Pickles? Fermented Pickles? Dill Pickles? Sour Pickles?
Call them what you want, but that big, sour, juicy dill pickle sitting alongside your hamburger was introduced to America during the late 1800s and early 1900s with the arrival of a heavy influx of eastern European Jews in New York City.
These immigrants brought with them traditions from the old country. Dill pickles were one.
They took fresh cucumbers and piled them in large wooden barrels along with dill, garlic, spices, kosher salt and clean water and left them to ferment for a few weeks to several months. These naturally fermented pickles were then sold on pushcarts in the immigrant tenement district of New York City. Over time, Jewish-owned shops started selling pickles straight out of the barrel as what we know today as the pickle.
Find out more with recipes here: http://www.makesauerkraut.com/fermented-pickles/
