Last year I made giardiniera following this recipe. It was my first time doing anything like that and it was a lot easier than I thought. So much so that I was inspired to make my first corned beef. In the linked recipe, if you’re shooting for long-term storage, you have to boil the jars before sealing them, but not if you plan on finishing it off within two weeks’ time. So, again: a lot easier than you might think.
Weird that that article presents giardiniera as omnipresent in Chicago. I grew up that area and while I’ve heard of giardiniera, I don’t recall ever encountering it there.
So doing more reading, it appears that I may have a problem getting started with pickling: finding the right cucumbers. I may have seen Kirby’s in the store once or twice, but internet informs me that waxed cucumbers can’t be pickled. I don’t have anyplace for a garden, so I guess I have to wait for the farmer’s markets later in the year?
That is odd. It absolutely is omnipresent here. Even the Subways have it. Every single stand that serves Italian beef will have it.
Maybe because I was in the NW 'burbs? Or I saw it and didn’t recognize it. It’s been 32 years since I lived there, too, so maybe it’s become more widely available.
Heck all the grocery stores have it. Maybe it was just not something your family bought or used.
My family never bought pickled herring in cream and I remained blissfully unaware of it until fairly recently despite every single grocery store carrying the stuff.
Good lord I miss Italian beef. And Chicago hot dogs. And especially tavern-style thin pizza. Probably the only stuff I miss about Chicago.
To the group: going back to my earlier question, apparently I can’t really pickle grocery store cucumbers, right? How about maybe sliced English cucumbers, something like that? I bet I can find gerkins or kirby’s or somesuch at a farmer’s market, but it may be early in the year for that.
Every supermarket here in the Bay area sells “Persian” cukes by the 1lb bagful, year-round. Pic: https://images.app.goo.gl/AtbgHmcTLUgeeA4r7
They pickle beautifully. I’ve grown pickling cukes myself, and bought them from the farmers market, and I prefer these. Inconsistently watered cukes can taste very bitter. Are they available where you are?
Huh, I hadn’t noticed Persians before, but I don’t usually look for non-usual cucumbers in the grocery. I will keep an eye out, thanks!! And yes, me and the ex used to grow whatever the usual version is of big cukes you see in the grocery store when we had big land, and yeah: they could come out way bitter.
If your grocery stores are selling waxed pickling cukes, then they’re almost certainly also selling waxed slicing cukes. Ask to talk to the store’s produce manager, and then ask that person whether they have any unwaxed cukes. You can indeed pickle slicing types; and eat pickling types as fresh, for that matter. Texture may vary some.
The blossom end of cucumbers is often bitter. Just cut the blossom ends off.
Farmers’ markets are indeed a good suggestion, but around here I expect you’d need to wait at least until July. That’s going to depend on where you are, of course. Cucumber plants are frost-tender; though they’re relatively fast to come into production, and some people start them as transplants in greenhouses. Some people grow them entirely in greenhouses, for that matter; though I think that’s less common with picklers.
Alternatively, you could try pickling something that doesn’t get waxed. Cauliflower, maybe. Snap beans. Dilly beans are very good.
Dill Pickles
Wash 20-25 4" cucumbers; let stand in ice for several hours, or refrigerate overnight.
Add to each quart jar: 1/8 tsp alum
2 heads of dill weed
1 cherry pepper (hot)
1 bay leaf
1 grape leaf
wedge of onion
3-4 cloves garlic
Pack jars with cucumbers. Place jars in tap water, then bring water to a slow boil to heat jars to prevent cracking when the vinegar mixture is added. In a separate boiler, boil jar lids and rings.
Mix 1 quart of cider vinegar, 1 cup canning salt, and 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil. Fill jars and seal tightly. Remove from water and let cool. If jars are properly sealed, the jar lids will pop when they seal; test jar lids before storing pickles. (If lids are sealed, they will be bowed inward. If the lids pop up and down when they are pressed with a finger, the jar is not sealed. Remove contents, get another lid, and do it over.) Let pickles stand for 2 months before using them. Makes 4 quarts.
