[HN Gopher] India's pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirloom...
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India's pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
Author : nkurz
Score : 201 points
Date : 2023-10-01 02:34 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.aljazeera.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.aljazeera.com)
| rishabhd wrote:
| My father knew he had a year, or two at most, left. On a sunny
| day in May 2020, he bought green Kairi mangoes, pickled them, and
| passed on his recipe. He made three batches to last at least 5-7
| years.
|
| He passed away from NAFLD in 2021, but we have his memories and
| his handmade flavorful pickle.
|
| RIP wherever you are, Pops.
| webmobdev wrote:
| What a nice memory to have of him! If you don't mind, please
| share his recipe.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| rishabhd wrote:
| Well, as Keanu said "I know that the ones who love us, will
| miss us."; he was a good man. Here is his recipe.
|
| This is for a small batch (around 1 KG), you can scale this
| accordingly.
|
| Ingredients: 1) Raw mangoes (Kairi): 5-6;
| washed, dried, and cut (retain skin, discard seed) 2)
| Mustard oil: 1 cup 3) Fenugreek (Methi), Fennel
| (Saunf), Mustard, Coriander seeds: 2 tbsp each, roasted and
| powdered 4) Asafoetida (Hing): 1/2 tsp 5)
| Salt: 3 tbsp (or to taste) 6) Kalonji: 2 tbsp
| 7) Turmeric: 1 tbsp 8) Red chili powder: 2 tbsp
|
| Method: 1) Sterilise: Wash the jar and lid.
| Fill with water, boil for 5 minutes, then empty. Invert to
| dry. 2) Roast & Grind: Dry roast fenugreek, fennel,
| mustard, and coriander seeds. Let cool, then powder.
| 3) Mix: In a large bowl, combine mango pieces with spices,
| kalonji, chili powder, turmeric, asafoetida, and salt.
| 4) Oil: Heat mustard oil until it smokes, then cool to
| lukewarm. 5) Combine: Blend oil with the mango-spice
| mixture. 6) Store: Transfer the mixture to your
| sterilised jar. Ensure mangoes are submerged, adding more
| cooled oil if needed. 7) Ferment: Place the sealed
| jar in direct sunlight for a week. 8) Serve: Ready in
| a week. Always use a dry spoon for serving. Store at room
| temperature up to a year, ensuring no moisture enters.
| indus wrote:
| I came to the US a decade ago---brought a carefully sealed
| plastic bag of mango pickles in my checked luggage.
|
| It was "triple" packed because the oil will leak beyond the first
| layer!
|
| As recent as last month---my sister-in-law shipped a small
| plastic jar of fat red chilies pickle to Bangalore which I then
| brought it to San Francisco via a United flight :-)
| indus wrote:
| I no longer bring mango pickles from India----I started making
| it since 2022[0] San Francisco Bay Area Summer.
|
| [0] https://twitter.com/1ndus/status/1497310793964027908
| phas0ruk wrote:
| I love this article! Thanks for sharing
| beebeepka wrote:
| Wow, 27 year old open pickle jars! I expected canned food but not
| like this.
|
| I really should visit India before I grow too old. There's so
| much veggie food to try. Recently met a childhood friend who,
| apparently, used to live there for decade. No he has a small
| Indian restaurant serving food that is nothing like the places I
| have been to in Europe and the UK. No garlic, no onions (I like
| both), etc. Love it
| wtmt wrote:
| > No garlic, no onions, etc.
|
| The no garlic and no onion are part of a much broader practice
| to avoid root vegetables. Anything that grows below the ground
| is not consumed. Jains (the people who follow Jainism) mostly
| follow this (I say "mostly" because even though they're
| supposed to, many may not).
|
| Orthodox Hindus may also follow similar practices. Hindu
| festivals and rituals also avoid onion and garlic.
|
| There's a lot more to say than can be contained in a comment.
| You can read about Jain food and Sattvic food to know more.
| eigenket wrote:
| For anyone who has had their appetite whet for Indian pickles,
| the book Midnight's Children has pickles as an important
| secondary plot point, and the vivid description of the pickles in
| that book have stayed with me for a long time.
| jfk13 wrote:
| Very much so. _Midnight 's Children_ was the first thing that
| sprang to mind, as soon as I saw the title!
|
| (See also https://books.openedition.org/pufr/3813?lang=en
| "Midnight's Children or the Pickles of History")
| dilawar wrote:
| "The god of small things" as well.
| yantrams wrote:
| I'm one of those savages who can finish a bottle of Indian pickle
| in one go. Even if my teeth start hurting because of the acidity,
| I still keep going at it by sucking on them. Nothing like a hyper
| concentrated dose of sourness explosion in your mouth.
