Pickle Making

Since long ago pickling has been done in homes for preserving fruits and vegetables. It is considered to be the earliest form of preserving food. Preserving fruits and vegetables longer from the use of salt, sugar and vinegar is something early man discovered. Hence, he started making use of these ingredients during pickling and found how to make pickles easily.

Being crunchy and having a wonderful taste is the most important aspect of making pickles. The most important ingredient for this process to take place is salt and not just any ordinary salt. For pickling purposes a special pickling salt is used. Care has to be taken that fruits and vegetables are fresh, about medium sized and a bit thick skinned in case of limes, before chosen for pickling.


In making pickles some of the equipment that is required is generally the same for all pickles. The fruit and spices is what varies. The equipment includes jars with lids, pickling salt, fruit or vegetables to be pickled, spices such as mustard seeds, cumin seeds, allspice, cloves, garlic, etc, oil, vinegar, water bath, etc. Hence, several different types of pickles can be made. Explained below is how to make cucumber pickles.

Remove the top and the bottom of each of cucumber and make sure to wash them well. Add salt to a tub or sink and place them in it. Remove the cucumbers in about 2 hours and discard the liquid. In a large cooking pot, mix well mustard seeds, vinegar, sugar, water, and other ingredients mentioned as per the specific recipe. Put the cucumbers in sterilized jars and pour the hot mixture over them leaving just half a centimeter space at the top. Place the jars in boiling water for about 10 minutes for further process. For 2 months store in a cool and dark place and then the pickle is ready to consume.

Another kind of pickle is sweet pickles. They are made with almost the same ingredients as a cucumber pickle except that the quantity of sugar used is much higher in sweet pickles.

How to make pickles with lime? The ingredients used for lime pickles are lemons, sugar, salt, spices, oil, chili powder and ginger. How to make these kinds of pickles is a very easy job. The lemons are cut in quarters. All the other ingredients are mixed well in a cooking pot. The mixture is boiled. The limes are placed in sterilized jars and the mixture is added to it. In a period of 8 weeks the pickle is ready to consume.

How to make pickles is not a problem as the recipe is very simple, only the ingredients change. Hence, a number of variations can be easily tried while making pickles. The taste and flavor of the pickles is of utmost importance. And this depends upon the ingredients. Careful selection of ingredients is required.