Piccalilli

[Beobloke]

I just stumbled upon that but reviews online do not rate it very highly at all.

To be fair, a good proportion of the reviews online said the coffee maker I’ve owned for about 8 years was badly made, makes crap coffee and leaks everywhere.

It isn’t, it doesn’t and it doesn’t!

 

[gintonic]

Tracklements also does piccalilli and it’s bloody marvellous! Properly mustardy and not sweet. Not easy to find, though.

https://www.tracklements.co.uk/product/particularly-british-piccalilli/

we dont like that much

 

[Le Baron]

I live in Leicester and have Asian friends in Leicester and Brum - restaurant and home food is spectacularly similar. A great deal of trade for many of the restaurants is actually Asian people, eating out.

Yes, this will be more evident in places where the Asian population is more established and more populous, now putting more authentic food into the restaurants rather than having to cater to the ersatz version.

 

[Le Baron]

Oh, Doctor Freud ...

They're next to each other on the keyboard, and I'm a touch typist. Not a very good one mind.

 

[Vinny]

Yes, this will be more evident in places where the Asian population is more established and more populous, now putting more authentic food into the restaurants rather than having to cater to the ersatz version.

I like them all - the various versions of Asian foods served in the past are no more different to current restaurant food than are native foods from Sri lanka, Gujarat and Assam.

 

[stevec67]

Really as a consequence of the sandwich thread.............

Something like marmite - love or hate, I know, but I use masses in sandwiches - when I was a nipper and was out fishing all day, every day possible, mum used to buy it in the large jars - 2lb? larger?
I have only ever eaten Haywards, until recently. I am amazed, mortified - it has been discontinued!!!
.

Are you sure it's discontinued and not just a seasonal hold? It's a strongly seasonal product, everyone buys a jar at Christmas, in any number of houses there are 3 spoonfuls taken out over the festive season and the rest of it sits around for a year or possibly two before being thrown away.

Is it meant to be a 'sweet pickle'? Like Branston pickle (a chutney derivative) is supposed to be? Or is it something originally just acidic?

The sugar in pickles is part of the recipe. Vinegar is part of the means of preservation, sugar or salt are another part. All 3 reduce a physical measure termed "water activity" (Aw) which is a measure of the water available in a food for living things. Water has an Aw of 1.0, things like milk 0.95, meaning anything can and will grow in it, down through things like cakes at 0.8, where most things won't grow but yeasts and moulds will, some jams at 0.7 supporting the growth of very few things, only xerophilic (sugar loving) moulds and maybe the odd weirdo yeast. Below 0.6, forget it. You can actually model the probable spoilage and bacterial growth in any food if you know the pH, Aw, salt content, sugar content, presence of preservative compounds, etc. Reducing sugar, salt, and the presence of things like spirit vinegar is all very well, but some foods won't work without them.

Oh, and mustard is an essential part of the piccalilli flavour. Turmeric is generally the colour, as other s have said.

 

[Le Baron]

The sugar in pickles is part of the recipe. Vinegar is part of the means of preservation, sugar or salt are another part. All 3 reduce a physical measure termed "water activity" (Aw) which is a measure of the water available in a food for living things. Water has an Aw of 1.0, things like milk 0.95, meaning anything can and will grow in it, down through things like cakes at 0.8, where most things won't grow but yeasts and moulds will, some jams at 0.7 supporting the growth of very few things, only xerophilic (sugar loving) moulds and maybe the odd weirdo yeast. Below 0.6, forget it. You can actually model the probable spoilage and bacterial growth in any food if you know the pH, Aw, salt content, sugar content, presence of preservative compounds, etc. Reducing sugar, salt, and the presence of things like spirit vinegar is all very well, but some foods won't work without them.

Oh, and mustard is an essential part of the piccalilli flavour. Turmeric is generally the colour, as other s have said.

Interesting stuff that I've never ever pursued to that level. I enjoy learning about it from your posts..

 

[Vinny]

Are you sure it's discontinued and not just a seasonal hold?

I eat a lot by anyone's standards and have never known it to be unavailable whenever I have looked for it over the past 40 years. It has been out of stock at Tesco's, locally, for maybe 6 months, so i checked the website.

No longer available/discontinued, or whatever phrase.

 

[Vinny]

Turmeric is generally the colour, as other s have said.

Turmeric tastes as it smells - very earthy. It is a major flavour component in any piccalilli that I have ever eaten.

On the subject of turmeric - Ottolenghi has a superb recipe for spatchcock chicken with an unfeasible amount of garlic, new potatoes and not much else but turmeric - VERY, very nice.

xerophilic (sugar loving)

Means dry earth-loving/lover of dryness, not sugar. Xerophytes generally refers to plants such as cacti.

