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Pickled carrots first came on my radar when I was living in Austria. I believe we were visiting a Polish woman, and she fed my missionary companion and I lunch. I don't actually remember what the main components of the lunch were, but I remember that this woman had jars and jars of pickled vegetables in her fridge.
Now, this was at the beginning of my culinary journey, and I hadn't really realized that pickling is a process and not just something that is done exclusively to cucumbers to put on a burger.
This nice woman had pickled cauliflower, cabbage, green beans, asparagus I think, and pickled carrots. The pickled carrots were my favorite. Carrots have a natural sweetness, and that combined with the vinegary bite is really pleasant to me. Apparently it's pleasant to a ton of other people too, because tons of cultures have recipes for pickled carrots.
Pickling is the process of preserving food by either anaerobic fermentation or immersion in vinegar (Source: Wikipedia). Of course before refrigeration, pickling was a critical method for preserving food for the winter, travel, or making good use of excess produce.
Foods pickled through fermentation include sauerkraut, preserved lemons, and kimchi.
Vinegar brined pickles include pickled cucumbers, and many other vegetables, including carrots.
Quick pickling means that we are not using sterilized jars (clean of course, but not completely sterilized like for canning), and these pickles will go in the refrigerator and need to be used in a few weeks. They cannot sit on a shelf for a year. Making quick pickled carrots only takes about 10 minutes. It's so easy. Let's get to it!
Preparing The Carrots
The first step on your way to pickled carrot enlightenment is to julienne your carrots. That's a fancy way of saying cut the carrots into matchstick shapes. To do this you peel your whole carrots and cut them into 2 or 3 inch pieces. Next you cut those pieces into planks, and then slice the planks into the matchstick shape.
At the end you will have a pile of carrots that looks like this:
After your carrots are prepared, stuff them into a 1 quart mason jar and prepare the brine.
Finishing Your Quick Pickled Carrots
The brine is very easy. Just combine the water, vinegars, sugar and salt in a small or medium saucepot and bring to a boil. That's it. Then you very carefully pour the hot brine over the carrots like so:
Let the jar come to room temperature and then place it in the fridge. You can eat the pickled carrots immediately and they are yummy, but the flavor gets better with time. Keep your pickled carrots in the fridge and use them within a few weeks. Voila! Easy quick pickled carrots.
Now you're ready to put your pickled carrots on sandwiches, in salads, or on top of rich dishes and rice bowls like this Easy Bibimbap Recipe With Ground Beef. I can't wait for you to try them!
What are your favorite kind of pickles? Please tell me in the comments, and be sure to share this post with your friends!
These tangy little carrots add dimension and excitement to any dish. Put them on salads, sandwiches, rice bowls, and anything else you can think of!
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Prep Time 10 minutesmins
Total Time 10 minutesmins
Course Condiment
Cuisine Asian Fusion
Equipment
1 pint mason jar
Ingredients
1 and ½cupsjulienned carrots (matchstick)about 3 whole carrots
½ cupdistilled white vinegar
½ cuprice vinegar
1cupwater
¼cupgranulated sugar
1 and ½teaspoonfine sea salt
Instructions
First, julienne your carrots by peeling them, cutting them into 2 to 3 inch pieces. Then cut those pieces into rectangular planks, then cut those planks into a matchstick shape. You can also use the julienne setting on a mandoline, just be sure to use cut resistant gloves.
In a medium saucepot, bring the white vinegar, rice vinegar, water, sugar, and salt to a boil. This is your brine.
While the brine is heating, place your carrots in a 1 pint mason jar.
When the brine has come to a boil, very carefully pour the brine over the carrots, leaving about an inch of space at the top of the jar.
Let the jar cool to room temperature, and then place the lid on and stick it in the fridge.
Quick pickled carrots can be eaten immediately, but the flavor improves with a few hours in the fridge.
In fermentation, good bacteria turn sugars into lactic acid, which preserves the food product. In quick pickling, the cold of the fridge lets the vinegary flavors of the brine marinate with the fruits or vegetables (and added spices) while forestalling the bacteria growth.
