WEBVTT - How Do Pickles Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Lauren vogelban here. The word pickle, aside from being

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<v Speaker 1>delightful onto itself, is both a noun and a verb.

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<v Speaker 1>To pickle is to preserve a food in an acidic solution.

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<v Speaker 1>This a makes the food taste more sour and or puckery,

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<v Speaker 1>and b makes it last longer. You can pickle any

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<v Speaker 1>number of foods, but today we're talking about what probably

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<v Speaker 1>comes to mind first for most Americans when you say pickle.

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<v Speaker 1>A pickled cucumber, be it whole or in spears or slices.

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<v Speaker 1>They're a staple on sandwiches and as a deli side

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<v Speaker 1>or straight out of the jar. We're not judging the

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<v Speaker 1>average American eats about nine pounds of them each year.

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<v Speaker 1>But how did the pickle originate? And perhaps more importantly,

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<v Speaker 1>how did the dill end up being a staple of

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<v Speaker 1>the deli sandwich. Pickled cucumbers have been around for thousands

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<v Speaker 1>of years, eating back as early as two thy four

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<v Speaker 1>hundred BC or so, which is when cucumbers began spreading

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<v Speaker 1>their way across Mesopotamia in order to preserve a crop,

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<v Speaker 1>which if you've ever grown cucumbers, you'll know, tend to

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<v Speaker 1>produce a lot of fruit all at once. People found

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<v Speaker 1>that they could cover the cucumbers in a salt water brine,

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<v Speaker 1>and a few weeks later the cucumbers would be tart

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<v Speaker 1>and wouldn't spoil. Oh, what's going on here is that,

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<v Speaker 1>as we've talked about before on the show, a bacteria

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<v Speaker 1>live in the air and on surfaces all around us,

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<v Speaker 1>and many of them are harmless or even helpful. So

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<v Speaker 1>if you set out a loosely covered container of cucumbers

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<v Speaker 1>in brine, the lactic acid bacteria that live everywhere will

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<v Speaker 1>set up shop in the container. The salt solution draws

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<v Speaker 1>out some of the sugars and the cucumbers. The bacteria

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<v Speaker 1>eat the sugars and poop lactic acid. The lactic acid

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<v Speaker 1>infuses the cucumbers, and after a few weeks you've got pickles.

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<v Speaker 1>The acid both makes the pickles tasty and discourages other

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<v Speaker 1>less friendly microbes from growing, and so the pickles don't

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<v Speaker 1>go bad the way that fresh cucumbers would. The English

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<v Speaker 1>term pickle likely originated from Germanic words meaning salt or brine.

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<v Speaker 1>Anthropologists think that Cleopatra attributed the nutrients and pickles to

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<v Speaker 1>her beauty, and that they were a favorite food of

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<v Speaker 1>many notable figures throughout history, from Julius Caesar to Napoleon Bonaparte.

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<v Speaker 1>By the age of exploration and colonization, many sailors brought

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<v Speaker 1>pickles on their ships to help prevent scurvy on the

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<v Speaker 1>high seas of The guy behind America's name, Amerigo Vespucci,

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<v Speaker 1>was a pickle salesman and the supplier for a good

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<v Speaker 1>chunk of the ships sailing at the time. During the

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<v Speaker 1>Victorian era in England, pickles were a status symbol for

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<v Speaker 1>the wealthy, as was the pickle caster, which was a

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<v Speaker 1>piece of luxurious serving were used to hold pickled produce

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<v Speaker 1>of pickling cucumbers was common among families of private gardens

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<v Speaker 1>throughout the eighteen hundreds, and pickles were often an essential

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<v Speaker 1>part of daily meals. The popularity of pickle casters grew

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<v Speaker 1>between eighteen sixty and eighteen ninety, resulting in more intricate

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<v Speaker 1>designs featuring flowers and gargoyles. Worked in ceramic or glass.

