Pickle Wars

As an ethnic minority type in America, I constantly try to find a common ground with my fellow citizens. Yet I know that in certain areas, we are guided by our biology and our inherent cultural and genetic predispositions. As a jewish man for instance, I know that I will never "get" college football. I can't fix anything around the house, I don't have the Nascar gene. In fact I have no mechanical bent whatsoever.

Meat, which I readily admit to enjoy, comes conveniently packed in styrene trays at the supermarket. I could no more kill and eat something than I could surrender my big toe.

And I can not eat the gentile's pickles.

Pickles are a fairly accurate demarcation line between the major creeds in America today. Let's leave the fastest growing religion out of the mix, Islam, I don't know if they even eat them, probably not halal. The koreans and japanese are masters of pickle making but we are talking about pickle eating on the north american continent today and will leave the rest of the foreigners out of the mix for now.

The gentile will eat your bread and butter, cornichons, garlic, sweet gherkins, the kosher dill, which is usually anything but, pickles made with vinegar. People of the jewish persuasion tend to favor the half sour. An authentic jewish style pickle is never made with vinegar. I am about as apt to eat a vlasic as I am to take holy communion.

A real jewish delicatessen will have a crock at every table, the better ones having "new pickles" on top, crisp dilled cucumbers not too far along in the brining process, and the more intense softer sours resting just outside of knuckle range near the bottom of the container. As a child, reaching in to the pickle jar at Blumer's Delicatessen at 54th and El Cajon Blvd. was as close to heaven as I could possibly target.

My wife and I are in a continual search for a good half sour, not really living in a close proximity to a deli now whose pickles meet our picky pickle requirements.

Our champion to date has been Bubbies, the San Francisco pickle. A smallish pickle in a great signature clouded brine.  A very nice sharp bite, and a very consistent, fairly late tasting pickle. But they have become so expensive, $7.99 at Major Market, up three dollars in just a few years.

We also like Ba Tampte pickles, a lower East Side variety (think Crossing Delancey) with a neutral taste. Young and fresh, heavy dill. Strub's is another quite acceptable pickle from our good neighbor to the north, Canada, that will work in a pinch but is not really the equal to the other pickle titans on the page.

LAST WEEK WE FOUND THE NATHAN'S PICKLE AT MAJOR MARKET FOR $3.99.  We had never tried it but at less than half the price of our beloved Bubbies, decided to give them a shot. While not necessarily Bubbies equal, they possess their own naive charm and are really quite good. We are now well into the second jar. This has now become our standard "go to" pickle. The real dill.

Pickling 101, from Wickipedia:

Pickling, also known as brining or corning is the process of preserving food by anaerobic fermentation in brine (a solution of salt in water) to produce lactic acid, or marinating and storing it in an acid solution, usually vinegar (acetic acid). The resulting food is called a pickle. This procedure gives the food a salty or sour taste. In South Asia, edible oils are used as the pickling medium with vinegar.


Another distinguishing characteristic is a pH less than 4.6,[1] which is sufficient to kill most bacteria. Pickling can preserve perishable foods for months. Antimicrobial herbs and spices, such as mustard seed, garlic, cinnamon or cloves, are often added.[2] If the food contains sufficient moisture, a pickling brine may be produced simply by adding dry salt. For example, sauerkraut and Korean kimchi are produced by salting the vegetables to draw out excess water. Natural fermentation at room temperature, by lactic acid bacteria, produces the required acidity. Other pickles are made by placing vegetables in vinegar. Unlike the canning process, pickling (which includes fermentation) does not require that the food be completely sterile before it is sealed. The acidity or salinity of the solution, the temperature of fermentation, and the exclusion of oxygen determine which microorganisms dominate, and determine the flavor of the end product.[3]


When both salt concentration and temperature are low, Leuconostoc mesenteroides dominates, producing a mix of acids, alcohol, and aroma compounds. At higher temperatures Lactobacillus plantarum dominates, which produces primarily lactic acid. Many pickles start with Leuconostoc, and change to Lactobacillus with higher acidity.[3]


If you have a favorite I haven't mentioned and can add anything to the pickle conversation, I am all ears. Yours in good pickles.