A German friend recently mentioned how much she enjoyed eating a Plogman's. We were somewhat confused but she was convinced it was a traditional English meal. It was only when she mentioned the ingredients - bread, cheese and pickle that we twigged. I wonder if she gets strange looks when she orders Doughnuts?
It appears that there is a whole pickle juice sub-culture that I had no idea existed. The trade association for the pickle industry even has this serving suggestion...
"You've heard of squeezing a wedge of lime into your beer. Now, adding some dill pickle juice to your brew could be the next craze. Stir 1/8 cup dill pickle liquid into 12 ounces of your favorite beer and garnish with a pickle spear or baby dill. "
I like the way they confidently predict this could be the next crazy. However, in a British pub you'd probably have to substitute pickled egg vinegar as they wouldn't have any dill pickle liquid. Maybe I should email them and find out if this would make a difference...
I was thinking American Footballers were slightly strange drinking pickle juice. Now it looks like tennis players are using it to treat blisters. The big pharmaceutical companies are going to catch on soon...
"At home with the workmen all the afternoon, our house being in a most sad pickle." Samuel Pepys, Wed 26th September 1660.
How inconvenient for Sam but it reminded me of what a great phrase 'in a pickle is'. Apparently the expression 'in a pickle' refers to the unfortunate predicament of falling into the brine that was used in pickling rather than the pickle itself. Pickle coming from the old Dutch word 'Pekel' meaning brine.
But did people really fall into barrels of pickle or is it just a worry? And has this fear of falling into food spawned other food related phrases - "in a jam" "in a stew" "in a soup"?
This girl is truly terrified of pickles. I think they could have used cheese and pickle sandwiches to help her confront her fear.
At the beginning of the 2000 NFL season, in what was reputed to be one of the hottest games in the sport's history, the Philadephia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys. The connection with Pickles? Apparently the Eagles coaching staff attributed the win to drinking pickle juice to combat the heat.
Stranger still someone has now launched a product called 'pickle juice sport'... and got someone from the Dallas Cowboys (the losing side in the now infamous 'Pickle juice game') to endorse it.
I entered my Piccalilli into the Great Taste awards today. It's the 'definitive standard for speciality food and drink in the UK' so I'm slightly nervous about how well we'll do.
We had a blind tasting last year - but that was only against Sainsbury's woeful Piccalilli. We've also had some great feedback from customers and tastings at the Lamb's Conduit Street festival. It also went down well with Russell. So I'm hopeful of a good result.
I don't know what I'll do if they don't like it. Perhaps I'll form my own pickle awards. I've also heard some bad news - Marc Kennard isn't going to be at the judging tomorrow so he can't influence the voting.
Results are out at the end of July.
What could be finer in this sunny weather than sitting under a tree with a Ploughman's and a bottle of cider?
One of the most appealling characteristics of a good pickle is the crunch. A squishy, slushy pickle doesn't have the same appeal. For proof try some Branston Pickle and compare it to the smooth version they produce. Without crunch it lacks something.
I don't know why crunchiness should be so enjoyable. Is it to do with the sound, the sensation or the texture? But crunchiness is part of the enjoyment of pork scratching, apples, radishes and pickle.
Few things are finer that the crunch of a good pickled onion. As a child the pickle jar had to be prized out of my hands and replaced in the cupboard to save me from over indulging. There is something very addictive about the tangy taste and lip-smacking vinegaryness of a good pickled onion (not those overly sweet, silverskin pickling abberations).
Pickles are being sidelined from the picnic hamper and the dinner table by sun dried tomatoes, hummous and the insidious evil of Balsamic vinegar. This is a shame. We should celebrate pickles and pickling as they are part of our culture and heritage.
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