| bakul wrote:
| My mom used to make a variety of achar (athanum in Gujarati).
| Sour, sweet ones (made with unripe mangoes and they both had
| mustard & red pepper in oil), Chhundo (shredded unripe mangoes in
| sugar syrup & red pepper). These would be stored in white & light
| orange ceramic pots. But I don't recall them lasting years and
| years! Lime as well as green pepper pickles were more seasonal.
| Also whole not quite ripe black peppers on their stem. The green
| pepper ones would get less hot over time but some could still be
| tongue burning hot.
|
| People who want to make their own pickles should first try
| readymade ones as they can be a bit of an acquired taste. You can
| get many kinds in most Indian stores (usually a at least a whole
| shelfful if not a whole aisle). Patak's used to be the main one
| many years ago but now there are many more brands. My favorite is
| Patak's brinjal (eggplant) pickle. You can even use some pickles
| as a sandwich spread! Or on crackers or lightly sauteed chapati
| or masala puri etc as a quick snack.
| victor106 wrote:
| When I was in Hyderabad,India some of my colleagues got me to
| taste homemade chicken and shrimp pickles. They were so good. but
| also ver spicy. I couldn't find it anywhere in the US or any
| other wester countries.
| dilawar wrote:
| Ah, the "achaar". So wrongly translated as "pickle".
|
| In my village (Ganges plain, North India), making achaar was a
| significant seasonal community event. When mangoes were small, we
| used to wait for heavy winds during early monsoon. A lot of raw
| mangoes would fall on the ground, and the next day they would be
| sold at a much cheaper price.
|
| There were two broad classes of mango varieties: one for eating
| ripe, and the other one for making achaar, which were usually
| very small, had large seeds, and were extremely sour when raw
| (and extremely sweet and full of fibers when ripe). The whole
| process would take a week or two: cutting raw mangoes, drying
| them, salting them, preparing masala, and putting them in a
| special jar.
|
| The last process requires special hands if you wanted your pickle
| to last a few years. There were a few women who were experts in
| putting pickle in jar and were highly sought after. Whoever had
| pickle that could last at least two years in the village without
| growing fungus belonged to this group. Some members of this
| famous group were from lower castes, and obviously, they were not
| allowed to physically touch the pickle. Instead, they would
| supervise from a very close distance.
|
| They would take a few pieces of mango mixed with masala and push
| them down the jar as hard as possible to remove all air. The
| slower and harder you push, the better. Once the jar was almost
| filled, it would be filled with mustard oil and crystal salt and
| then kept for at least 6 months. The older the pickle, the better
| it is! The achaar jar used to be the costliest pot in a house,
| usually a china pot.
|
| My contribution to this was introducing potassium permanganate as
| an extra layer to fight fungus. It is still known as "achaar
| powder" in the village. Things are very different now. The
| moisture content in new brick-concrete houses is not as high as
| it used to be in traditionally made houses. And much better
| quality jars are available, especially the airtight ones. I don't
| think many people now push the achaar as hard as they used to.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| > Some members of this famous group were from lower castes, and
| obviously, they were not allowed to physically touch the
| pickle.
|
| Obviously...
|
| I really enjoyed your post, but that part is just so shitty
| (not commenting on you, just the dynamic that exists).
| guntherhermann wrote:
| It's very interesting though isn't it! These people were
| obviously skilled enough to make a clean environment for
| pickle to... pickle, but were seen as untouchable.
|
| I would have thought that the juxtaposition was so obvious
| that the people who weren't 'untouchable' didn't really
| believe it, but went along with it because everyone else did,
| too.
|
| I think this is probably a kind of pluralistic ignorance:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralistic_ignorance
| davchana wrote:
| I agree. There were (or still are) various levels of
| untouchables, but not everywhere, not same people, and not
| same level of strictness. For example women if some areas
| are considered untouchables when they have periods (same
| home, same family, daughters, wives, mothers). Then the
| financial status. Then caste, tribe. Or language. Or
| geography.
|
| I don't agree to any of the above.
| danans wrote:
| > It's very interesting though isn't it! These people were
| obviously skilled enough to make a clean environment for
| pickle to... pickle, but were seen as untouchable.
|
| There are often whole systems of technicalities created to
| rationalize these contradictions.
|
| Here's an even more striking example (priests using clay
| from the ground of the house of a prostitute to make an
| icon for a religious festival):
|
| https://www.india.com/viral/why-is-the-soil-from-outside-
| a-p...
|
| There are all kinds of these scenarios that happen when
| theoretical social hierarchy comes into practical contact
| with the lived reality of people in interdependent
| communities.
