I love, love, love pickles and preserved foods. I do everything from cure my own olives to pickle fish, but the recipes here are standard — more or less — vegetable and fruit pickles. I often find myself with more of a wild edible food or a garden veggie than I can eat fresh, so I immediately think “how can I pickle some of this?” There’s usually a way.
If you can’t find what you are looking for on this page, try my friend Sean’s site, Punk Domestics. He has lots of pickle recipes contributed from the blogosphere.
CONDIMENTS
Fennel Sauerkraut
A truly excellent rendition of sauerkraut that’s about 50-50 shaved fennel bulb and cabbage, spiced with lots of different seeds. Awesome on a sausage.
How to Make Mustard
Basics on mustard-making and a recipe for a simple country mustard.
Ancient Roman Mustard
A modernized version of an ancient Roman mustard. You gotta try this one!
How to Make Beer Vinegar
Yep. Vinegar, made with beer. Not exactly malt vinegar, this is something better, something richer in flavor.
Tabasco Style Fermented Hot Sauce
This is the real deal, a long-fermented hot sauce in the style of Tabasco. It takes a while to make, but it’s worth the wait.
Wild Green Onion Kimchi
I make this with Western three-cornered leeks, but you can use ramps or any other green onion or scallion.
Pickled Blueberries
Yes, you can pickle blueberries, or any small berry, for that matter. They’re fantastic alongside wild game or salmon.
Classic Walnut Ketchup
Yep. Ketchup isn’t just for tomatoes. This is an old English recipe for a sauce that is a lot like a cross between A1 Steak Sauce and Worcestershire. You make it with green, unripe walnuts.
How to Make Verjus
Verjus or verjuice is a “vinegar” made by pressing unripe grapes. Its less acidic than actual vinegar, and is what you will want to use when you want a bright flavor with food served with wine.
ROOTS and BULBS
Preserved Garlic
Not pickled garlic but, caramelized, sweet garlic cloves pressure-canned. This is one of the most amazing foods I’ve ever made.
Pickled Ramps
Beautiful, crunchy and slightly sweet, I pickle these ramp bulbs with saffron, honey and thyme.
Brine Pickled Carrots
Yep. Old style, no-vinegar pickles, fermented in brine. I pickle carrots in no other way now.
Pickled Sunchokes
Also called sunchokes, these crunchy tubers are awesome pickled with turmeric and chiles.
FRUITS
Pickled or Preserved Lemons
Salting citrus such as lemons, limes or oranges has been done in many cultures. Here is an overview of the different methods, with a recipe.
OTHER VEGETABLES
Pickled Artichokes
This is by far the best method for preserving artichoke hearts. Works best with the little artichokes.
Pickled Fiddleheads
Brine-pickled fiddleheads from either ostrich or lady ferns. These are briny and a little spicy, but super crunchy. Eat them alongside cheese or cured meats.
Pickled Mustard Greens
I make these every year when our wild mustard greens come ready. It’s a little like kimchi meets sauerkraut, and it’s a common ingredient in Chinese cooking – also good on a bun with sausage.
Pickled Cauliflower
Classic Italian antipasto style pickled cauliflower. If you grew up in “red sauce” places, you’ll love this one.
Smoked, Roasted and Preserved Jalapenos
These are made of awesome. They are the love child of chipotle and fire-roasted red peppers. You want to make these, oh yes you do…
Pickled Fennel Agrodolce
Sweet and sour fennel pickles, with a little lemon zest thrown in. Wonderful on an antipasto plate.
Preserving Peppers
An old Italian method for preserving sweet or hot peppers. You roast them, dredge in vinegar, salt and preserve in olive oil.
Sicilian Preserved Zucchini
Similar to the pepper recipe above, this is a great way to preserve zucchini. Salted, dried and preserved in oil.
MEATS AND FISH
Pickled Pike
A Northwoods favorite, this works with any firm, white fish.
Swedish Pickled Herring
This is a classic Swedish recipe for herring that can also be made with capelin, sardines, pilchards or smelt.
Pickled Shrimp
A Southern tradition, pickled shrimp is a great party appetizer anytime of the year, but especially in summer.
How to Make Dried Shrimp
Dried shrimp is a key ingredient in many of the world’s cuisines. Here’s how to make them.
MUSHROOMS
Pickled Chanterelle Mushrooms
This is my standard pickle for mushrooms. Slight sweetness, lots of mustard seed and bay leaves. Works with most mushrooms.
Italian Marinated Mushrooms
Absolutely my favorite way to preserve big, meaty mushrooms. I like porcini preserved this way better than ever fresh porcini!
Polish Salted Mushrooms
A Polish and Eastern European method of preserving mushrooms, these are boiled briefly, then salted down and fermented. Spectacular with bread and vodka.
OLIVES
How to Cure Green Olives
The most basic methods, with water and with brine. Water curing takes vigilance, brine curing takes time.
Curing Olives with Lye
My favorite way to cure green olives. It sounds gnarly, but lye-curing dates back 2000 years. It makes a buttery olive.
How to Make Oil-Cured Olives
This is that Greek style wrinkly olive. It is a very easy method of curing black olives, and the flavor is far better than any store-bought olive.
MISCELLANEOUS
Salt Cured Egg Yolks
Yes, you can salt cure an egg yolk. It’s an easy preservation project to do, and the finished product is awesome over pasta, rice or vegetables. It’s like eggy parmesan cheese.
Fireweed Tea
A tea made by fermenting fireweed leaves, exactly the way you make traditional black tea.
Candied Angelica
Angelica, lovage or fennel stems are hollow, so when you candy them, they make great straws, or zippy notes as a dessert garnish.
Pickled Walnuts
Pickled walnuts are a classic British condiment, mostly served with cheddar cheese and charcuterie. They also go well with sweet foods, too. You make them with unripe, green walnuts.
How to Preserve Grape Leaves
I use these grape leaves to make dolmades, stuffed grape leaves. They will last more than a year if you can them.
Tomatillo Salsa
Tomatillo and cilantro salsa. This is a cooked, canned salsa that makes a perfect base for making chile verde.
Madrone Tea Eggs
Madrone is a flavorful tree bark in the West, which creates this pretty stain on the cracked eggs. You can also use ponderosa pine or hickory bark to make these.
Hank Shaw says
August 7, 2016 at 7:35 amAustin: Nope, never preserved avocados. Sorry.
Kris Tondee says
March 18, 2017 at 2:41 amGreat blog! I grew up here in the valley reading Euall Gibbons. While other kids were playing games, then going to dances, I was exploreing wild areas along the San Joaquin River,discovering useful Edina or medicinal plants, or finding old abandoned homesites and all the old roses, lilacs, fruit trees,abmnd plant bulbs as well as edibles. And I LOVE food, aall aspects. Have you read any Elizabeth David,Dianna Kennedy,or Paula Wolfert? My favorites. My name is Kris and. I live here in Carmicheal. Wish you the very best!
Teri says
February 9, 2019 at 1:36 pmThank you! What a great & much appreciated site. I have a modest 6 acres, here in Ohi & it’s chock full of black walnut trees. I don’t maintain them, I just let them go, as they have on the homestead for over 50 years now… and now I have yet another recipe for them!
How about adding watermelon pickles?