I just ate the last two DELICIOUS pickle spears in my tiny, precious jar of ROCKET PICKLES.
I am in mourning.
This small jar of pickles was one of the most powerful I’ve had in awhile. I rationed out small nips of the brine and limited myself to only a couple of spears at a time all while my gluttonous instincts said “eat the whole jar NOW!”…
I was sent this lovely half pint of habanero seasoned pickles back in January after perusing the website for Black Powder Foods based in Rutland, Vermont and adding them to my Xmas wish list of pickles. The pickles arrived in January so you can clearly see how much restraint I have used in nibbling them. The Rocket Pickles are just one of many pickle varieties they offer, (naturally I went straight for the hottest) but they have LOTS more and I’m already working on my pickle budget so I can get them ALL!
Perfect Pickle Spears-yep!
Tarragon and Rosemary Pickled Garlic-ok!
Haba-Dilly Beans-now please!
Margarita Pickles-must.have.
Sunshine Pickles (Lemon, Pepper and Rosemary)-oh yeah
Habanero Relish-I love pain
Dark Matter Hard Candy (habanero CANDY)-This would make a great band name and yes I must have this!
Well, Black Powder Foods, you’ve been warned…I like what you do and I’m going to make sure you keep doing it.
I will mourn the loss of my Rocket Pickles but will celebrate knowing more will be launched my way soon!
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My prayers have been answered!
Zayda’s Pickles are now available online!!!!!
Consider yourself a lucky bastard now, because previously these were a little harder to come by. I seriously encourage you to explore this whole line of products. I can say the pickles and the peppers are amazingly delicious and spicy and I can’t wait to try the salsa! You can read my earlier posts about the magic of Zayda’s here and here.
But I can offer you this budget friendly tip that will make you and the pickle freak in your life happy…and warm…and maybe even tingly. The next time you’re at the supermarket, invest in a gallon jar of jalapenos and then take whatever less than exciting store bought pickles you have on hand (or “invest” in a jar of these too)
and stick ‘em down in the jar of jalapenos.
The longer you leave them in the jar, the HOTTER they will get. Unlike Martha.
>Did you know that Louisiana boasts the highest pickle-in-a-pouch consumption per person in the US? Congratulations Louisiana, it’s true, and this niftly little fact came to me directly from none other than the President of Van Holten’s Pickles Co. himself after I mentioned that since moving to New Orleans my own consumption had increased drastically because down here you can find them in really strange places, like at the hardware store.
My presidential pal at Van Holten’s generously sent me a case of their new Bold & Spicy Chipotle flavor to see what I thought of it. We all know I’m a fan of anything spicy but perhaps you don’t know I’m usually not a fan of chipotle flavored things…it just tastes smokey to me…well guess what? Turns out I like smokey pickles.
The chipotle flavor is really strong on the first bite but gradually the smokey flavor becomes pretty subtle and the HEAT takes over. Yes, these pickles are really BOLD & SPICY with serious heat building power. I also like the smokey maroon color on the packaging and the bursts of juiciness popping off the pickle. I appreciate these sorts of things.
There is no way I can keep track of my own pickle consumption but I sure can’t wait to see Louisianna’s numbers for next year! Thanks Van Holten’s!
>I’ve made a lot of changes in my life since August: I left my job, apartment, city, you know…stuff like that, but perhaps the BIGGEST change in my life is this: I now watch football. College, professional, highschool, whatever.
Highscool football? Yes. My sister teaches art at New Albany High School in MS and this year, we (I mean they), are undefeated! Go Bulldogs! (That’s me eating a pickle at one of their games). College football? An invaluable member of my family played for Alabama and so we roll with the Crimson Tide, except for when my sister, her husband and their 2 children attend every single Mississippi State game they can. Maybe I carefully avoided football during my own college days at Ole Miss because I didn’t want to be the lone rebel in attendance during family holidays…ok, no that wasn’t it at all, but it does make me laugh every time my young nieces shreik in horror when they are reminded that I went to that “other school” in Mississippi.
Professional football? Yep. The problem began a couple of years ago when Eli Manning took the NY Giants to the superbowl, I mean, I was living in NYC and I graduated the same year as Eli from Ole Miss so how could I NOT get a little involved?…and then, well, the next year I visited New Orleans and fell in love and that same year, the SAINTS went to the superbowl and WON! For the first time ever! Bless You Boys! It’s amazing to see how much love there is for the Saints down here and its impossible to not get swept up in it. IMPOSSIBLE.
