recreating a favorite pickle - part 1

One of my favorite pickles was called "Cowboy Medley", made up until about 2007 by a company based in Lone Pine, CA called Swab's High Sierra. They sadly went out of business due to family issues. After having the jar for 2 years unopened in my fridge, I finally decided to crack it open and taste it...

...MMM...damn good. The pickled garlic really infuses everything. The vinegar isn't sharp, but it definitely tastes pretty salty, but not in a bad way. The flavors just blend sooo nicely. I taste a tad bit of sweetness, but I don't see it on the ingredients. It's entirely possible there's a tiny bit of sugar in there.

So I dissected about 1.5 cups of pickle mix:

24g red peppers, sliced (about 8 thin slices)

58g small green olives (about 27 small olives)

24g peeled whole garlic cloves (about 26 cloves)

71g pepperoncini peppers (about 6 medium pepperoncinis)

The pickling liquid, as far as I could tell is made from:

spring water

distilled white vinegar (5% acidity)

dried oregano

dried basil

minced garlic

salt

Regarding the quantities for the pickle liquid, I don't know. Using the interwebs for some research, I think this might work, although I'd have to try it to verify the taste:

1c distilled white vinegar (5% acidity)

.5c spring water

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp dried basil

1/2 tsp minced garlic

Bring vinegar and water to boil in non-reactive pot.

What are some other ratios? 

Heres one I found:

2 quarts (8 cups) white vinegar

 1 cup pickling salt 

1-1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup mustard seed 

2 tbsp. celery seed 

1 small dried hot pepper

Here's another:

1 cup water 5 cups vinegar (5%)

4 tsp canning or pickling salt

2 tbsp sugar

2 cloves garlic

And another:

2 quarts (8 cups) water

1/4 c. vinegar (5%)

1/2 c. salt

flavorings

Wow, being a baker I have really learned to hate volumetric measurements.

I'll work on it...more to come!

projects

Been working on several food projects:

Slow roasted pork: Tresierras had a good deal on some mystery pork roast at 99c per pound, so I bought it, rubbed it with spices per my Wolfgang Puck rub recipe, and roasted it @ 300 degrees in the oven. The meat was almost 3 pounds, which makes me estimate that at that temperature, 3 lbs will take about 3-4 hours to roast to "falling apart" status. Turned out delicious! Nice to use those aluminum roasting pans for convenience.

Vinegar: I've been reading about making homemade vinegar, so I went out and bought some unpasteurized, unfiltered vinegar from the local health foods store. I chose Bragg's brand, although there were several others, but all as apple cider vinegar. Anyway, the idea is to combine the vinegar with leftover wine to make wine vinegar, both red and white wine. We'll see how it goes.

Sourdough starter: so I'm trying to make some sourdough bread. I started with my grandma's bread recipe, and have let the mixture ferment for over a week, feeding it flour & water 2x daily. I ended up taking a cup off that mixture, starting another batch to make it less sour. Then I took a cup of that and added it to a regular bread recipe. We'll see how it turns out. The "batter" tastes sour, but I wonder if the yeast in it is active enough to give it sufficient lift (I somehow doubt it). Flour makes for cheap food experiments, nonetheless.

Greek salad: my friends Dale and Leah were recounting their trip to Greece yesterday and telling me about their "Greek salad" experience. Unlike in the U.S., that salad has no lettuce in it. It contains: chopped cucumbers, chopped tomatoes, thinly sliced red onion, a thick piece of feta cheese doused in olive oil and oregano. Sounds pretty damn good to me. I've always thought American "greek salad", including the kind my mom makes, as somewhat insipid.

Caramelized onions: made a nice caramelized onion "jam" last week by slow cooking 3 onions in olive oil with salt & pepper until meltingly soft, then adding a tablespoon or two of good balsamic vinegar and cooking that down. Deee-licious.

Well, enough foodie ramblings for today.