In a pickle, happily

It may stem from a taste for vinegar and an overzealous zucchini plant in the yard.

Or the yearning may spring from a localvore (only local foods, please) looking to savor summer's current bounty year-round.

Or perhaps it's a need to be prepared for the holidays when, Martha Stewart-like, a homemade sweet and sour chutney turns into a gift with a simple twist of a ribbon.

Whatever the inspiration, one thing's for sure: These are not your grandmother's green tomatoes.

Home pickling has seen a bit of a resurgence lately, drawing first-timers eager to resurrect the kitchen arts that time forgot, but this time, often with a little ethnic flair.

Recent titles such as The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving (Firefly Books, 2007) and Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 Delicious and Creative Recipes for Today (Robert Rose, 2006) have fueled the trend with how-to advice, and A Complete Guide to Home Canning: Selecting, Preparing, and Storing Fruits, Vegetables, and Meats (Skyhorse Publishing) is out next month.

And even the updated American classic, the Ball "bible," is in on the trend with recipes like spiced red cabbage and tomatillo salsa.

"People are becoming much more venturesome in seeking out interesting flavors," says Ellie Topp, coauthor with Margaret Howard of The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving, recently released in its second edition. "Ethnic restaurants have expanded their taste experience. And products such as mangos, kiwifruit, hot peppers, Japanese white radish and fresh ginger are readily available in most stores, no longer requiring a trip to ethnic markets," Topp says.

Over the last couple of years, Alice Harrison, buyer at Fante's Kitchen Wares Shop in the Italian Market, has seen an uptick in the sale of pickling and preserving utensils they sell there.

"I think it's because young professionals are shopping in farmers' markets, buying organic produce and eating healthier," she said. "They go to the trouble of buying this food and they want to do something nice with it."

Another reason for pickling's present popularity may be the appearance of gourmet and artisan pickle products on the market: Rick's Picks, Pickle Guys, Picklopolis, Wheelhouse Pickles and Philly's own S&C Pickles are just a few of the upscale jars now on food shelves around the region, offering crisp classics as well as creative spins, like okra with smoked paprika and turnips brined with gin.

Indeed, part of the fun of making pickles at home is experimenting with flavors and ingredients and drawing from the rich traditions of pickling around the globe. Mexican jalapeños, Indian eggplant and Lebanese turnips provide a welcome change from bread and butter slices and a colorful addition to pantry shelves.

Author Ellie Topp, a home economist by trade, learned her own love of home preserving during the early years of her marriage when she would haul bushels of peaches home and can them for the winter. A master's degree in microbiology and food science helped her perfect her technique. Topp estimates that she has several hundred quarts of preserved vegetables and fruits currently lining her basement shelves.

But in this day and age, pickling at home need not require sweaty, endless hours with the canner, packing dozens of quart jars with a few seasons' cornucopia of produce. With small-batch recipes, pickles can be whipped up in an hour.

"The main advantage of [it] is the ease of making pickles with a small quantity of vegetable or fruit," Topp says. "People are often limited in their storage space, so they are only interested in having a few jars of any one recipe."

Technically, a pickle is any food that has been preserved with acid and salt, a practice that can be traced back to India 4,000 years ago. Most pickles are not complicated to make, as recipes involve little to no cooking time. Topp's "Japanese Pickle Sticks," for instance, demand only a brief boiling of the rice-vinegar/mirin brine that is then poured over spears of cucumber, zucchini and crisp white daikon radish.

Even the simplest recipe, however, involves a multistep protocol for canning. The proper technique will protect against mold, which can raise health risks.

"If the pickle is not processed in a boiling water bath, it is susceptible to mold growing on the surface and also to microorganisms that can grow in high-acid foods, thus spoiling the product," she says.

For preserving pickles, the book recommends using a water bath canner with a rack, but a large pot with a snugly fitting round cake rack will suffice, so long as water can circulate beneath the jars. Pickling salt, found in many supermarkets next to the canning jars and pectin, is a must.

Unlike, say, cookie-baking, pickling is not a kitchen art that brings instant gratification. For best results, sealed jars of pickles should age at least two to three weeks before being opened.

There's hope for the impatient pickler, though. If the canning process proves too tortuous a wait, choose a refrigerator pickle recipe, which can be enjoyed within hours. Just keep in mind that unsealed pickles must be consumed within three weeks.

For optimal pickles, start with the freshest ingredients - if not from your own garden then from the nearest farmers' market. For her part, Topp has made some interesting vinegar-soaked discoveries over the years, such as a pumpkin pickle and pickled Australian orange slices.

"In theory, any fruit or vegetable can be preserved by pickling," Topp says. "But some make more palatable products than others!"

Mixed Japanese Pickle Sticks