Is pickling one of the great mysteries?
Asked by
ETpro (
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April 11th, 2010
We pickle things by covering them in salt-brine. The salt removes the excess water, thereby preserving the item. Other spices and vinegar/wine/sherry may be added to the soak for flavoring, but lots of salt is the essential element that makes the process work.
However, when pickled, we need to get the salt off the items or they would be too salty. So we wash them in water. How does that work? Use salt to remove the water, then use water to remove the salt. Why doesn’t that just put the water right back?
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13 Answers
Biochemistry is not a mystery.
The common microbes the break down organic material can’t live in the high salt/vinegar environments. This is food technology 101. The other way we preserve food items is too cook them to high temperatures and then seal them hermetically in sterilised containers. It removes the bacteria and keeps its environment separate from would-be contaminates. It’s not a mystery.
Have a nice piece herring, dolling, and don’t worry about it.
Where I live… they STILL insist on eating this icky pickled, dried, lye-treated food. It’s disgusting. I like my food fresh, not killed three times over.
Thanks a lot ETpro now I’m going to be dwelling on your question for months. I like the way your mind works, it’s neato.
If you take something pickled and then put it in water . it will rot…. the microbes will return and the food will rot and all your work will be for naught. So, rinsing the surface of the food is fine and eating it right away, but you can’t replace the salt/vinegar brine with water because by the time the reverse osmosis has occurred, the item will have rotted.
When you give something a brief rinse, such as you might to an item preserved in salt or brine, the brief re-acquaintance with water doesn’t soak back into the item. (When you wash your hands, for example, they don’t end up all waterlogged.) Also, the item so rinsed is usually eaten very soon, so it doesn’t have the chance to spoil.
My ex husband made the best dill pickles…too bad he was pickled himself most of the time.
Takes one to know one I guess. lololol
Hardly a mystery but salting and pickling were instrumental in the advancement of the West. This is fascinating book on cod: ‹(•¿•)› and how it revolutionized trade by being salted and traded like currency.
@ETpro
And as Coloma can probably attest, once one becomes a pickle there’s no returning to a cucumber. That’s why there’s AA.
@ETpro
Thanks anyway but a non- issue. lol
Actually it brought to mind a funny story, but…I’d be going way off topic, well, it would still be in the food realm. haha
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