Pickles, relishes and chutneys have embellished the menus and glamorized the tables of the wealthy for centuries. The have sophisticated casual back yard gatherings with their color and variety; they have guaranteed nutrition into non-growing seasons and have been an integral part of the diet of peoples world-wide. Author Beverly Ellen Schoonmaker Alfeld understands and relates their world-wide importance but her creative instincts find true expression when she heads into the kitchen, and this richly varied book is packed with recipes for experts, novices, scientists alike. And if you are a gardener looking at runaway vegetables, you need this book.
Alfeld's knowledge is encyclopedic: she knows and relates the science of canning and the history of relishes from ancient Sumer to ancient Asia. She tells us that Amerigo Vespucci sold pickles in Patagonia, and that Thomas Jefferson found it "comforting" to have a spiced pickle on a hot day.
Alfeld begins her work with a thorough and clearly written chapter on the processing method. Included are the steps taken, the rolling water bath, filling the jar, processing times, altitude conversion, reactive metals and special techniques and avoiding problems. She includes mention of botulism (don't be afraid), pH, canning spices and herbs and alternative sweeteners.
But this is first and foremost a cookbook with an staggering assortment of carefully and simply written recipes There are many recipes without any sugar and
there are recipes that require no cooking at all or canning.
The list of recipes is so all-inclusive that we can here only give a sample of the treasures within. When it comes to relishes - "chopped pickles, peppers, and other pickled vegetables or fruits" - there are recipes such as those for chow-chows and piccalillis, those made with enlivening heat as well as historic relishes. She even includes variations on old-fashioned recipes for stuffed peppers, once called "mangoes." There are relishes using cucumber, zucchini, corn and bell pepper, vidalia onion, a combination of beet and cabbage, even a hot brussels sprout recipe. There are fruit relishes using tart apples, winter pears, banana, crab apple.
Pickles, which Alfeld defines as "fruits and vegetables preserved in acid," are represented in recipes for pickled okra, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, eggplant, mushroom and watermelon rind. For the ubiquitous cucumber, she has recipes for kosher dills, sweet dills, sweet gherkins, bread-and-butter pickles, crock-fermented pickles, canned pickles, and fresh refrigerator pickles. She includes what she calls "quickles" which are pickles that are made quickly as the name implies. Says Alfeld, "I usually use the term to denote pickles or chunks of vegetables that are made into pickles by pouring hot brine over them and then refrigerating them." There are recipes for pickled nuts, grape leaves, even pickled fiddlehead's. Alfeld has missed nothing!
Chutneys (from the Hindi word chatni) get the same inclusive wide-ranging treatment. Honoring India's great chutneys, she gives several Indian recipes, but goes on to her own Original Potpourri Chutney, a fall tomato chutney, a Christmas chutney and chutneys using apple, pear, candied Fruit and Peel, cherries, eggplants, cantaloupe and peach rhubarb and elderberry. The list is endless and varied.
Alfeld concludes her book with a note about pressure-cookers, a pH chart and an information guide for purchasing the needed equipment or places to buy in bulk. She includes a list of Pickle Festivals and events for those who are addicted to pickles.
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