| hawk_ wrote:
| > The last process requires special hands if you wanted your
| pickle to last a few years.
|
| Is that some code word for hygiene? I seem to remember that the
| concept of hygiene for making achaar (and for other kitchen
| matters) was codified in religious practices in my
| family/community.
| boruto wrote:
| Don't really think that is the case.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| It's probably more of a code word for experience and luck,
| like a gardener's green thumb; some have it, some simply
| don't, is the implication.
| civilitty wrote:
| No it's technique. There are two ways to pickle something -
| hot and cold. The hot method uses boiling liquid that
| sterilizes the container by itself but the cold method
| requires careful technique that keeps the container sterile
| until the food is loaded.
|
| Hygiene matters but only incidentally, since it's easier to
| keep one's work area clean when they are clean.
| kumarvvr wrote:
| I have observed this personally in my extended family. My
| paternal grandmother has 3 daughters. GM and Daughter 1's
| pickles would last long and were delicious. Daughter 2 and
| 3's pickles would not be good and spoil.
|
| But, the process, and I mean, like an industrial quality
| detailed process of pages and pages of notes and quantities,
| etc would be absolutely same.
|
| My GM always said 2 & 3 dont have the 'hand' for a pickle.
|
| Fun Memory : One of my grandmother most precious possessions
| was not gold or money, but a 40 year old aluminum tumbler,
| passed on to her by her mother-in-law, that was used to
| measure items for the pickle (x tumblers of mustard powder, Y
| tumblers of chilli powder..)
| Metacelsus wrote:
| >My contribution to this was introducing potassium permanganate
| as an extra layer to fight fungus. It is still known as "achaar
| powder" in the village.
|
| Did people end up eating potassium permanganate? I think that
| would be pretty toxic.
| lcedp wrote:
| > Did people end up eating potassium permanganate? I think
| that would be pretty toxic.
|
| It is definitely toxic and dangerous. Yet, we used a very
| light solution of it (I'm thinking <0.1%, a very light shade
| of purple) to cause vomit reflex.
| dilawar wrote:
| I hope not. It was meant to be sprinkled on the top after oil
| and salt has been added. Besides' we didn't know that it was
| toxic. I read about it in my chemistry book and it is
| available in a medical store.
|
| I am more worried about people keeping insecticides in husked
| and unhusked rice. Trace amounts of insecticides is very
| common in grains here. I hope this improves soon since
| epigenetic changes due to insecticides are very significant.
|
| Update: I looked at wiki after one more comment pointed out
| toxic nature of kmno4. It wasn't purple in colour but white.
| I am definitely recalling the name wrong.
| ssivark wrote:
| Love the story about the interplay between textbook
| chemistry and traditional food practices :-)
| quadrifoliate wrote:
| You might be thinking of potassium metabisulphite? [1]
|
| Sounds like it's a white powder, which fits your
| description. Also, I grew up in India, and am pretty sure
| that at school, I read about this being introduced to
| complement traditional preservatives.
|
| ----------------------------------------
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_metabisulfite
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| OJFord wrote:
| > Ah, the "achaar". So wrongly translated as "pickle".
|
| Why do you say that? I wrote a longer reply here to someone
| saying the same, but in brief my guess is that you're thinking
| of (US) 'dill pickle'?
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37725552
|
| Nimbu achar is called lime pickle in the UK. That doesn't seem
| strange and nobody's surprised at what they get, so why is it
| 'so wrongly translated'?
| qart wrote:
| Pickle is definitely the right word. Achar is a Persian loan
| word in Hindi. There's no good reason to use that as a
| standard term when writing in English. Both pickle and achar
| would sound alien to my great-grandparents, who spoke neither
| English nor Hindi. They would use the term uppinakaayi.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_pickle
| 19f191ty wrote:
| Achar is not a Persian loan word in Hindi. Just because
| it's similar to the Persian word doesn't mean it's a loan
| word. Ancient Persian (Avestan) and Sanskrit were extremely
| similar to each other (basically the same language). So
| there are many old concepts and ideas that have the same
| words in the two languages. Achar is one of them, it's
| possibly a much older word.
| danans wrote:
| What is the Indo-Iranian etymology you are proposing?
|
| There is no attested word "achaara" referring to a pickle
| in any Sanskrit dictionary I know of (I just checked
| several). The standard Sanskrit words for pickle have
| very clear analyses, i.e. avaleha ("licked down"). A
| similar analysis of "achaara" in Sanskrit would lead to a
| nonsense meaning of "not-moving".
|
| Whereas, there is a clearly related Persian word "achaar"
| for a similarly preserved food, which apparently doesn't
| appear in any Indian texts prior to Mughal rule of South
| Asia.
