Tickle Your Pickle with Shedletsky's E-Book

James Cooper

• Herausgeber: Ryland Peters & Small
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 180

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

65 recipes that put HANDMADE PICKLES centre-stage from classic deli-style dill-pickled cukes and Italian giardiniera to Korean kimchi and South American curtido. Traditional ACCOMPANIMENTS for meat, cheese and fish, pickles are enjoying something of a return to glory as a NEW GENERATION of eager foodies discover their CRUNCHY TANGY charms. The recipes and methods showcase everything that modern picklers and fermenters Shedletsky's have learned since launching their award-winning brand. Even after thousands of hours of chopping, salting and brining vegetables, they find the process magical as it connects them with the past in a visceral, hands-on way, while still producing something incredible to eat. Here you will find all the tools you need to get started with making your own extraordinary pickles and ferments at home, as well as recipes and brilliant ideas for what you can do to put your 'pickles into practice' once made. From bar snacks, sandwiches and salads to substantial hot dishes and other ideas for the pickle-devotee such as drinks, including an ingenious take on the trending Pickleback shot.

Leseprobe

How to make (& eat) handmade pickles, ferments & brines

James Cooper & Natalie Preston

Photography by

Mowie Kay

Senior Editor Abi Waters

Senior Designer Toni Kay

Editorial Director Julia Charles

Creative Director Leslie Harrington

Production Manager Gordana Simakovic

Food Stylist Troy Willis

Props Stylist Max Robinson

Indexer Vanessa Bird

First published in 2025 by

Ryland Peters & Small

20–21 Jockey’s Fields

London WC1R 4BW

and

1452 Davis Bugg Road,

Warrenton, NC 27589

www.rylandpeters.com

email: [email protected]

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text copyright © James Cooper and Natalie Preston 2025 Design and photographs copyright © Ryland Peters & Small 2025 Cover and page 3 illustration © Natalie Preston 2025

ISBN: 978-1-78879-720-7

E-ISBN: 978-1-78879-736-8

Printed in China.

The authors’ moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

US Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

The authorised representative in the EEA is Authorised Rep Compliance Ltd., Ground Floor, 71 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, D02 P593, Ireland www.arccompliance.com

NOTES

• Both British (Metric) and American (Imperial plus US cups) measurements are included in these recipes for your convenience; however it is important to work with only one set of measurements and not alternate between the two within a recipe.

• All eggs are medium (UK) or large (US), unless specified as large, in which case US extra-large should be used. Uncooked or partially cooked eggs should not be served to the very old, frail, young children, pregnant women or those with compromised immune systems.

• See page 19 for notes on sterilizing preserving jars.

DISCLAIMER

The views expressed in this book are those of the author but they are general views only and readers are urged to consult a relevant and qualified specialist or physician for individual advice on food safety. Ryland Peters & Small hereby exclude all liability to the extent permitted by law for any errors or omissions in this book and for any loss, damage or expense (whether direct or indirect) suffered by a third party relying on any information contained in this book.

Contents

Introduction

Pickling Basics

Pickles in Practice

Cooking with Pickles

Some Sandwiches

A Bit on the Side

Index

Acknowledgements

Introduction

In 1923 my great-grandfather, Sam Shedletsky, opened a butcher’s shop in East London. Our family has been helping people preserve food, in one way or another, ever since.

For four generations now, we’ve worked hard to ensure people always have good things to eat. The joy of feeding friends and family; the communal experience of good food shared with those you love; the simple but profound pleasures to be found in preserving, pickling, curing and fermenting – you could say, there’s brine in our blood.

My gran, Freda, grew up living above Sam’s butcher’s shops in Stepney Green and, later, Brixton Market. She married Harry Cooper in the 1940s and the newly-weds soon left the butchery business behind. They didn’t stray too far from food though; in the early 1950s they opened a small shop selling domestic fridges and freezers so people could better preserve food at home.