The first step in making pickling carrots is to wash and peel them. In theory, you could pickle your carrots without peeling them. But unless the carrots are young and small, the skins can taste bitter, so I recommend peeling all but the smallest before pickling.
The flavors will deepen and intensify the longer it marinates. Best flavor is achieved after 24 hours. Will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks (sometimes longer). Not freezer friendly.
Carrots themselves are rich in beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A, essential for maintaining healthy vision, skin, and immune function. The pickling process enhances the nutritional profile by introducing probiotics—beneficial bacteria crucial for gut health.
The classic ratio is super easy to remember and is easily scale-able depending on how many pickles you're making. It's 100% vinegar, 50% water, 25% sugar and 12.5% kosher salt by weight. So for example, 200g vinegar, 100g water, 50g sugar and 25g kosher salt (again, you can scale this up or down!).
Distilled white vinegar is the most commonly used, because it has a clean, crisp flavor that retains the produce's original taste and color best. Apple cider vinegar lends a milder, sweeter flavor if you don't mind the darker color. White wine, red wine and champagne vinegar all are great to use with pickling.
No, there are other methods for pickling, including quick pickling and refrigerator pickling. But this pickling method does call for boiling the brine. This process helps bloom the flavors of the ingredients and help speed up the pickling process when it's added to the fresh vegetables or fruit.
Sugar in pickling is used to balance the tartness of the vinegar. Although the sugar can be eliminated from pickle recipes, the pickles are likely to be too sour. Note: Under no circ*mstances should the amount of vinegar be decreased or diluted to compensate for less sugar.
For best flavor results, wait at least 24 hours before eating the pickled carrots. The longer you wait, the more intense in flavor they will get. Make sure your jars are completely clean and sterilized before using them.
It may be a normal reaction during fermentation caused by bacteria. If the pickles are soft, they are spoiled from the yeast fermentation. Don't use them. Using too weak a salt brine or vinegar solution may cause soft or slippery pickles, as can using moldy garlic or storing the pickles at too warm a temperature.
Pickling doesn't have to be a long process involving canning and special supplies. If you have vegetables that would be good pickled, like onions, garlic, carrots or green beans, toss them in the jar of leftover pickle juice, and see what happens. They'll make a nice addition to a charcuterie platter or Blood Mary.
Yes, it's perfectly normal for your lacto-fermentation brine to become slightly opaque and whitish. It's not dangerous! Some vegetables, like beans or pickles, will turn the brine white in a few days. This means that the good bacteria are doing their job!
Pickled beets are a staple across many Eastern European countries, where they're served in salads or as a side dish, but they're also particularly popular in the US. They can be fermented or quick-pickled with vinegar, and they're a great source of fiber, antioxidants, vitamin C, folate, and B vitamins.
“The pickles that are beneficial for your gut health are the fermented ones, made by brining them in salt rather than vinegar,” says Dr. Oppezzo. “While vinegar pickling is a common method, true fermentation in brine enriches them with beneficial probiotics for your gut.
I love adding chopped pickled carrots to a simple green salad for bold, bright flavor. Add them to a grain bowl. Try one of these rice bowl recipes, or build your own bowl with a grain, protein, fresh vegetables, and pickled carrot slices!
Quick pickling is simply the act of storing fresh produce in a brine of vinegar, salt, water, and sometimes sugar, in the refrigerator. These pickles are not canned and are ready to eat mere hours after making, though I usually wait at least a day or two.
Quick pickles last for a few days in the refrigerator. Canned pickles, on the other hand, use a stronger brine (remember the minimum 5 % acidity) and a water bath canning process to make them shelf stable for a longer time.
Seal with a lid, let the jar cool to room temperature, then place in the refrigerator for at least one day before enjoying. The fridge pickles will keep for at least one month. Note: I recommend white or red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or rice vinegar.
Typical pickle brine is a solution of about 5 to 7% salt and anywhere from 1:1 to 1.5:1 vinegar to water. Quickles, on the other hand, typically have a higher salt and vinegar content. A quickle brine is an 8 to 10% salt solution with a 1.5:1 to 2:1 vinegar content.
Introduction: My name is Jonah Leffler, I am a determined, faithful, outstanding, inexpensive, cheerful, determined, smiling person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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