|
| Even if there were a shared Avestan/Sanskrit antecedent,
| many words that share a common ancestor in those
| languages got re-borrowed in their Persian form into
| Hindi during Mughal rule.
|
| For example, the common Hindi word "garam", meaning hot,
| is a direct borrowing from Persian "garm". It replaced a
| related word for hot/heat from Sanskrit: "gharma" (the
| loss of original aspiration on the "g" is a feature of
| Persian). Both words share the same origin, but the
| Persian version is the one used across South Asia today.
|
| Similarly, Hindi "chaador" meaning "blanket", is a
| Persian borrowing that also has a Sanskrit cognate
| "chhaadana" meaning "cover".
| fuzztester wrote:
| >any Sanskrit dictionary I know of (I just checked
| several)
|
| What are those Sanskrit dictionaries you checked? I'm not
| saying you are wrong, I just want Sanskrit resources,
| since I know it some and am interested in it.
| fuzztester wrote:
| >A similar analysis of "achaara" in Sanskrit would lead
| to a nonsense meaning of "not-moving".
|
| I think "non-moving" in Sanskrit should be "a _chara_ ",
| not "a _chaara_ ", i.e. a short "a" sound, not a long
| one, for the second syllable.
|
| Similar to the word "nishaa _chara_ " which means "night-
| moving", referring to demons.
|
| I studied Sanskrit for 5 years total in school and
| college, so although I am somewhat rusty now, I think
| what I said is right.
| schoen wrote:
| The concept you're describing is a "cognate".
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognate
| OJFord wrote:
| I grew up (British) with it called pickle, sure we also had
| pickled onions^ etc. which are quite different, but that
| doesn't mean it's wrongly translated - for one thing
| they've both been through the pickling process; for another
| (perhaps more importantly as a layman term) everyone
| understands it as pickle.
|
| I don't know what they think would be a better translation
| (i.e. explicitly not just borrowing achar ourselves too) -
| salsa maybe? Seems weird to use a loan word from a
| completely different culture for a different preserve, and
| anyway I suspect Britain had achar before salsa.
|
| (^Anyway you would never say 'pass the pickle' for pickled
| onions, maybe something like piccalilli, which _is_
| relatively achar like! Although I 'm not sure how good an
| argument that is, it probably was colonially achar-
| inspired, heavily uses yellow mustard seed which I think
| isn't/wasn't cultivated here (for harvest of seeds for
| culinary use I mean).)
| plastic_bag wrote:
| This brings back memories of my childhood. I am from a coastal
| village in (northern) Andhra Pradesh, India.
|
| We call it "pccddi" (pachchadi) in Telugu. If it were to be
| made in a process usual to the rest of the state (or the
| country), it would not last longer due the village's close
| proximity to the sea.
|
| So my aunt and grandmother would also add jaggery to the
| pickle, to stop it from developing fungus sooner and to give it
| a sweet taste along with sour and spicy taste mango pickles are
| known for. This addition would give the pickle a deeper colour.
|
| I always preferred it over the regular mango pickle.
| nischalsamji wrote:
| the right term is uurgaay or aavkaay.
| kumarvvr wrote:
| > potassium permanganate
|
| What !
|
| Are you sure?
|
| That would be deadly.
| dilawar wrote:
| Now I read the Wikipedia article about it. It doesn't look
| the same. I remember it being white in colour while kmno4 is
| purple. Definitely I am recalling the name wrong.
| gorjusborg wrote:
| Could you mean potassium nitrate?
| NL807 wrote:
| I would love to learn how to make this. Do you or anyone here
| know good recipes and the process?
| rmk wrote:
| You could buy a pickle spice mix (this one is a North Indian
| style pickle mix, by the looks of it):
|
| https://foodsofnations.com/products/indian-pickle-masala-
| ach...
|
| Here's a 'wet kind' to make Gujarati style pickles:
|
| https://www.tarladalal.com/homemade-indian-pickle-masala-
| guj...
|
| Here's a recipe to make mango pickle (this being the tail end
| of summer, you may chance upon raw mangoes still):
| https://www.tarladalal.com/spicy-mango-pickle-mango-
| pickle-w...
|
| Or try pickling lemons, which are easily available year-
| round:
|
| https://www.tarladalal.com/sweet-lemon-pickle-nimboo-ka-
| acha...
|
| https://profusioncurry.com/sweet-lemon-pickle-recipe/#recipe
| microflash wrote:
| Pickles are the traditional sendoff items in India. During my
| university days, my grandmom and mom would painstakingly curate
| mangoes to make pickles. A handsome batch would accompany me to
| the hostel where friends and foes would flock together to consume
| it with much fervour. Those pickles certainly pulled a lot of
| slack for the mess food.
