PICKLING (CAN BE TRIED @ HOME)

Pickling was widely used to preserve meats, fruits and vegetables in the past, but today is used almost exclusively to produce "pickles", or pickled cucumbers. Pickling uses the preservative qualities of salt, combined with the preservative qualities of acid, such as acetic acid (vinegar). Acid environment inhibits bacteria. No one can make better pickles than Indians. To make cucumbers pickles, cucumbers are soaked in a 10% salt water brine for several days, then rinsed and stored in vinegar to preserve them for years.