Traditional and Modern-day Pickling
Though we now eat pickled vegetables for their flavor, the original motivation behind the process was to preserve food during a time when refrigeration wasn't an option. The first evidence of pickling has been traced back to 2400 B.C. in Mesopotamia, but the process shows up in the history of every region across the world.1 With such a long history, you might think every possible pickling method has already been discovered, but technological innovations are still being made to help you pickle vegetables in a flash. Below, we'll explain traditional picking methods and discuss the new ways vegetables and other ingredients can be pickled in the foodservice industry.
Traditional Pickling
In modern-day America, the word "pickle" most commonly refers to the popular pickled cucumber, but almost any food can be pickled. At its most basic level, pickling is suspending food in a solution that prevents spoilage. There are two common methods that can be used to pickle ingredients: quick-pickling and fermentation.
Most mass-produced pickles are pickled in vinegar and brine, a mixture of salt and water. Vinegar is an acid that prevents most bacteria from being able to survive or reproduce, making these pickled foods safe to store for short periods in sterilized jars. Quick-pickling relies on the vinegar and brine to pickle the product rather than encouraging the natural bacteria to grow and create the pickled foods. When pickling produce at home or in restaurants, this is often the preferred method because it's relatively quick, with the final product ready in just a few hours or days.
The slower option is to pickle vegetables by fermentation. Fermentation uses salt brine and the natural bacteria that live on produce, which are encouraged to grow by storing the ingredients at ambient temperatures. These organisms consume the natural sugars found in the food and produce lactic acid that turns the brine acidic naturally over the course of a few days to a few weeks, depending on the produce being pickled.
Pickled foods are popular on sandwiches and salads, but can also be used with tacos, bao buns, falafel, poke bowls, and more.
Pickling with Vacuum Pack Infusions
Because pickling seems like such a basic process, it may be hard to imagine how technology could improve upon it. Many foodservice professionals use Vacuum pack machines can be used for sous vide cooking and can also be utilized for infusions. Vacuum sealers are also an efficient way for foodservice professionals to quickly produce pickled vegetables.
Using a vacuum pack sealer for pickling is a similar process to quick pickling, however this method uses the plastic sealed bags rather than jars. Vacuum sealing deprives the produce of oxygen and quickly pickles the food. With quick pickling, cleaning and sanitizing jars can be time-consuming, while pickling with a vacuum sealer eliminates that process, making this method ideal for restaurateurs.
This instant pickling technique can help restaurants not only provide customers with fresh pickled produce, but it can also work to compress fruit to create new textures or infuse fruit and vegetables with flavored oils or alcohol. This opens up a huge playground of textures and flavors for talented chefs to explore.
Foodservice professionals may prefer using vacuum sealers to pickle their vegetables for several reasons:
- Mass production of pickled vegetables
- Product can be ready within a few hours
- Ingredients can be stored for long periods
- Can be used to marinate and infuse ingredients
References
- The Juicy 4,000-Year History of Pickles. History. Accessed July 2022.
