Zimmernian Pickle Power

Although my first attempt at making pickled cucumbers was a success, the flavor of the bread and butter pickles was not really what I was hoping to achieve.  The bread and butter pickles are delicious on a burger or hearty sandwich, I was looking for something that would go well with a lunch meat sandwich, or to eat on their own.

I wanted to make a dill pickle, but most of the recipes I found made use of fermentation.  Not comfortable with the idea of making fermented pickles just yet, continued to look for recipes.  Much to my delight, I stumbled upon a pickle application from Andew Zimmern.

I enjoy watching Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Channel.  He is my second favorite television food personality; right behind Alton Brown, of course.  Once I read the pickling process, I was very excited to make these pickles.  Here's how to do it.

I waited until I had a bunch of lemon cucumber ripe on the vine and went out for my biggest harvest.  The cucumbers were soaking on the brine in no time, and I placed them on the counter to sit for 48 hours.  It wasn't nearly as hard to wait two days as opposed to seven for the bread and butter pickles.

I was nervous about how they would turn out since the lemon cucumbers are so much rounder than traditional green cucumbers.  I worries melted away as soon as I took my first bite.  These pickle are crunchy, sour, garlicky, with just the slightest hint of heat.  A perfect pickle!

Pickled Lemon Cucumbers (AB's B&Bs)

My goal before summer started, and before my garden was even planted, was to pickle something.  I had cucumbers in mind as the season started.  Much to my surprise, I ended up with lemon cucumbers, and since they taste almost exactly like conventional cucumbers, I figured they will be perfect for pickling. 

I hoped to pickle my cucumbers whole, but the round shape of the lemon cucumbers were a bit intimidating to me, so I looked for a pickle recipe that called for sliced cucumbers.  I looked to Alton Brown first to see what was in his repertoire and found a recipe for bread-and-butter pickles, AB's B&Bs.

The pickle prep was short and sweet, and they were sent to the refrigerator for their week long pickling process.  After the week was over, I was excited to try my yellow pickles.  Since they are bread-and-butter pickles, I expected them to be sweet, and I was not disappointed.  They were almost too sweet to eat by themselves, but they are quite delicious on hamburgers.  I imagine they would also be good made into relish, or on other hearty sandwiches like sloppy joes. 

I enjoyed my first attempt at pickling.  I really like the novelty of using lemon cucumbers as well.  Their large circumference made it so that all I needed was one pickle to cover my entire burger.  I do want to make a pickle that isn't so sweet, though.  With a number of lemon cucumbers ready to pick, I think I may try a recipe that calls for whole cucumbers.

AB's B&Bs

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced

2 medium cucumbers, thinly sliced

1 cup water

1 cup cider vinegar

1 1/2 cups sugar

Pinch of kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seed

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

1/2 teaspoon pickling spice

Directions

Combine the onion and cucumber in a 1-quart glass jar.  Combine the rest of the ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for four minutes.  Then, pour the pickling liquid over the onion and cucumber until the jar is completely full.  Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for one week before serving.