York delis. Lime pickles are soaked in lime instead of brine for 24 hours, giving them a sharper texture. The lime is rinsed and vinegar, sugar and pickled spices are added to the pickled cucumbers.
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