Abstract:
Pickling is one of the oldest methods of food preservation. The Chinese
were fermenting vegetables as early as the third century B.C. By the first century A.D., Romans also were pickling. Pickled products appeared in America, too. The pickle barrel was common during the colonial days. Pickles even became part of our folklore as children learned to recite the “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” tongue-twister.
By the early 1920s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had
published instructions on making pickles at home. Many of these procedures are still used today. In 1988, USDA published new home canning recommendations after doing extensive research. The information in this publication is based on USDA’s Complete Guide to Home Canning.