| [deleted]
| kumarvvr wrote:
| Yeah, this is not the western idea of Pickle.
|
| These are long lasting, chilli powder filled, Mustard powder
| based goodness, that is tasty throughout the year, filling and an
| absolute delight.
|
| There are so many fond memories of eating mango pickle with
| steaming hot rice, in the hot summers in my home.
|
| In every Indian Home (at least in the south that I know about),
| you will find at least a couple of these pickles stocked all the
| time. Mango, Tomato, Tamarind are very famous.
|
| Also, many westerners don't know about Powder delicacies, meant
| to be eaten with rice, dosas, idly, etc. I personally know
| atleast a dozen types of these powders.
|
| https://cookingfromheart.com/kandi-podi-andhra-special-parup...
|
| These are nutritious and absolutely delicious.
|
| Some hot rice with a pickle and a powder, capped off with curd
| rice is a wholesome meal when there is no time or you are too
| tired.
|
| A list of recipes
|
| https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/mango-pickle-recipe-andhra...
|
| https://cookingfromheart.com/magaya-pachadi/
|
| https://www.gayatrivantillu.com/recipes-2/chutneys-and-aacha...
|
| https://www.gayatrivantillu.com/recipes-2/chutneys-and-aacha...
|
| https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/andhra-tomato-pickle-ni...
| OJFord wrote:
| > Yeah, this is not the western idea of Pickle.
|
| > These are long lasting, chilli powder filled, Mustard powder
| based goodness, that is tasty throughout the year, filling and
| an absolute delight.
|
| Achar right? 'Pickle' is exactly what I'd (white British) call
| it, and vice versa not be surprised when it was what I was
| given.
|
| Maybe you're thinking of American 'dill pickle' (where the
| pickle stands for 'with pickled cucumber') but that's at best
| just one type, and it's only 'American idea' (rather than
| 'western') that the preserved cucumber itself is to be termed
| 'a pickle'.
|
| It is true that most non-Indian/inspired pickles I can think of
| are whole (or large pieces of) vegetables in vinegar and not a
| lot else, which looks different I suppose but it's the same
| preservation method. Nimbu achar 'lime pickle' especially is
| about as common as mango aam ki chutney in Indian
| restaurants/takeaways in the UK.
|
| A more significant difference, if you insist, between Indian
| and 'western' pickle would be the presence of oil. But pickle
| is the right term, and achar is not a stranger to our plates.
| samatman wrote:
| It's true that Americans call pickled cucumbers "pickles",
| they are far and away the most common kind, but we're aware
| of what pickling is, and have pickled eggs, pickled radish,
| pickled beets, and while we don't refer to sauerkraut as
| pickled cabbage (we call it, well, sauerkraut), we do know
| that's what it is.
|
| We don't eat as much Branston pickle as Brits do, but it's
| available in most supermarkets.
| OJFord wrote:
| I didn't mean to imply you don't, more that I'm aware of
| that ('a pickle') and can't speak with much certainty about
| what else is available.
|
| My point was only supposed to be that I can't see what's
| wrong with 'pickle' as a translation. I don't think any
| Indian would hesitate to call picallili an achar at a
| glance (on tasting it they might find it unexpectedly mild,
| but certainly you can have mild achars).
| [deleted]
| halostatue wrote:
| As a bit of a pickle enthusiast, I must object to the idea
| that it is "vegetables in vinegar and not a lot else".
|
| I was looking at making various Japanese pickles last year
| and rice bran with miso is a very common dry pickling bed;
| salt pickles are far more common than vinegar pickles (the
| recipe book I looked at had about 1/4 of its pickles with
| some sort of vinegar, usually a rice vinegar).
|
| Even vinegar-based Western pickles are far more interesting
| than "just vinegar", because most pickles have herbs and
| spices (pickled dill cucumbers have dill, garlic, and often
| mustard seed or coriander, sometimes chilli flakes). Also
| fairly common in Western pickles are wine pickles (not for
| cucumbers; sometimes used to finish the aging of sauerkraut)
| or salt pickles (preserved lemon, most sauerkrauts, the
| better pickled dill cucumbers).
|
| And then you get the interesting pickles like Branston Pickle
| (more accurately called a chutney made with pickled
| vegetables, but...).
|
| I also buy quite a few oil-pickled products from Italy; I
| suspect that many Mediterranean cultures use oil pickling
| over vinegar pickling. (Although the production methods for
| most of these would start with brining -- salt pickling --
| they would be dried and the curing would be finished in the
| oil that they ship in.)