OK. Enough making excuses. Football is awesome when you live in New Orleans and the whole ENTIRE town is racked with nerves and pride and prayers and rituals that the SAINTS WIN…and it sure don’t hurt nobody when you can watch the game with a bucket of chicken AND a bucket of pickles! There’s no turning back now! Now excuse me, I gotta stand up and get crunk.
Thanks to Nick Horman of Horman’s Best for the awesome bucket of spicy pickles he sent for my birthday!!!!!
>I feel pretty lucky most days, I mean, I’ve got a job and a fridge full of pickles and I’ve got a fridge full of pickles at my job. What more could I want? My pickles hand delivered to my job by the person who makes them?
Well, sure, that’s a START. See that guy’s face on the jar? That is Nick Horman of Horman’s Best Pickles and last week he walked right in to the gallery and handed me a jar of kosher dills. He knows I like ‘em spicy so he told me he added extra heat just for me. I could get used to this…
Nick is a third generation pickler (lucky) but started making his own pickles after graduating from college with a degree in philosophy. Student loans are a bitch. He is a calm, cool, approachable guy and it has been my privilege to get to know him after meeting him at the 2009 International Pickle Festival. He has his own pickle philosophy (he better!) and I admire him for his personal approach to pickling. You may already know him as the guy from the pickle festival selling the original Pickle on a Stick or from the pickle cart at 6th Avenue and Carmine Street, but what’s really cool is that if you don’t already know him, you can find him and say hello. Nick only sells his products on site at farmer’s markets and other places in the city, fresh out of a series of 5 gallon buckets or from his website.
I, of course, like the spicy ones, but there are many flavors to choose from, like Horseradish, Honey Mustard, Red Flannel and Sweet Cajun pickle chips. I can also highly recommend one of my favorite pickled items ever: pickled cherry peppers, which Nick has also hand delivered to me in the past and I devoured them by eating 2-4 (this is an example of my “restraint”) every morning for breakfast until they were gone, which reminds me I really should keep breath mints on my desk.
If you can’t get out and meet Nick Horman yourself you can order from the website, but you’re missing out on the best part of Horman’s Best. Lucky for me I get the Horman with my Horman’s Best!
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…Or Why I Still Talk to My Ex:
Because his dad makes THESE and sends them to him in the mail from New Mexico*. Yes. They are THAT good.
8 lbs (18-24). pickling cucumbers, 4-5 inches long
¾ c pickling or Kosher salt
2 quarts water
3 cups white vinegar
6-1/2 cups water
24 whole garlic cloves
3 tablespoons pickling spice
6 red, yellow or orange peppers of choice (Sweet Italian, Yellow hots, Habenero)
6 springs fresh dill weed
6 heads fresh dill weed
6 roasted, seeded Anaheim or New Mexico green chiles, cut in strips
Directions:
Wash cucumbers thoroughly. Cut off blossom end. Cut each in 4-5 spears.
Place in large ceramic bowl or crock.
Dissolve pickling or Kosher salt in 2 quarts water. Pour over cucumbers. Place ceramic or china plate on top of pickles. Weight the plate down with a gallon Ziploc bag filled with water, be sure all cucumbers are submerged. Let stand for 24 hours preferably in refrigerator.
In a large kettle, combine white vinegar with water. Place pickling spice in cheesecloth bag. Add pickling spice in cheesecloth bag to water and vinegar.
Bring to a boil.
While vinegar and water are coming to a boil, pack cucumbers spears in processed quart jars. Add 1 dill sprigs,1 dilll heads, 1-2 strips roasted green chile, 1 red, yellow or orange pepper and 4 cloves of garlic to each jar.
Discard spice bag from boiling liquid. Pour hot liquid over cucumbers to within ½ inch from top of the jar.
Close jars per manufacturer’s instructions.
Place jars in large container of hot water. Add enough hot water to cover jars + 1 inch. Bring to a boil and process for 20 minutes in boiling water bath.
Remove jars from boiling water bath. Let cool.
Best flavor if allowed to stand for 2 weeks in cool, dark place.
* I’ve stayed in touch with others for much dumber reasons.
>If you know me, you know I have food issues…I hardly eat a vegetable and I have a whole list of foods that I don’t like for “no good reason” (some might say). For example, I don’t eat bread. Why? BEcause, that’s why. I don’t eat pie, waffles or pancakes either…too bready. I also don’t like “creamy stuff”. Hold the mayo (it’s not gonna be on my hotdog or hamburger bun anyway-just gimme some meat) and do NOT let that coleslaw touch my BBQ. I could go on and on but I won’t.