Jump forward a few decades, and my dad took over the family business. He probably would have been perfectly happy selling fridges, cookers and dishwashers to the people of London, until my mum found herself the winner of an amateur cooking competition – a competition which, only a couple of years later, would change its name to MasterChef, and end up becoming part of the cultural landscape of cookery in the UK. Off the back of mum’s culinary success, my parents upped sticks from London and opened a hotel-restaurant in a draughty manor house in the West Country. Which is where I come in.

Some of my earliest and most vivid memories are of the food my mum cooked in our hotel’s kitchen. Slices of lemon tart, eaten under the big prep table. Jars of sun-dried tomatoes (it was the early 90s after all) stacked and waiting to be drained for the Provençal tart that guests couldn’t get enough of. Getting involved in helping to make pasta and pastry, I found myself growing up around that chaotic but intoxicating buzz you only really get in a professional kitchen, as the act of feeding people becomes something more than just the fulfilment of a basic need.

It didn’t work out in the end. Turns out, running a rural hotel and restaurant in the middle of a recession isn’t a path to financial security when you’ve got two young kids and negative equity. Still, I was left with a deep love of food and of feeding people, a passion that would endure through a few less-than-ideal early jobs in journalism and advertising. As much as I loved food and cooking, however, it wasn’t really something I could see myself doing professionally – where would I even begin?

That all changed when I met Nat – as it happens, at a music festival just a stone’s throw from Sam’s original butcher’s shop in East London. Luckily, Nat also loved feeding people. Early in our relationship we’d regularly host dinner parties at our tiny Dalston flat, making increasingly elaborate meals from our ever-growing collection of cookbooks. It was at one of these dinner parties – a Korean Easter celebration inspired by David Chang’s brilliant Momofuku cookbook – that we first made kimchi. From that moment on, we were hooked on pickling and preserving.

We loved the fact that a few simple techniques and a bit of patience could produce food that was not only delicious, but stayed good for months. We soon started hosting Pickling Pop-Ups, inviting friends (and later strangers) into our flat to make kimchi or pickles with whatever vegetables looked good or were in season. A move to Leyton, and a remarkably run-down house, put paid to the pop-ups, but it turned out that people still wanted our pickles.

So late in 2019 we took the plunge and launched Shedletskys – named in honour of Sam and his butcher’s shop – with a simple goal: to make and sell beautifully preserved pickles and ferments that use some of the world’s oldest techniques, updated for the modern world.

In this book, you’ll find a collection of recipes that showcase what we’ve learned about pickling since launching Shedletskys. They’ll give you all the tools you need to get started with pickling, as well as recipes and ideas for what you can do with your pickles once they are ready to eat.

We hope you’ll have as much fun making, sharing and eating them as we have had on our own pickling journey.

Pickling Basics

PICKLING AT ITS MOST BASIC

For us, this is where it all began. Years before we were filling 180-litre/40-gallon barrels with pungent fermenting cabbage or plunging industrial quantities of cucumbers into bubbling vats of vinegar, we were making instant pickles at home to bring a bit of zip, zing and freshness to our dinners and sandwiches.

This is pickling at its most basic. There’s no vinegar, so unlike their traditionally brined or fermented cousins, these pickles don’t require weeks or months of patience before they can be consumed. Instead, they deliver a burst of flavour in as little as 30 minutes, making them perfect when you need to add a little sumthin’ sumthin’ to a weeknight dinner, supercharge a bland salad or just find yourself dangerously short of pickles.

Despite the speed and simplicity, this pickling technique is also your secret weapon against lacklustre supermarket produce. A quick pickle can brighten up a watery cucumber or a less-than-perfect tomato like nothing else. And the beauty of this method really does lie in its simplicity. There’s no need to sterilize anything and you don’t need any specialized equipment. All you need is a bowl, some vegetables, salt, sugar and a little patience.