You shouldn’t have to go to a farmer’s market for kirby cucumbers. Around here, at least, they are usually sold at regular grocery stores. That said, I don’t know if they’re available now, but when I pickle cucumbers, I use the kirbys I buy at the local non-fancy regional supermarket.
Back to Italian beef and giardiniera: I was born in Chicago in the mid-70s and grew up here (and currently reside here). I’m pretty sure as long as I remember giardiniera has always been around and common. When you order an Italian beef, if you don’t specify they’ll ask you if you want it sweet or hot (served with cooked/fried sweet green peppers for “sweet” or giardiniera for “hot”). You can also get it plain or, as I often do, a mix of sweet & hot. (And always dipped for me.)
Interesting. Are you using actual canning jars, designed for the purpose? Because, while I always have the jars warm, I never have them in boiling water while I fill them; and I’ve never had a jar break when the boiling brine goes in.
If you’re going to hot water bath at least 10 minutes, which I think is the current recommendation, I don’t think you have to boil the jars first, just wash them in hot water. If you’re not going to hot water bath, which is the old style and I think is no longer recommended but may give you crisper pickles, then you should boil the jars first – but you can take them out of the water to fill them.
So I just scooted over to my Safeway just now and asked the produce man for “Persian cucumbers”, and he came up with some in sealed bags marked “baby cucumbers”, no breed specified. They’re smooth and about 5" long. So now I have a bag of those, a 32oz jar I bought this morning, Serrano peppers, peppercorns, mustard and coriander seeds, and fresh dill. I think I’m ready, WOO! I’ll jar this tomorrow after reading recipes again, and see what happens!
I also bought a jar of Mezzetta giardiniera just to say I’d tried them. Yums!
You know, I do remember the “sweet or hot” question, and I probably answered “sweet” and picked off the peppers. (but yes, dipped.) I was born in 1962 and raised by my Iowa parents in Arlington Heights, where ketchup was probably “spicy”, and the last Italian Beef I recall ordering when I lived there was probably when I was 22 and not as food adventurous as I’d become.
If it’s this one, it’s not quite the same thing as Chicago-style Italian giardiniera. Mezzetta apparently also has a Chicago-style mix, but I’m not familiar with that particular product.
The ingredients can look somewhat similar, and Chicago-style giardiniera is a take on Italian giardiniera, but it’s fermented or pickled and packed in oil, and even the mild stuff has peppers in it. So oil is the main liquid in it, not vinegar (some people like just a drizzle of the hot oil from spicy giardiniera on their beefs.) The Italian giardiniera is more like a normal lightly pickled vegetable antipasto not a condiment. If you’ve ever had a muffaletta sandwich, Chicago-style giardiniera is somewhat like the olive salad that gets spread on it, but not as olive heavy (many giardinieras do not contain olive, but the rest of the ingredients, the oil, the peppers, the garlic, etc., puts it in the same genre of condiments.)
Actually, looking over it, the mild stuff looks like it’s just regular green peppers, but they’re the main vegetable in all the versions I’m looking at. The Mezzetta Chicago-style one actually looks pretty darn good from the ingredients – it actually contains some olive oil. Many of the major brands here just use soybean oil (or “vegetable” oil or canola.)
Yeah, it’s exactly that jar. It seems to be water/vinegar, no oil, and not at all spicy. There was a pearl onion and a pepperoncini in there, no olives or chiles. Kinda of bland but not bad. I’ll look for the real thing next time I go to Chicago (which is pretty seldom).
A pepperoncini counts as a chile! But, yeah, that type of giardiniera is a bit different. If you do happen to see their Chicago-style mix, that looks like it would be a good introduction to it. Otherwise, Amazon is great, as silenus points out, and That Pickle Guy does a particularly solid giardiniera. But you can look through all the brands – they’re all pretty good: Ditka’s is surprisingly good, Marconi is pretty standard, Vienna makes a good version, Alpino is solid, DellAlpe. All those I see on Amazon and I don’t think you’d go wrong with any of them.
OK, Pickle Guy’s is in my Amazon cart for next time I pull the pin on it!
(Now I just need a Star Trek teleporter that delivers Chicago tavern pizza and hot dogs)