| silverpepsi wrote:
| Lol "famous"? Sorry I don't think a pickle can be famous but ya
| know different strokes.
| halostatue wrote:
| famous | 'feIm@s | adjective 1 known about by many people: a
| famous star | the country is _famous_ for its natural beauty.
| 2 informal excellent: Galway stormed to a _famous_ victory.
|
| Various types of pickles are in fact "famous":
|
| - Mango pickle (not my favourite Indian pickle; right now
| that would be garlic pickle and my standby is lime pickle)
|
| - New York deli half-sour pickled cucumbers (not a vinegar
| pickle, but a fermented pickle).
|
| - Umeboshi (salt-pickled Japanese plums)
|
| - Kimchi (Korean fermented cabbage and vegetables)
|
| - Kapusta / Sauerkraut (Ukrainian and German
| fermented/pickled cabbage, respectively)
|
| There are others, but the point has been made. When you
| consider that "famous" is often used to mean "beloved", your
| ignorance is showing.
| solarengineer wrote:
| Famous within India at least. There's a billion-plus people
| there.
| kumarvvr wrote:
| Famous in the sense that a Twinkie is "famous" in the US.
|
| Try to ban Mango Pickle in India, there would be riots on the
| streets !
| dr_dshiv wrote:
| My mind is blown. I always thought of pickling as a very
| microbial phenomenon:
|
| "Probiotic pickles are a common myth, Krish said. "Probiotic
| means the presence of microbes. For a pickle to survive decades,
| it has to have zero microbes. When you pickle in salt or acids,
| all bacteria is killed," he explained, adding that such pickles
| can be called postbiotic."
| satvikpendem wrote:
| I make pickles like these, but I've never seen them that old.
| Generally we make them and eat them within several months, then
| make more. Mango pickle is my favorite as it has just the right
| spiciness, while lemon pickles are often too sour for my taste.
| If you want to try them, they are usually at your local Indian
| grocery store.
|
| These pickles are mainly eaten with rice or dishes like dosas and
| idlis, often when you have nothing else at home to eat, as it
| provides a quick and cheap meal, combining carbs with some flavor
| as to not make them bland. They are also quite good in yogurt
| rice to provide some spice.
| spaceman_2020 wrote:
| To add: if you are buying them from a store, you will need to
| try multiple brands before you find the one that's right for
| you. Unlike western-style pickles, the taste can vary very
| wildly across brands.
| anjanb wrote:
| Sri Sri Tattva Mango pickles are quite good :
| https://www.srisritattva.com/products/shop-mango-pickle-300g
| halostatue wrote:
| Oh yes.
|
| My personal go-tos are Shan and Deep (I really like the Shan
| garlic pickle and the Deep lemon and lime pickles; they both
| make competent mixed achar). If I can't find either of those,
| I will settle for Patak's over other brands I have not tried
| (there are some I have tried and Do Not Like).
| NL807 wrote:
| Would you mind sharing a recipe? I'd love to learn how to make
| them.
| smusamashah wrote:
| For anyone else looking to try Indian/Pakistani pickles. They
| are made of various fruits and veggies. Mango is the most
| popular one in Pakistan. Others include carrot, lemon, green
| pepper, onion and some other ones.
|
| Pickle is dipped and preserved in oil. My family has made mango
| pickle at home many time over the years. Like GP it is eaten in
| span of months. It can be very sour. Here in UK, we have found
| Ahmad Foods pickles to be the best choice so far.
|
| I have seen on TV that one of the favourite Indian meals is
| Paratha and Pickle. Is it a common meal?
| user_7832 wrote:
| > I have seen on TV that one of the favourite Indian meals is
| Paratha and Pickle. Is it a common meal?
|
| It's certainly not uncommon, though I think it's often paired
| (for good reason) with yoghurt. It's more of a
| breakfast/snack meal than a full lunch meal though, however
| parathas & pickles can be components of a full meal too.
| GordonS wrote:
| Garlic pickle is also amazing!
| signal11 wrote:
| Or seafood, in some (coastal) parts of the country[1].
|
| I've had shrimp pickle from Andhra Pradesh, it's delicious
| but doesn't seem to be as well known.
|
| [1] https://www.vahrehvah.com/shrimp-prawn-pickle
| vrc wrote:
| Shrimp and chicken pickle too! They don't keep as long,
| sadly
| huytersd wrote:
| I've had pickled pork from Goa before.
| smusamashah wrote:
| My grandmother use to tell about beef pickle but didn't
| make it when I req. It was a difficult one. Would love to
| try meat pickle someday.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| I've had chicken and mutton pickles, you can get them at
| certain Indian restaurants and stores, often in the
| refrigerator section.
