Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pickle

Help me find an elegant stainless steel "pickle grabber"

chazlarson — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:46:55 -0800

Please help me find the elegant stainless equivalent of this electronics part-grabber. The food service versions are usually called "pickle grabbers" or "olive servers" or something like that. Years ago, my wife had one of these in stainless, which was much nicer-looking than that one. The barrel had a smooth, polished finish and was not tapered.

I lost it some time ago. I have never been able to find a replacement. I can find plastic ones at any specialty kitchen store, but I have not been able to find a metal one.

So I turn to you, hive mind. I'm in the Minneapolis area, have friends/family in Boston, Sacramento, Chicago, Munich, and Berlin for brick & mortar shopping purposes, if there's no online source.

Picklers of the world unite!

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:28:26 -0800

What's your favourite pickle recipe, and why? And what advice can you offer to a novice pickler? I've embarked on a cautious foray into the world of DIY pickles. So far I've mostly limited myself to trying to replicate the ones I grew up with, i.e. Dutch-style gherkins and onions. They're nice, sure, but not very imaginative.

So in the interest of adventure, let's hear it! What's your favourite pickle? And if you know how it's made or if you've made it yourself, please share! I know I'm not alone in my pickle frenzy, so let's not be coy about these things, shall we.

Some personal quirks:
-I like pickled vegetables. Fruit... not so much. Previous successes include gherkins/cucumbers, onions, carrots, sweet peppers, and celery. I'm very open to pickling other vegetables.
-I really, really like strong tastes. Anyone remember boo_radley's story in MeTa a while ago? That's me. Basically, the pickles I've made so far have come straight from hell. This does not please everyone, however, and they don't have to be super hot or sour or garlicky or anything. But I do like strong flavours. More specifically, I'm looking to add some meat to my pickles, or say a darker / more umami flavour.
-Most of what I've made and/or read about concerns European- and American-style pickles. I'd be interested to hear about other varieties, such as those from our Asian cousins.
-Relishes to relish! Let's not forget about these pulpier, more spreadable citizens of Pickleland (which I'm pretty sure actually exists).
-I'm also interested in advice a pickle master would give to a novice, such as "cold infusions are for total wusses" or "the amount of mustard seeds should never exceed the square root of the amount of coriander seeds". Of course, I'm totally making these up, but I'm sure you catch my drift.

Then again, feel free to ignore the above, as certainly your suggestion will benefit someone.

Thanks in advance, fellow pickle freaks, and stay sour!

Why has my garlic gone blue?

patricio — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:56:14 -0800

Pickling garlic has turned it blue - will it be toxic? A friend recently decided to pickle a huge amount of garlic. She put the cloves in clean jars with fresh chopped red chilles and used distilled malt vinegar with a small amount of white wine vinegar. Everything was fine for about a week, then the cloves of garlic started turning blue. They are now a very bright blue (copper sulphate solution coloured). Has anyone had this happen to them and do you know what might be causing the blue colour to appear? Is the garlic likely to be toxic?

Crunchy deviled eggs?

anonymoose — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 13:37:55 -0800

What makes crunchy deviled eggs crunchy? Alternatively, give me good deviled egg recipes. (Quick! The water's almost boiling!) I'm almost sure my favorite deviled egg recipe was made with dill pickles, but I can't find any recipes online that match that. Am I probably wrong?

Ironically, I'm OK with cuecumbers.

DragonBoy — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 07:10:05 -0800

The pickle phobia video hit my office yesterday and now everyone is offering opinions on why someone would be afraid of pickles. Look, there's After watching the video I think it is obvious that Maury's producers were up to some psychological preparations with the girl but others in the office swear that a phobic reaction like that isn't too outlandish. I say poppycock but before I staunchly defend my belief that everything on daytime TV is faked, I want your opinion. Fake? If not, how would one become afraid of something to this extent?

Guss' Pickles in NYC

Plutor — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 11:00:34 -0800

As long as I'm in town, I'd like to go to a well-known pickle place on Manhattan this Sunday. I'd prefer Guss' Pickles, but I'm having a really hard time finding official-looking (or even recent) information on it. It seems that The Pickle Guys are in their old Essex St location. Is Guss' on Orchard St still? Are the hours in this review still accurate? Should I go somewhere else altogether?