Brine Pickling Monthly

Art & Science Meet in Jar-Top Fermentors

                                                Right-Brain Topics:

                                        Dressing Your Pickles for Company

                                        A Pickle Crafter's Hobby Box

                                        Merry Citrus Pickle Recipe

When loading your jar, lay it down on its side, lay the decorative slices down and arrange to your liking. Then load the rest of the veggies and then stand the jar up. Complete the recipe by mixing the brine and completing the instructions found on page 8 in your instruction book.

Ingredients: 2 Quart Recipe

2 LBS. daikon radish - peeled, 1/8 inch thick rounds
1 small raw beet - peeled, 1/8 inch thick round (optional, to create fuchsia bright pickles)
1/2 c. sweet onion - thinly sliced
1 small fat carrot - peeled, cut into 1/8 inch thick rounds
1 lemon (first use cookie cutter to cut out lemon ornaments) and juice reserved
1 jalapeño - seeded, thin round slices
1 TBS. fresh ginger - finely minced

BRINE

2 TBS. unrefined sea salt

4 cups filtered water

AFTER 4-DAY FERMENT

3 TBS. reserved lemon juice

2 TBS. apple cider vinegar

1. Prepare vegetable ornaments. Use a variety of veggie cutter shapes or just one shape with different colored produce. Punch shapes out of the daikon rounds. Then repeat with the beet, carrot, and whole lemon (including intact rind). Pop the cutouts into the daikon rounds. 

2. Lay jar on its side and lay ornaments along the length. Load up the rest of the ingredients to hold the ornaments in place. You can use sprigs of rosemary to accent the evergreen look!

3. Combine the salt and water, dissolve and add to the jar. Go to page 8 in the instruction booklet to complete the recipe.

4. After 4-day fermentation is complete, add the lemon juice and vinegar.

— Recipe adapted by B. Hettig

Left-Brain Topics:

Latest Salt Study: Food Police Held Up

This recent study on salt consumption impressed me for the obvious reason that brine pickling is a salting process. Many cautious pickling apprentices have shown concerns about salt consumption and health. This study helps confirm an intuitive belief that salt restriction is unfounded. 

As one of the four basic tastes, the brain uses saltiness as a way to determine if there is enough mineral complex in the diet for maintaining health. Good unrefined, sea salt (not table salt) is good food. Processed, refined food with refined table salt is a sometime away-from-home treat.

Here’s an essay I wrote on salt ... When Lot’s wife turned around to look at the forbidden cities, the Old Testament foretold she would turn into salt. More correctly, she turned back into salt. How can quality sea salt not be a part of the best in whole food choices?

Here is the study summation:  

New Review Questions Benefit of Cutting Down on Salt

By Kate Kelland

LONDON | Wed Nov 9, 2011 1:14pm EST

(Reuters) - Reducing salt in the diets of the general population may not have an overall positive health impact, according to a review of more than 160 scientific studies published Wednesday.

In an analysis that fuels a row over the health effects of salt, researchers writing in the American Journal of Hypertension and the Cochrane Library journal said the systematic review added to growing evidence suggesting officials should re-evaluate policies advising everyone to eat less salt.

The review -- which collated and analyzed the findings of 167 previous studies -- found that while cutting down on salt reduced blood pressure in people who have normal or high blood pressure, it also caused increases in some hormones and other compounds that can adversely affect people's heart health.

"I can't really see, if you look at the total evidence, that there is any reason to believe there is a net benefit of decreasing sodium intake in the general population," said Niels Graudal of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, who led the review and spoke to Reuters in a telephone interview.

Lowering salt intake is known to reduce blood pressure, but research has yet to show whether that translates into better overall heart health in the wider population.

Despite that, many countries have government-sanctioned guidelines calling on people to cut their salt or sodium intake for the sake of their longer-term health.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is one of the leading causes of strokes, heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases, which together are the biggest killers worldwide and claim more than 17 million lives a year....

NET BENEFIT?

But a series of studies looking at dietary salt have recently suggested the evidence base for population-wide salt-reduction policies may not be as strong as first thought.

A separate Cochrane Library review conducted by British researchers and published in July found no evidence that small reductions in salt intake lowered the risk of developing heart disease or dying prematurely.

And another study by Belgian scientists published in May found that people who ate lots of salt were no more likely to get high blood pressure, and were statistically less likely to die of heart disease, than those with low salt intake.

Graudal said his results showed that when salt intake is reduced, there are increases in some hormones and in fats known as lipids "which could be harmful if persistent over time."

He added that because none of the studies in the review were able to measure long-term health effects, his team was not able to say "if low salt diets improve or worsen health outcomes."

Graudal said the growing number of studies questioning the net benefit of salt reduction meant public health officials should look again at their guidelines.

Daikon Radish - Perfect Pickling Star?

Daikon radish is one of my sturdy, go-to veggies. It’s white, firm, only slightly bitter (not hot-hot like red radishes), and stays crisp in brine. Find at Asian markets. (I even found it at Wal-Mart). You will find it in shapes other than icicle, (right).

It’s easy to grow; fast to mature, inexpensive to buy, and holds up well in the fridge.

"Raw daikon is used throughout Japan to complement the taste of oily or raw foods and, more importantly, to aid in their digestion. Lab analysis has shown that the juice of raw daikon is abundant in digestive enzymes similar to those found in the human digestive tract. Those enzymes - diastase, amylase, and esterase - help transform complex carbohydrates, fats and proteins into their readily assimilable components. Grated daikon is a wonderful aid to people with a weak digestive system." - John Belleme, author and expert in Asian cooking.