The big downside is that these pickles won’t last as long as traditional pickles. You’ll need to eat them within a few hours or risk finding that your vegetables have turned to mush.

The Shedletskys’ quick pickle method: no vinegar needed

Lots of quick pickle recipes call for vinegar. But our approach is even simpler. We rely on the power of salt and sugar to draw out moisture from the vegetables, creating a simple brine that’s both flavourful and leaves the vegetables crunchy and delicious in a matter of minutes.

VEGETABLES TO TRY:

Tomatoes

Cucumbers

Radishes

Celery

Carrots

Shallots

Beetroot/beets (thinly sliced)

Celeriac/celery root (thinly sliced)

VEGETABLES TO AVOID:

Onions (they need a longer pickling time to mellow their flavour)

Delicate greens (such as lettuce, which will go mushy)

Vegetables that can’t be eaten raw (like potatoes)

Ingredients for Instant Pickled Tomato and Cucumber Salad (see page 53).

1 Weigh the vegetables

The key to success with these quick pickles is accurate measurements. Start by weighing the vegetables you plan to pickle. This will be your base number for calculating the quantities of salt and sugar. Obviously, a set of kitchen scales is your best friend here.

2 Calculate the salt

In all cases and whatever vegetables you’re using, you’ll need 2.5% of the weight of your vegetables in salt. Lots of people freak out when confronted with the calculation, but it’s pretty simple.

An even easier way to do this is to multiply the weight of the vegetables in grams/ounces by 0.025 to get the correct amount of salt in grams/ounces.

3 Calculate the sugar

Next, calculate the weight of sugar needed. This is a bit more dependent on the vegetables you’re using and your own personal preferences, but a good place to start is with 5% of the weight of your vegetables in sugar. You could calculate this in exactly the same way as above. Or just double the salt quantity for a quick and easy calculation.

4 Prepare, combine and toss

Place the prepared vegetables in a bowl (see opposite for some preparation tips). Add the calculated amount of salt and toss to coat evenly. Add the sugar and toss again.

5 Rest then taste

Let the vegetables sit at room temperature, covered, for at least 30 minutes. During this time, the salt and sugar will draw out moisture, creating a flavourful brine.

After 30 minutes, taste a piece. If it needs a bit more sweetness to balance the saltiness, add a little more sugar, a pinch at a time, until it reaches your desired flavour.

ADDING FLAVOUR

While the salt and sugar create a delicious base, you can elevate your quick pickles with herbs and spices. Add about 1 teaspoon of your chosen flavourings per 200 g/7 oz. of chopped vegetables. Pop the herbs and spices in when you add the salt and sugar at Step 4 (prepare, combine and toss).

Have fun and play around. But to get started, here are some combinations we’ve had success with:

Tomatoes:Dried oregano and fresh basil

Cucumbers:Dried chilli flakes/hot red pepper flakes and ground coriander seeds

Radishes:Chinese five-spice and Sichuan peppercorns

Celery:Fresh dill and mustard seeds

VEGETABLE PREPARATION TIPS

These pickles are super forgiving, but there are a few things you can do to make sure they turn out as tasty as possible.

Slice evenly:Aim for regular, bite-sized pieces. This ensures that the salt and sugar penetrate evenly and that the pickles are easy to eat.

Remove seeds:For cucumbers and tomatoes, we recommend removing the seeds. Cut them in half and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon. This prevents the pickles from becoming too watery.

Wash, don’t peel:There’s no need to peel most vegetables for quick pickling. Just give them a good wash and allow them to drain before adding the salt, sugar and flavourings.

Slice finely:For particularly dense vegetables such as beetroot/beet and celeriac/celery root, it’s best to slice them very finely to achieve a good crunch and pickled finish.

STORING QUICK PICKLES

These pickles are best enjoyed fresh. In fact, they’ll start to soften after a few hours and will be alarmingly soft and mushy not long after that. If you need to prepare them in advance, it is best to opt for harder vegetables – such as carrots and radishes – and store them, covered, in the fridge for no more than 6 hours.

