India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
aljazeera.com
aljazeera.com
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.
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.
Hygiene matters but only incidentally, since it’s easier to keep one’s work area clean when they are clean.
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..)
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
The most simple and basic aavakaya (andhra pradesh style mango pickle with mustard) is as follows:
1 cup heaped mustard powder, one cup heaped chilli powder, one cup (not heaped) salt. A handful of fenugreek seeds. Mix evenly. Toss the mango pieces in this. Add a little gingelly oil to wet the mixtute and help the mixture stick a bit. Place into clean jar. Glass or ceramic, avoid metal. Add a generous amount of gingelly oil. You don't need to top the vessel or make a layer.
Wait 2 days,then mix the entire jar once with a strong, deep spatula (or a clean hand, but beware the spice and wash very very very well afterwards).
This will taste good from day 2. It's a very distinct taste from a matured pickle, and I always eat a little when it is fresh. It will slowly mature over 6 months to a year to its final preserved taste.
Takealittle of it to a smaller vessel for daily use. Do not leave a metal spoon in or use a metal container.
This can be experimented with as little as 2-3 mangoes. About half a cup of salt chilli and mustard should be enough for this.
Also, this is just the simple recipe. There's a lot that depends on ingredient selection which can not be summarised as easily. Clean ingredients and avoiding introducing additional moisture will ensure it will stay good for atleast a couple of months. Well made pickles last multiple years.
Did people end up eating potassium permanganate? I think that would be pretty toxic.
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.
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.
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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.
What !
Are you sure?
That would be deadly.
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'?
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".
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.
I like the Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries site, which hosts several different dictionaries and has a powerful search interface.
I think "non-moving" in Sanskrit should be "achara", not "achaara", i.e. a short "a" sound, not a long one, for the second syllable.
Similar to the word ”nishaachara" 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.
Thanks for the correction. Yes, "achaara" is non moving. "achara" simply doesn't exist AFAICT, so my point stands that it's a Persian borrowing, not a Sanskrit derivative.
Welcome.
But you switched them around below in your reply, compared to what I said above:
>Yes, "achaara" is non moving. "achara" simply doesn't exist AFAICT, so my point stands that it's a Persian borrowing, not a Sanskrit derivative.
And regarding words that "don't exist": in Sanskrit, anyone can make up words, by combining other existing words, as I think (but am not sure) is the case in German. Both Sanskrit poets and prose writers often do, but literally anyone can, including you and me, as long as the rules for making words up are followed. I don't have a citation for this, but interested people can look it up somewhere.
Oops, well your comment will be the decoder then!
> And regarding words that "don't exist": in Sanskrit, anyone can make up words, by combining other existing words, as I think (but am not sure) is the case in German.
You are thinking of compounds.
Compounds are words that are composed (sometimes in realtime) of two or more independent words.
There are several classes of these categorized by their function. English also has such compounds, how it depicts them differently in writing, so we're not used to thinking of them as such.
Nonetheless, the presence of the realtime compounding mechanism does not show that the Hindi word "achaar" was not borrowed from medieval Persian, unless it can somehow be attested at an earlier time in Sanskrit, which it hasn't been. Furthermore, a real-time made-up compound "achaar" wouldn't make any sense by any of the Sanskrit compounding rules.
The procedure (i.e., rules) for joining or combining multiple words into one larger word is collectively called sandhi in Sanskrit, IIRC.
There is also another related word and procedure that I forget right now.
I am not a linguist or a philologist or whatever the right term is, but one other way of generating new words is to add a prefix in front.
Like adding the prefix "a" (which implies negation) in front of a word, such as adding it front of "satya" (truth) to get "asatya" (falsehood / not truth).
There are other such prefixes in Sanskrit, such as "sa", "vi" and "pra", which are used, for example, in the words "savikalpa samadhi", "vijnana", and "prasiddha" or "pralaya", to name just a few.
Sanskrit is a very interesting language, to say the least ...
I couldn't find the etymology for achar, but I found references to classical Persian (Avestan) and Proto-Indo-Iranian. Apparently Ayurveda mentions achar, so it's possible that at some point there was a distinction between medicinal pickles and popular everyday pickles.
Nobody knows of course, but to me it's likely that achar has ancient origins, possibly in old Indus Valley or Gangetic Plains. In either case, history of pickle in Indian subcontinent and words used to describe isn't as simple as a loan word.
Words shift usage all the time. Especially in multi-linguistic scenarios, adaptation of terms is very common. Also, loan words often preserve archaisms. You see this quite clearly in the use of archaic Sanskrit borrowings in languages like Tamil or Malayalam when the same word has been lost in Hindi.
> I couldn't find the etymology for achar, but I found references to classical Persian (Avestan) and Proto-Indo-Iranian. Apparently Ayurveda mentions achar, so it's possible that at some point there was a distinction between medicinal pickles and popular everyday pickles.
Please share the credible original date-attested Ayurveda text sources that unequivocally demonstrate the occurrence of that word prior to the influence of the later Persian language.
Avestan alone is insufficient evidence because despite its similarities to Sanskrit, still has many lexical differences, and the presence of a word in Avestan doesn't immediately imply it's presence in Sanskrit.
Also, The Sanskrit sources contemporary with Avestan are in Vedic Sanskrit, which lacks that word.
Ayurveda texts are much younger, and are composed in Classical Sanskrit.
Also consider that borrowings occured even in ancient times (i.e. the word "kendra" meaning "center" is a direct borrowing from Greek into Sanskrit). Lateral transmission of vocabulary is as old as humanity.