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<v Speaker 1>They were often displayed proudly at the center of the

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<v Speaker 1>dining table, but the pickles in those casters were mostly

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<v Speaker 1>pickled at home until one H J. Hines. Yes that

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<v Speaker 1>Hines introduced one of the first commercially produced pickles in

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen sixty and hit big at the eighteen ninety three

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<v Speaker 1>World's Fair by giving away tiny pickle shaped pins. This

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<v Speaker 1>was part of a marketing campaign Hines used to introduce

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<v Speaker 1>the company's fifty seven varieties of pickles, preserves, and other

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<v Speaker 1>jarred foods. It's still considered one of the most successful

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<v Speaker 1>marketing campaigns in American history, and you can still get

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<v Speaker 1>a pin through the Hinz History Center or sites like eBay.

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<v Speaker 1>Other big names and pickles came along shortly before and after,

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<v Speaker 1>including Klausen in eighteen seventy, mount Olive Pickles in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>twenty six, and Lassic in nineteen forty two. But okay,

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<v Speaker 1>why did the dill pickle spear end up being served

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<v Speaker 1>with the deli sandwich? That practice started when Jewish immigrants

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<v Speaker 1>began opening delis in New York City around the nineteen thirties.

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<v Speaker 1>During the harsh winters of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,

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<v Speaker 1>the pickles had played a crucial role in staining Jewish

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<v Speaker 1>communities in Eastern Europe. Eating pickles provided them with vital

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<v Speaker 1>calories and a source of vitamin C. During the heightened

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<v Speaker 1>antisemitism and deadly pogroms of the time, waves of immigrants

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<v Speaker 1>fled to the UK and the US, and here many

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<v Speaker 1>set up shop In New York, opening businesses like delis.

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<v Speaker 1>Many offered dill pickles as palate cleansers to customers because

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<v Speaker 1>the acidity from the pickle provides a sharp contrast to

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<v Speaker 1>the fatty meats of the sandwiches, they also add nice crunch.

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<v Speaker 1>Once the pickle became a popular side in New York,

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<v Speaker 1>it caught on across the US because they're easy and

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<v Speaker 1>inexpensive to prepare and tasty. Today, pickles are so common

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<v Speaker 1>as a side item with sandwiches most restaurants and delies

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<v Speaker 1>don't even list them on the menu. A pickling, of course,

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<v Speaker 1>is not just limited to cucumbers, though you can also

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<v Speaker 1>pickle fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, and eggs, anything you want really.

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<v Speaker 1>A kimchi and sauerkraut are both made using the salt

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<v Speaker 1>brine method, and brining isn't the only method of pickling.

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<v Speaker 1>As a shortcut, you can cover your cucumbers and vinegar

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<v Speaker 1>diluted with water instead of a brine. These are sometimes

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<v Speaker 1>called quick pickles or refrigerator pickles. Vinegar is just a

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<v Speaker 1>fruit or vegetable juice that's been fermented to produce alcohol

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<v Speaker 1>and then expose to another type of acid producing bacteria

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<v Speaker 1>which eat alcohol and poop acetic acid. So you're just

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<v Speaker 1>buying your bacteria poop ready made when you pickle with vinegar.

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<v Speaker 1>And of course you can add all kinds of seasonings

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<v Speaker 1>to your pickles. A deli dill pickles usually involve a

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<v Speaker 1>bit of white sugar, mustard seeds, and a hafty dose

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<v Speaker 1>of dried and or fresh dill for a bright herbal pickle.

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<v Speaker 1>Bread and butter pickles often have lots of white sugar,

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<v Speaker 1>plus onions, garlic, celery seed, and something like turmeric to

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<v Speaker 1>give them that yellow tint, yielding a sweet and sour

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<v Speaker 1>pickle with a savory twist. But the possibilities are as

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<v Speaker 1>endless as the pickles possible lifespan. The oldest known pickle

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<v Speaker 1>was first pickled in eighteen seventy six and has been

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<v Speaker 1>passed down from generation to generation. Today's episode is based

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<v Speaker 1>on the article What's the dill? The History of the

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<v Speaker 1>pickle on how stuffworks dot com, written by Murial Vega.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with

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<v Speaker 1>how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler klang A.

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