If you’re looking to actively preserve your vegetables over a longer time frame, this is not the technique for you! I’d recommend heading to the next section to explore some more long-lasting pickling techniques, if that is the case.

VINEGAR-BRINED PICKLES

While our quick fridge pickles offer instant gratification and are useful when speed is paramount, it’s the vinegar-brined beauties that most people think of when they hear the word pickle. Ultimately, we’re talking about vegetables submerged in a tangy, flavourful vinegar-based brine that kills off bad bacteria and keeps the vegetables preserved. But the devil’s in the detail here and there are two techniques that we use to pickle things in vinegar. Hot brining involves heating a vinegar mixture with flavourings to boiling point to dissolve everything before pouring over your prepared vegetables. Cold brining is even simpler: just prep your vegetables and spices and pour vinegar over them. Which you choose depends on the vegetables involved and the desired pickle style.

Hot vs. cold – choosing your technique

It will come as a surprise to no one that the main difference between hot and cold vinegar brining lies in the temperature of the brine when it’s added to the vegetables.

There are lots of competing claims about the benefits of the two techniques, as well as whether one method or the other is better for preservation. But in our experience, most of the difference comes down to what the heat of the vinegar does to the texture of the vegetables.

In almost all cases, the salt and acid of the vinegar is what’s doing the preservation rather than any heat. So have a go at both and decide for yourself which one delivers the sort of results you personally enjoy.

For all of the recipes for vinegar-brined pickles in this book, you can happily swap techniques. Just be aware the final texture might be impacted.

HOT BRINING

Here the vinegar, water, salt, sugar and any spices are heated together to create a hot brine into which the vegetables are submerged. This slight cooking of the vegetables leads to a softer texture, making it ideal for tougher vegetables like carrots and thick-skinned cucumbers and when you want to take the harsh edge offgarlic and onions. The heat also allows for deeper penetration of flavours, especially from spices. Hot brining can also create a partial vacuum when the jars are sealed, contributing to a longer shelf life.

It’s also our preferred method when using less acidic brines like rice wine vinegar, as the heat helps to further inhibit bacterial growth.

COLD BRINING

As the name suggests, this method uses a room-temperature brine. The vegetables remain essentially raw, resulting in a crisp, crunchy texture.

The issue here is that it is far easier to dissolve the salt, sugar and spices in a heated liquid so we often heat the brine to mix, then leave it to cool before adding the vegetables. If you’re impatient, consider dissolving things in half the specified quantity of vinegar and then adding the rest to help cool the liquid.

Cold brining is perfect for delicate vegetables like radishes, celery, turnips and daikon, as well as some fruits, where maintaining that fresh, crisp bite is essential.

While flavour development may take a bit longer, the vibrant texture is often worth the wait.

COLD BRINING DELICATE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Cold brining is generally used for more delicate vegetables such as radishes, celery and some fruits. This means that the fresh crispness of the vegetables or fruit will be maintained.

A NOTE ON VINEGAR

Unlike our quick fridge pickles, which rely solely on salt and sugar, vinegar is doing much of the heavy lifting here. As such the vinegar you choose is important. For all vinegar-brined pickles, we recommend sticking to neutral-flavoured vinegars with at least 5% acidity. This ensures proper preservation and allows the flavours of the vegetables and spices to shine through. In our factory, we use distilled white vinegar. A lot of white vinegar. Generally enough to make the delivery drivers hate us.

Distilled white vinegar is cost-effective, readily available and has a clean, neutral taste. White wine vinegar is another excellent option as an alternative.

Keep your fancier vinegars (like balsamic or sherry vinegar) for salad dressings or other applications where their distinct flavours will be appreciated.