| profsummergig wrote:
| For the Non-Indians looking at the pictures and scratching their
| heads:
|
| I want to clarify that the Indian concept of pickle is nothing
| like (say) the American concept (cucumber cut lengthwise, in
| vinegar, in a bottle, at the grocery store).
|
| I don't know if there's a global equivalent to the Indian pickle.
| But the Indian pickle is a very-highly spiced, cured in oil
| concoction (primarily consisting of fruits and vegetables, with
| around 50% of the total mass being spices and oil). For the poor
| or rich alike it's a great thing to have. The poor because it
| adds a blast of flavor to otherwise bland carbs (rice / wheat).
| There were poor people in India (back when I lived there) who
| could afford nothing but plain rice as their meal. If they had
| pickle, it still made a tasty meal. I'm told that this sort of
| extreme poverty is now a thing of the past. I hope it's true.
| hnhg wrote:
| Amba, popular in Iraq and Israel, is similar and has its roots
| in India: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amba_(condiment)
| Foobar8568 wrote:
| Tangerine skin in China/Canton area ( I believe ), used for
| different cuisines, it can be decade old as well, generally it
| seems to be more dried than packed with spices, it gives a
| delicious fragrance.
|
| https://guide.michelin.com/mo/en/article/dining-in/ingredien...
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _I don 't know if there's a global equivalent to the Indian
| pickle_
|
| Most old-world cultures have a spiced, fermented foodstuff.
| Japan, China and Korea, for example, are full of them. Many
| ingredients in modern Indian pickles were originally imported
| from the North Africa of antiquity.
|
| Even in America, the "classic" dill-pickled cucumber is a very
| small fraction of the fermented vegetable foods.
| an_aparallel wrote:
| Closest to Indian pickle I know of is Persian "turshi".
|
| It is a mixed vegetable, herb and spice pickle. However
| unlike Indian pickles, tempered spices and mustard aren't
| involved.
|
| Makes sense to me as they're close geographically.
| goku12 wrote:
| There are spiced pickles available in the western world (spiced
| olives in oil, as an example) - though it may not be as spicy
| or oily as Indian pickles. Kimchi is a distant but somewhat
| similar take. Indian pickles too are allowed to ferment a
| little at times (not the really old variety shown in the
| article). India also has its own version of American pickles
| (veggies deep-preserved in brine) - but they are usually not
| called pickles outside of supermarkets.
| xbmcuser wrote:
| in the past the world did not have fridges and freezers. So
| anything that would spoil was made into pickles/aachar it had
| less to do with being poor and more with being able to preserve
| food for longer. Farms in the west make jams marmalade of
| fruits not because they are poor but so they they can use their
| crops in the future.
| mise_en_place wrote:
| Amla pickle is also delicious, my grandmother often used to make
| it.
| resolutebat wrote:
| Fascinating! Are there any other countries with traditions of
| intentionally aged "vintage" pickles?
| sidkshatriya wrote:
| Aging food in a pickling medium/paste for taste and/or
| preservation is quite common globally. Wikipedia as usual
| provides a nice overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickling
| ahoka wrote:
| Not pickles, but if your family makes jam in Hungary, then it's
| not unusual to have a few jars of decades old ones, made by a
| long dead relative. We have a 20 year old plum jam we recently
| brought from the country house's pantry.
| curl-up wrote:
| True across Balkans. There are some fruits (e.g. apricots)
| which have a highly variable yield from year to year, so
| eating a 5+ year old jam (from a year with exceptionally high
| yield) is not strange.
| riffic wrote:
| lactofermentation is an ancient and widespread practice.
| tap-snap-or-nap wrote:
| Korean Kimchi making shares a similar process
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimjang
| sidkshatriya wrote:
| Pickles almost always never look appetizing when photographed.
|
| But they taste great when eaten with food. For most pickles the
| taste is not hard to appreciate. I would say pickles are not
| necessarily an acquired taste because they can be quite
| approachable !
|
| The extremely high salt, vinegar, lemon, oil, chilly, sugar
| content or other preservatives allow them to be consumed much
| after their initial production. Most pickles tend to be consumed
| within a few months. Some afficianados like really really old
| pickles (like vintage wine) but they don't constitute the bulk of
| production/consumption.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| Pickles in general also don't look like this at all, no one is
| eating 75 year old shriveled up pickles, lol. They are fresh
| and bright red and are eaten over a few months, not over
| decades.
| rickbradley wrote:
| Usha's Pickle Digest is a great resource for pickling recipes:
| https://a.co/d/cOPoPni
|
| There was a NYT writeup back in 2020:
| https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/dining/indian-pickle-quee...
| denton-scratch wrote:
| No mention of lime pickle? I like lime pickle (sometimes), but
| I've never tasted lemon pickle.
|
| What's "citron"? Is that different from lemon?
