Kosher dills. I still fondly remember a jar a friend of mine brought back down to DC from New York; spicy garlic kosher dills that were absolute heaven. I wish I could remember the brand. They were some local deal, I think, not a major commercial label. But God, were they good.
I love pickles, but specifically, my preference is to the naturally fermented ones. So, not the ones with vinegar in them, but the ones made by basically soaking cukes in brine and spices, and letting them sour naturally. They have a different kind of tang to them (from the lactic acid) vs vinegar pickles. These are the kind I grew up with and the kind you get at Polish/Eastern European supermarkets around here (usually sold directly from a barrel). I believe these are the same as the sours and half sours you get in NYC.
I think fried pickles are delicious, especially in the form of pickle chips instead of spears, but the one problem I have with them is they usually oversalt the breading/batter. The pickle itself is already salty enough.
I’ve been making my own pickles lately using a mixture of water, vinegar, sugar, salt, dill, peppercorns and whatever hot peppers I have lying around (jalapenos, Tabascos, even Carolina Reapers, though obviously a little goes a long way there). Easy to make and really good.
There’s a local company here that makes pickled beets. I could eat the whole jar in one sitting.
I like pickles from the Dollar Store. I mean, a dollar! … I do love a big jar of dill pickles with actual dill weed and garlic cloves in the jar. Don’t hold with ‘dill’ or ‘garlic’ extracts.
I love all the Ba-Tampte products, but IMHO the best are the Half Sours. You want them as fresh as possible, so even though Target carries them online I’m not sure I’d go that route.
Excess salt should be avoided if one has a history of certain types of congestive heart failure, but current understanding is that high salt intake does not cause hypertension nor heart disease for the vast majority of people.
I used to be in that camp until we started canning our own. There is zero comparison between store pickles and home-canned. The bread and butter pickles we make are now my favorites and the dills have become a distant second. If I can avoid it, I’ll never buy another jar of pickles.
I wasn’t going to can any pickles this year except for beets as I have a lot left from last year and the year before. I was just going to eat and give away my cucumbers. That was until someone mentioned Mustard Pickles which sounded intriguing so I canned up a batch of those. I hope they are good.
When your done with a jar of pickles just reload it with a bunch of veggies out of the fridge. Green onions and garlic are awesome. Carrot chips, sweet onions, celery, hot peppers, bok choy, radishes are all good.
Sweet pickles, relish, miracle whip all have a strange weird sweet flavor that’s just nasty to me.