Sucrophile? Sucraphile? Saccrophile?

 

[Big Tabs]

This Dukeshill piccalilli is very tasty. It is quite chunky, but that is easily remedied with some knifeage.
The first time The Wife got me some of this, the bloody kids ate most of it.
Highly recommended.

https://www.dukeshillham.co.uk/pickles_chutneys__relishes/proper_piccalilli/13112_p.html

Ingredients
Vegetables (88%) [Cucumber, Tomatoes, Onions, Cauliflower, Red Peppers, Courgettes, Green Peppers] Cider Vinegar, Unrefined Sugar, Malt Vinegar (Barley), Whole Wheat Flour, Mustard Seed, Garlic, Tumeric, Celery Seed.

 

[gintonic]

I have a few recipes that use fresh Turmeric, just watch your fingers turn yellow.

We buy dried whole Turmeric and grind ourselves

 

[boneman]

Mouth is watering, must find some! Love piccalilli and Branston pickle!

 

[Vinny]

I have a few recipes that use fresh Turmeric, just watch your fingers turn yellow.

There is some in the freezer - I have used it once only and it had nothing like the flavour of dried, even allowing for the water in the fresh.
I have mentioned it to a couple of Asian friends and got quizzical looks - they only ever use dried powder.

The large Asian stores in Leicester sell fresh, but who uses it...............................

Back to Piccalilli - my ex-granny-in-law always added runner beans (chopped to 15mm or so diamonds) to her home-made - actually quite nice (I do love runner beans....).

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Is it meant to be a 'sweet pickle'? Like Branston pickle (a chutney derivative) is supposed to be? Or is it something originally just acidic?

I'm not a fan of most of the manufactured piccalillis because they are too sweet. I want mine to be tart and sour with a bit of a kick. I grew up with Norco, and later Haywards (the one might have morphed into the other) which were both a good blend of tart and mouth-puckering sourness without being rough and harshly acidic. These days I rely on a homemade version made by a friend of my wife's from the WI. Tried making it once, the recipe called for cornflour to thicken it. Using the requisite amount it went to a paste, well more like a yellow mortar if I'm honest. Tasted fine, but the mouthfeel wasn't nice, nor the spread or the texture so I binned it. Not long after, my wife joined the WI and the rest is history.

 

[gintonic]

There is some in the freezer - I have used it once only and it had nothing like the flavour of dried, even allowing for the water in the fresh.
I have mentioned it to a couple of Asian friends and got quizzical looks - they only ever use dried powder.

The large Asian stores in Leicester sell fresh, but who uses it...............................

we use it for SE Asian pastes.

All the Asian shops around here stock whole dried Turmeric for you to grind yourself at home. When I was working in Bangladesh, my agents mother used to grind her own.

 

[mjw]

@Vinny, I note you don’t want to make it, and I’m usually a faff-free zone but either of these is straightforward if you don’t follow the recipes too slavishly. Also, the current glut of beans and courgette in the garden lends itself to being used up in this way. Add a cauli and (I prefer) sliced shallots.
These are for small quantities so you can busk the additions to the sauce component to aim for your personal taste.

https://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/pams-piccalilli
https://www.recipesmadeeasy.co.uk/homemade-piccalilli/

 

[Olaup]

I used to get my picalilli from these two :

Pledge's Purer Pickles

 

[gintonic]

@Vinny, I note you don’t want to make it, and I’m usually a faff-free zone but either of these is straightforward if you don’t follow the recipes too slavishly. Also, the current glut of beans and courgette in the garden lends itself to being used up in this way. Add a cauli and (I prefer) sliced shallots.
These are for small quantities so you can busk the additions to the sauce component to aim for your personal taste.

https://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/pams-piccalilli
https://www.recipesmadeeasy.co.uk/homemade-piccalilli/

I like the look of the river cottage recipe - I like that it is small volume

 

[Vinny]

I note you don’t want to make it, and I’m usually a faff-free zone but either of these is straightforward if you don’t follow the recipes too slavishly

Thanks. Maybe.....

I have just looked out my late ex-granny-in-law's recipe and that will scale for 1lb or so mixed veg' easily enough.

I have tried it once, that I do recall - it catches on the bottom of the pan VERY, very easily because it is so thick (even without thickener like cornflour).

 

[gintonic]

I like the look of the river cottage recipe - I like that it is small volume

going to give that a go next week. Need to get some jars, as we sent all of ours to the recycling a few months ago to yield some cupboard space