"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"?
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