# Euchred pickles and figs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euchred-pickles-and-figs/177108>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 23, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euchred-pickles-and-figs/177108 "2003-05-23T20:46:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euchred-pickles-and-figs/177108/1 "2003-05-23T20:46:39Z")

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While perusing the inimitable Snopes pages, I enjoyed their article on [Heinz and its 57 varieties.](http://www.snopes.com/business/hidden/heinz57.asp)

One of the Heinze products listed is “euchred pickels,” which conjures the unlikely mental image of cucumbers play cards. A websearch was unhelpful, but did turn up another product: “euchred figs.” I imagine this is some sort of preservative method, but does anyone know what it means?

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**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euchred-pickles-and-figs/177108/2 "2003-05-23T21:09:50Z")

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This page, [http://www.texfiles.com/pioneercooking/pickling.htm](http://www.texfiles.com/pioneercooking/pickling.htm), on “Pioneer Cookin’” has this description of “Euchered Crab Apples”

> [@](#):
>
> Cook nice crab apples till tender; drain; pack in jars with a few whole cloves and pieces of cinnamon bark in each jar. Make a syrup of the proportion of 1 quart of good vinegar to 3 pints of sugar; boil the syrup 5 minutes; skim, then pour over fruit and seal. These are excellent.

I’m not clear on what exactly is unique to “euchering”, though. For example, the “Sweet Pickled Peaches” on the same page seem to be processed in a very similar manner.

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**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euchred-pickles-and-figs/177108/3 "2003-05-23T21:10:06Z")

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This has cropped up on Usenet: “euchred / euchered” apparently means “slightly tart, acid or spiced”. Euchred figs were figs preserved in spiced sugar syrup (see [here](http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22euchred+figs%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=386F5B37.6111%40rust.llma.net&rnum=1)).

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**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euchred-pickles-and-figs/177108/4 "2003-05-24T03:12:02Z")

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Uh. Sweet pickles. Whodda thunk. Thanks folks!