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citron
|
| It's different, less bitter? Dunno, I've only had it in things
| where it's hard to determine the flavor of the citron.
| colordrops wrote:
| I've seem some studies on salted pickles potentially being
| carcinogenic, specifically causing stomach cancer. This is due to
| pathogens, n-nitroso, or carcinogenic enzymes in the pickles. The
| most commonly cited one is kimchi. I don't think the science is
| final though, and I did see another study that claimed they were
| only dangerous for those with h. pylori infections, and another
| that the consumption needs to be high.
|
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4316045/
|
| https://www.buesingnaturopathic.com/fermented-vegetables-can...
| rhuru wrote:
| Indian pickles are not same as American pickles. Totally
| different concept.
|
| I come from the background where these pickles and many other
| things were passed down as family heirloom. It appears one of the
| china jars we used to store the pickle (raw mango) was from 1800s
| and one was from Spain.
|
| My family primarily did mango pickles and the oldest one I
| consumed was around 20 years old. There were 100s of varieties of
| mangoes each very distinct but around 4 specifically bred of
| pickle. We used fenugreek and coconut oil as some of the
| ingredients. Each year we made pickle of around 100 tiny raw
| mangoes and stored for future and passed on some old pickle to
| the friends and relatives (never sold it).
|
| I do not think in my region this was a big deal, most of the
| classic and wide variety of pickle seems to come from Rajasthan.
|
| Few other food items that were passed down over generations:
|
| 1. A bottle of alcohol. (Only used for medicinal purposes) this
| was around 200 years old and purchased from a sailor from
| Portugal. It was an extremely powerful Cashew fruit distilled
| alchohol.
|
| 2. A very weird kind of gourd. This was fucking far too old. I
| mean older than my great grandmother and which she brought as
| dowry from her mother or something like that. I do no even know
| why and how it was preserved but it supposedly had some medicinal
| properties and people often came to my grandmother with offers to
| buy it. Eventually someone stole it.
| anoncow wrote:
| You are right. Additionally, there are varieties of Indian
| pickles which use a similar technique as used in the US. In
| South India, some vegetables (for e.g., Indian gooseberry) are
| pickled in brine like the US does.
| rhuru wrote:
| Yes, we use to make that as well with raw tender mangoes. We
| called it pressed mangoes in brine and was not considered as
| "achar" or pickle.
|
| https://www.facebook.com/Ranchikood/photos/khalatli-amli-
| raw...
| huytersd wrote:
| The cashew fruit alcohol is called Feni. It's a local alcohol
| you can find in Goa.
| blackoil wrote:
| > A bottle of alcohol. (Only used for medicinal purposes) this
| was around 200 years old and purchased from a sailor from
| Portugal. It was an extremely powerful Cashew fruit distilled
| alcohol.
|
| Sure at no time some curious teenager nipped that off and
| replaced it with some local tadi? I would have done that.
| rmk wrote:
| There are also the 'sweet' pickles, murabba:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murabba
|
| Don't know what they would be called in the west. I see
| 'preserves' often, but they seem to be closer relatives of jams
| than murabbas. Unlike jams, murabbas have a savory taste (much
| smaller than the overall sweet taste) element to them.
| bingemaker wrote:
| Those ceramic jars are some of the beautiful creations on earth
| Baeocystin wrote:
| Anyone have a recipe for the lemon they would enjoy sharing?
|
| I love pickle of all kinds, and my Meyers produce more fruit than
| I can handle, even sharing fresh lemons with friends. If I can
| also share some as preserves, that sounds like a fun way to
| continue the sharing.
| rmk wrote:
| Here's one that will make you long-lasting pickle. It involves
| an initial set of steps, a 6-7 day wait, and then another set
| of steps followed by another 6-7 day wait until you can eat
| them.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeR99HCIAPA
|
| You can get the specific types of dried red chillies from most
| Indian stores.
|
| Here's an 'instant pickle' recipe, in english:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRosfCOEpzA
| Baeocystin wrote:
| Thank you!
| sprkv5 wrote:
| One of the underrated achaar is Ber ka Achaar or pickled Indian
| Jujube[1]. It is a perfect spicy blend of sweet, salty, sour and
| heat. It smells mouth-watering too and is very delectable - you
| can gorge on them on their own. These days you'd hardly find
| people who can make it as good as I used to get back in 00's
| decade.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziziphus_mauritiana
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