Week 35: Pickling - Tons of Pickles! [Cooking]

Intro from Cooking Challenge: Pickles! Whether they're stacked on your favorite sandwich from the deli, or in the gross jar sitting on the counter at the gas station, everybody is familiar with pickles in some form. Pickling is the method of preservation that relies on controlled fermentation of foods in brine or vinegar, resulting in a salty or sour product. This method can be applied to pretty much any food that you want to preserve, whether it's fruit, vegetables, or even meat and fish! You can go for the classics, like Straight Up Kosher Dill Pickles or go for something way out there like Kool-Aid Pickles! Portland knows all about pickles, and here's a bit of musical inspiration!

Oh man, Will was so excited when this week's challenge came up.  He's been begging me to make pickles for the past year.  So I figured I'd make up for the delay by going completely overboard.  I made four different kinds of quick pickles (at the rate Will eats pickles, there's no need to worry about longevity).  The base for all four was essentially the same - two cups water, two cups white (or cider) vinegar, two tablespoons salt.

The mustard pickles have some light pickling spices added, plus a lot of mustard seeds, some mustard powder, a dash of turmeric, and a little bit of dill.

The regular dills have a liberal amount of pickling spices and a bunch of fresh dill, plus a smashed garlic clove.  Classic.

The garlic & onion pickles have...you guessed it, lots of onion and smashed garlic.  Unlike the two above, these and the next were pickled in cider vinegar, instead of regular white vinegar.

Last but definitely not least, here are the jalapeno pickles.  Two chopped jalos are in here, along with some peppercorn and a dash of cayenne pepper (because why not make it hotter?), all pickled in cider vinegar.