by Kathleen Richardson

Created on: February 26, 2009   Last Updated: March 02, 2009

"Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun," is memorable as the jingle from McDonald's 1975 Big Mac advertising campaign.

Contrary to what many people think, pickles aren't just for topping a hamburger or cutting up and mixing into a potato salad. Nor are all pickles made from cucumbers. These low calorie, fat free products can be made with other vegetables such as cauliflower, beets and celery.

The only one, however, actually referred to as a "pickle" is the pickled cucumber. Other vegetables are tagged with their individual names, such as "pickled cauliflower" or "pickled beets. Cabbage is pickled to create saurkraut.

Regardless of the vegetable used, the pickling process stays basically the same: preservation in brine - a salt solution - or vinegar. And this is the way it's been done for over 4000 years, since the first pickles were made in Mesapotamia, most of which is now known as Iraq.

Dill Pickles...

Dills, the most popular of all the cucumber pickles, add a pleasing contrast to the flavor of meat. Garlic is an important component in preparing Dill Pickles. Dill weed is added near the end of the fermentation process.

Kosher Dills require large amounts of garlic and have a more robust flavor than regular Dill Pickles.

A German-style Dill Pickle only requires vinegar or lemon juice, plus lots of garlic, and is less sour than regular Dills.

Gherkin Pickles...

A Gherkin is a small (one to three-inch) cucumber-type vegetable. Gherkins are the pickle of choice for adding to egg, potato and macaroni salads.

A Burr Gherkin cucumber, aka West Indian Gherkin, is a favorite of heirloom gardeners. It grows pest-free and can be eaten raw, pickled or cooked like zucchini. When pickled, this mini-cuke has the same taste and texture as a French Gherkin, but is less bitter. Either provides an excellent garnish for appetizer plates and tastes yummy on sandwiches.

Sweet Pickles...

Sweet pickles have more sugar and less garlic. They are usually found in cold salads and pickle relish.

Sweet and tangy Bread & Butter Pickles are often made with onions and/or chopped bell peppers. These thinly sliced pickles are what you typically find on sandwiches and hamburgers and in potato salads.

Watermelon Rind Pickles, cut into chunks and highly sweetened - more candied than pickled.

Made with cukes, cabbage, or peppers...

Polish-style Pickles - Pickled without vinegar; only salt and water are used. Because of the lack of vinegar, they do not keep as long as other pickles. A natural accompaniment to vodka.

Kimchi - A staple in the Korean diet, this is a fiery hot product made with garlic and chiles. It's most often made with cabbage, but is also made with cucumbers or diakon (radish).

Pickled Peppers - Whole or cut into rings, any chile pepper may be used. There's a range of heat, depending on whether prepared with the milder pepperoncini or heated jalepeno.

Pepperoncini - Medium-hot chiles found in Italy. When pickled they made excellent additions to sandwiches, pizza, antipastos or Mediterrean salads. Stuffed with cheese, they can be added to an appetizer platter.

A bit of pickle trivia...

Germans consider pickles an important of a hangover cure, along with goulash and herring, in what's called Katerfruhstuck - a "post binge breakfast".*

Pickle lovers on a salt-free or low-salt diet may need to curtail their pickle intake. Daily sodium intake for a normal diet is 1100-3300 mg, while in a low sodium diet, intake needs to be limited to 400-1000 mg.

Consider this: a 3.5 oz. (100 grams) portion of dill pickles contains 1428 mg of sodium; the same amount of sweet pickle relish contains 712 mg of sodium.

*Time: 1/12/2009, Vol. 173, Issue 1

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