Freshly canned pickles and vegetables.
Pickling spices and herbs can enhance the flavor of your pickles and relishes, making them one-of-a-kind recipes. Adding spices such as crushed red pepper can give your pickles an extra zing, while vanilla beans lend a mellow flavor to sweet gherkins. If you're tired of your homemade pickles tasting like everyone else's, try making your own pickling mix from the following spices and herbs.
Cinnamon Sticks and Allspice
Cinnamon sticks add a slightly pungent taste to a pickling mix. Cinnamon, when used in large quantities, will make a pickling mix hotter to the taste. Whole allspice, also known as Jamaica spice, adds a subtler, spicy flavor. If cinnamon sticks aren't available, doubling the amount of allspice in a mix will give pickles a similar flavor, without the hot aftertaste.
Mustard Seed
Mustard seeds vary in taste. Black mustard seeds lend a strong, spicy taste to a pickling mix, brown seeds have a horseradish-like taste and white mustard seeds are the mildest.
Peppercorns
Black or green peppercorns add a spicy flavor to pickling mixes. Black peppercorns have a slightly hot flavor and green peppercorns (immature black peppercorns) add a subtle, piquant flavor.
Red Pepper
Crushed red pepper gives a hardy, hot flavor to pickles. It should be used sparingly, as the flavor will intensify in the pickle jar.
Cloves
Whole cloves add a pungent flavor to pickles. They should be used sparingly because of their strong odor and flavor.
Vanilla Beans
Vanilla beans may be used in sweet relish or sweet pickle recipes. When the beans are crushed, they lend a mellow flavor and a delicious aroma to a pickling mix.
Juniper Berries
Juniper berries add a light, citrus flavor to pickles. The berries have the best flavor when they are fresh or haven't been stored for longer than a year.
Mace
Mace is derived from the outer coating of the nutmeg seed. It imparts a delicate, nutmeg-like flavor and gives pickling juice a yellow hue.
Dill and Fennel Seed
Dill seeds give pickling mixes a fresh flavor. The seeds have the strongest taste when they are picked fresh from the garden. Fennel seeds, which have a slight licorice-like flavor, may be used in place of dill seed.
Bay Leaves
Bay leaves lend a light, floral taste to a pickling mix. Only one or two leaves are needed in a recipe to produce the desired flavor.
Ginger
Dried ginger gives a pungent, sharp flavor to a pickling mix. Fresh ginger may also be used, and it imparts a milder flavor to pickles.
Turmeric
Turmeric has a spicy, earthy flavor. It may be used in place of mustard seed in a pickling mix.
Tags: flavor pickles, taste pickling, flavor pickling, flavor used, flavor used place, green peppercorns, lend mellow