More on Pickles

Our cucumbers up and quit for the most part and Jo (and I) ate up most of the dill pickles.  There's still enough left for another burger with fresh tomato and dill pickle but I have to wait until the baker comes back from vacation this week to get the medium sized kaiser roll, which is a must.

Meanwhile, the zucchini, green and yellow, are trying to take over the world.  I know zucchini pickles have been tried before with mixed reviews but I figured "what the heck? It's that or feed them to the chickens (who are somewhat ambivalent, to say the least)".  So I sliced up a bunch of zuc's, same as I had done for the over sized cuc's, and put them in the axillary pickle "crock".  I followed Kanga's recipe concept, using white wine vinegar instead of apple cider this time.  No garlic or red pepper, and since dill was kinda "reserved" for the cuc's, I looked around for another herb.  My French tarragon has done really well in the herb garden this year and as tarragon vinegar is superb, I decided to give it a try.  So, substitute tarragon for dill, zuc's for cuc's, leave out the garlic, set the "crock", and see what happens.

WOW!  OK, it's not your usual pickle; Jo said they were "interesting with a kinda anisy flavor".  But if you like tarragon - a somewhat esoteric taste, I must admit - these are really, really good.  So far, I have eaten only some of the small, firm rounds; haven't tried the large, seedy rounds yet.  I am sure the flavor will be fine, but some objection to zucchini pickles centers around texture.  I will let you know as we get down into the "crock".  But I think we have two learnings:

1.  Yes, you can pickle zucchini successfully.  And when the cucumbers are waning and zucchini is trying to take over the world, this is a good thing to know.
2.  Tarragon pickles are very, very interesting.  This may not be something you throw on a burger at the grill like our old friend garlic-dill, but it's really good and has its place in the world.
3.  Playing with pickles is a lot of fun.
4.  There are three kinds of people in the world:  those who can count and those who can't.

Lindsey

Update on 8/14/2012:

So, I decided to try some other herbs.  I was making small batches so I used quart jars for the "crock".  I cut up some small green and yellow zuc's, picked grape leaves from the fox grape vine in the thorn bush, cut some winter savory and thyme from the perennial herb garden and basil from the annual bed and assembled three mini-crocks, seen above, using white vinegar and Kanga's recipe.  After three days, the zuc's were pickled. 

These do not taste like any other pickles have ever had.  The texture is good; the herb flavors are wonderful.  I could see a plate of them as part of an appetizer.  Also, they would probably be very good diced up in cold salads like pasta or tuna.

If you have zuc's coming out of your ears and a source of fresh herbs, give these a try.  We'll need to experiment around a bit, but I think this one is a keeper.