I’m only trying to confess that I have known about pickle soup for a few years now but, suspecting its creaminess, I sort of dodged it for awhile…
My friend Laurie was living in Chicago and called me up a few years ago practically breathless to tell me about Pickle Soup. She had seen it in a deli, tried it and said she “thought of me with every spicy spoonful”. Until that very moment, I had never heard of nor IMAGINED such a thing as Pickle Soup….yumm…spicy spoonfuls!
Well, I guess I imagined my own version of pickle soup (pickle juice in a bowl? sounds good to me!) because when I googled it two seconds later I saw a list of ingredients that made me shake my head at and think, “nope, not for ME”…
I officially kept my eyes peeled for it in New York but I’ll go ahead and admit it-I never came across it myself because I tend to eat in places that serve tacos or corndogs. My friend Xan is the one who ultimately became my Pickle Soup guide. He actually found it in a couple of places but liked King’s Feast, a Polish restaurant in Greenpoint, on Manhattan Avenue, the best. Not only is the soup a nice consistency he said, but it also has a nice strong, pickle-y taste. We made a date to meet and eat but I continued to drag my feet. The fear of being a pickle freak that didn’t like pickle soup was bearing down on me…
I got the soup, which was officially listed as “Dilled Cucumber Soup” for $2.95. Xan got his usual Old Fashioned Meat. I was still a little hesitant when the soup came out…there were lots of shredded carrots in there but the pickle fragrance was enough to convince me to dig in and ignore the vegetables. I actually liked the potato-ness of the soup and the chunky-ness distracted me from the creamy-ness of the bowl. I took a few bites and felt the pressure leave me…I was still, and continue to be, a Pickle Freak.
I plan on taking Pickle Soup into my own hands and making my own version of it. This way I can control the creaminess, leave out the carrots and create my own “spicy spoonfuls”. I will not, however, attempt to make Old Fashioned Meat at home…I’ll just leave that to Old Fashioned Meat Freak, I mean Xan.
>What’s better than a fancy dinner, chocolates and candy or lingerie? Yep…there’s THAT and then there’s also pickles. As you should know by now, I like things HOT (and fried) so let’s get down and dirty and talk about some spicy pickles of my past, present and future.
The PAST:
What you are seeing here is the bottom of a jar of Gundelsheim Hot & Spicy Barrel Pickles after I’ve had my way with them (note the lack of pickle juice). I got hot ‘n heavy and devoured the jar in a couple of days. Gundelsheim pickles come in Regular, Garlic and now, Hot & Spicy (thank god). When I lived in MS I used to drive 30 minutes to the next town just to stock up on the Garlic flavored ones. I’ve spied this brand in Whole Foods stores and in my neighborhood Fairway but I never really bothered with them because they only carried the regular ones and I thought “well, crap, I could get the Garlic ones in MISSISSIPPI and Whole Foods only has the Regular? Nevermind” but just last week in my grocery store I happened to spot the new Hot & Spicy ones! At $4.99 a jar, they have become my new “everyday pickles” especially since I ravaged this whole jar in about 3 days. You have to get these pickles cold before you eat them so they stiffen up and they aren’t that spicy but they do have a unique flavor which I don’t really know how to describe besides “German”…On the smaller side they can still keep you satisfied and wanting more.
The PRESENT:
My Friend Jenn recently moved south from Brooklyn to New Orleans and after a recent pilgrimage to Avery Island where they bottle Tabasco, she mailed me a jar of the Tabasco Hot ‘N Sweet Pickles. I’d never heard of or seen these before so I was really excited to get them in the mail. My mailman left them on the radiator of our building so I decided a few days in the fridge was necessary before trying them.
I took it slow with Mr. McIlhenny’s pickles and really go to know them before going all the way with them. They are more SWEET than HOT and I tried to be gentle…in fact they are so sweet I have finally accepted them for what they are, my pickle friend and not my pickle lover. Sometimes you DO just need more sweet than heat and these pickles, I know, will always be there for me…
The FUTURE:
..but most of the time I want it HOT and heat is what I’m after…a fellow Pickle Freak that divides his time between Ohio and NY (hey Matt!) discovered Safies Hot & Zesty Garden Mix. He swears you will gasp, fall back and wipe your brow after every bite. They look amazing and I can’t wait to try them…I’m not crazy about the fact that there are other things pickled in there with them, but if it’s hot enough, I can be tricked into eating a carrot and some cauliflower (but it better be HOT!)
So if you don’t have a guy or girl (or squirrel) to set your heart on fire, do it yourself and wrap your lips around something that’s hot, sweet and spicy!
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!