> In either case, history of pickle in Indian subcontinent and words used to describe isn't as simple as a loan word.
I never questioned the history of the Indian food or the multitude of other words used in contemporary Indian languages. I'm only addressing the claim that the word "achaar" isn't a borrowing.
This is how you spell achar in Persian, اچار. Find me a dictionary that has an entry for this word. You'll find it in Urdu dictionaries (same spelling), but not Persian, even Afghani Persian, which is much closer to Urdu. You know why that is? It's because achar is NOT a modern Persian word. And by modern I mean last 1000 years or so. It couldn't have been a Persian loan word because there are absolutely no references to it in Persian, at least in the last 1000 years. There's no credible evidence at all to that claim. Just some blog articles and non-experts parroting the same claim with zero knowledge of Persian or even most Indian languages.
As to the real etymology. I don't know man, not easy to find. You can Google Ayurveda and achar, that's all I got. Can't find the original Ayurvedic sources either. You sound like you know some vedas and Sanskrit. Would be great if you can lookup what pickles are called in Ayurveda. In the modern lingo, Ayurvedic pickles are also called achar. And Ayurveda products usually keep their original naming. I don't know of any example where they prefer a colloquial word over an Ayurvedic word. So they calling it achar seems to me that the word predates Ayurveda.
You're right, I couldn't find references to achar in Vedic Sanskrit or Avestan. So it's probably not that old. Although, it could be that those texts didn't bother writing about everyday things like pickles. If those texts mention pickles, but use a different word than achar, then one can claim that pickle wasn't called achar.
Here you go:
https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/steingass_query.py?qs=...
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).)
Obviously...
I really enjoyed your post, but that part is just so shitty (not commenting on you, just the dynamic that exists).
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
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.
I don't agree to any of the above.
We call it "పచ్చడి" (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.
ఆవకాయ a type of ఊరగాయ. Made with mangos obviously.
My uncle (60+ yo) is a true connoisseur though. He loves it so much and abhors the mass manufactured stuff that he actually gets small batches made in India and even sells it in the US where he lives.
I helped build a Shopify storefront for him at Avakaya.com
Sounds like your uncle and I would get along really well.
It's sad that Bellam Avakaya (or Bellapu Avakaya as we call it in our home) is not as famous as the other varieties.
He passed away from NAFLD in 2021, but we have his memories and his handmade flavorful pickle.
RIP wherever you are, Pops.
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
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.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...
Try to ban Mango Pickle in India, there would be riots on the streets !
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.
> 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.
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 ¼ 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.)
To be clear I said 'most' and I meant only to be talking about what's prevalent in the UK, but I appreciate that wasn't clear in that paragraph (I only said 'non-Indian/inspired').
But anyway it was only to pander to 'sure you [the other commenter] might be thinking a pickle means a different looking thing', when my whole point was yes I agree it's a pickle, I'm absolutely not saying a pickle needs to be only vinegar and vegetable, or very liquidy, or really anything more strict than just that it be anaerobically fermented. (I'd far sooner/do exclude 'quick pickle', 'fridge pickle', et al. than achar!)
Since you mention 'oil-pickled products from Italy', a Delia-inspired favourite of mine is what she calls 'gardeners pickle' (pickles giardiniere) - the gist is roughly chopped vegetables (I think she includes mushrooms, fennel, onions, courgettes, aubergine, peppers, and tomato) in oil, vinegar, and salt. My frequently make it with just courgette and onion, perhaps plus cherry tomato - unfortunate bulk, with a piercing to allow the vinegar to penetrate they really are delicious! I eat it mostly on fresh bread with vintage cheddar (that's very mature, salty, I'm not sure it's available like that in the US - cheddar on the whole is not the same, and 'sharp' is not it) but it's also excellent as an addition to gazpacho - it's basically the same thing unblended after all.
We don't eat as much Branston pickle as Brits do, but it's available in most supermarkets.
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).
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.
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).
Edit: I'd actually take those two Pataks versions over the Shan equivalent.
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?
I’ve had shrimp pickle from Andhra Pradesh, it’s delicious but doesn’t seem to be as well known.
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.
Achaar goes with both plain paratha as well as stuffed parathas.
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 :-)
I haven’t seen those in the US. The only green mangoes I’ve seen are rather bland and not sour enough.
(See also https://books.openedition.org/pufr/3813?lang=en "Midnight's Children or the Pickles of History")
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
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.
Also, like sibling comment says, jainism prescribes avoiding everything growing underground and you can ask for jain food if a place provides it. Some airlines make special affordances and have a jain meal option you can try.
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.
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.
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.
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.
https://guide.michelin.com/mo/en/article/dining-in/ingredien...
There was a NYT writeup back in 2020: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/dining/indian-pickle-quee...
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.
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 sautéed chapati or masala puri etc as a quick snack.
“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.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4316045/
https://www.buesingnaturopathic.com/fermented-vegetables-can...
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.
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:
You may want to try a few from Indian stores and then try making the one you like.
I’ll also get an idea what it’ll look like. It turns dark brown, almost black with age.
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.
https://www.facebook.com/Ranchikood/photos/khalatli-amli-raw...
Sure at no time some curious teenager nipped that off and replaced it with some local tadi? I would have done that.
What's "citron"? Is that different from lemon?
It's different, less bitter? Dunno, I've only had it in things where it's hard to determine the flavor of the citron.