Try some of these alternatives to pickling spice in your next batch of homemade pickles.
For the seasoned canner or pickler, it is hard to imagine making pickled foods without pickling spice. There are reasons to consider using alternatives to the usual pickling spices. If you run out, or you want to try making pickles with a different flavor than usual, there are a number of ingredients that you can try in your pickle recipes in place of pickling spices.
What Are Pickling Spices?
Pickling spice is a spice blend that is usually sold pre-mixed at the store. While the contents and proportions vary by brand, most types include the same general ingredients. Most spice mixes include some blend of mustard seeds, black peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaves and chilies. If you want to experiment with making your own pickling spice, you can do so by working with the typical ingredients and combining some or all of them in different proportions. Be sure to crush up any large additions such as cinnamon sticks and bay leaves.
Make Your Own Blend
To create a spice blend that is different than the average pickling spice, there are a number of unusual spices that you can add to your pickling brine. Try using traditionally French ingredients like sage, rosemary and thyme. Make spicy pickles by creating a traditional pickling spice and adding cayenne pepper and whole dried chilies to your pickles. Or, try making garlic pickles by including whole cloves of fresh garlic in your pickles.
Sweet Pickles
Pickles canned with pickling spice usually have a decidedly savory flavor. For a change of pace, try canning some sweet pickles. Make sweet pickles out of either sweet vegetables like beets or savory vegetables like cucumbers. In this type of pickle, pickling salt is either supplemented with or swapped out for sugar, and sweet onions and spices are used in place of traditional pickling spice.
Dilled Pickles
Dill pickles and dilly beans are made using garlic and dill instead of pickling spice. You can try making a variety of dilled pickles instead of the usual variety with pickling spice.
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