The one exception is rice wine vinegar, which we often use when creating pickles with an Asian-inspired flavour profile. Its mild sweetness and delicate aroma complement many Asian vegetables and spices beautifully. Just be aware rice wine vinegar is a bit less acidic so these pickles will probably not last as long as those made with stronger distilled white vinegar.

Finally, it’s probably worth avoiding strongly flavoured, dark vinegars like malt vinegar unless you specifically want that particular flavour in your pickles.

A WORD ON RATIOS

The specific ratio of vinegar to water in your brine will depend on the recipe and your desired level of tartness. As a general guideline, we typically use either straight vinegar or somewhere near 2:1 ratio of vinegar to water. Straight vinegar:This creates the most intensely flavoured and longest-lasting pickles.

2:1 vinegar to water:This offers a milder flavour while still providing excellent preservation. Make sure the vegetables are properly salted to ensure they stay fresh.

You can experiment with ratios up to 1:1 vinegar to water, but be aware that pickles made with lower vinegar concentrations have a shorter shelf life and should always be stored in the fridge. In semi-fermented pickles like our Curtido (see page 57) we alter the brine’s pH through the activity of good bacteria that makes fermentation happen. Check out the next chapter for a more detailed explanation.

A CRUCIAL POINT

No matter the ratio, the most crucial factor is ensuring the vegetables are completely submerged in the brine. This prevents spoilage and ensures even pickling. The easiest way to do this is with a set of glass fermentation weights that can be added just before the jars are sealed to make sure nothing pokes out of the brine and spoils.

If you don’t have weights (or as often happens at home with us, all of them are already in play in other pickle jars), you can create an alternative with a sealable plastic sandwich bag. Simply make sure the one you use is the right size – small enough to fit inside the jar, but large enough to cover the pickles – and half fill with cold water. Make sure the bag is completely sealed and then use to weigh down the pickles as you would with a weight.

If you’re really getting into pickling, we recommend investing in a digital food pH tester. They can be bought relatively cheaply online and can be used to measure the acidity of the brine before you seal the jars. We check the pH of every batch of pickles we make to ensure it’s at a safe level, but at home you probably only need one if you’re going to be making a lot of experimental pickles!

SOMETHING SWEET

While vinegar and salt are the primary preservatives, creating an environment where harmful bacteria struggles to survive, sugar plays an important role in balancing the flavour of vinegar-brined pickles. Without it, your pickles will be one-dimensional and probably aggressively sour.

One thing to note – often we make brines that are a little sweeter than you might expect when you first make your pickles. This is because the vegetables will sometimes continue to either ferment (slowly) in their brine or extrude additional water, diluting the flavour over time. To counteract this, we sweeten the brines at the start.

LEAVING SPACE FOR THINGS TO BREATHE

When it comes to filling the jars, remember to leave a couple of centimetres/an inch of space between the top of the pickles/brine and the rim of the jar. This allows for a little bit of expansion, which is crucial if any slight fermentation occurs. While vinegar-brined pickles are generally less active than lacto-fermented pickles, it’s always a good idea to leave a little breathing room.

HOT BRINING GREEN TOMATOES

As the name suggests, this method uses a heated brine, which leads to a softer texture, making it ideal for thicker-skinned vegetables.

Cold brining

Cold brining pickles is pretty simple. To ensure a good flavour penetration and to slightly speed up the process, some recipes suggest salting the prepared vegetables ahead of time. Then follow this step-by-step process:

1 Prepare the brine

In a bowl, combine the vinegar, water, salt, sugar and any desired spices according to the recipe. Stir until the salt and sugar are completely dissolved. You may need to gently warm the mixture to help with dissolving, but do not boil.

2 Fill the jars

Pack the prepared vegetables into sterilized jars (see opposite).

3 Pour the brine

Make sure the brine is completely cold, then pour it over the vegetables, leaving a couple of centimetres/ an inch of headspace.

4 Seal the jars

Use a weight to ensure the pickles remain submerged at all times. Place the sterilized lids on the jars and tighten the rings.

STORAGE