A juicy 4,000-year-old story and must-try offbeat pickles

A small amount of achaar can add a delectable punch to any meal. (Photo: Harshad Khandare via Unsplash)

Pickles are said to have been one of Cleopatra’s well-kept beauty secrets. Her lover Julius Caesar even fed it to his troops in the belief that it would make them stronger. But cucumbers were first soaked in an acidic brine by the ancient Mesopotamians more than 4,000 years ago as a means of preserving them. Since then, pickles have been a staple in cultures throughout the world. In addition to filling the bellies of hungry sailors and travellers, pickles gave families something to eat in the chilly winter months.

Fascinating journey

Parinita Salian Crasta's raw mango pickle.

Though the word ‘pickle’ comes from the Dutch word pekel, meaning brine, achaar is widely considered to be of Persian origin. Āchār in Persian is defined as ‘powdered or salted meats, pickles, or fruits preserved in salt, vinegar, honey, or syrup.’ The English carried their technique for making sweet pickles with vinegar and sugar to the New World. In the meanwhile, East Europeans brought with them different varieties of lacto-fermented cabbage, or sauerkraut. The French accompany hefty pâtés and pungent cheeses with small, spicy cornichons. Pickles of many kinds, including peppers, olives, and lemons are eaten with every meal in West Asia. Russians, among other things, pickle tomatoes. The Japanese pickle plums and daikon, the Italians pickle eggplants and peppers, and the Koreans have their kimchi. But unlike Western pickles that are purely vegetables and fruits in brine and vinegar, Indian pickles are laced with numerous spices, herbs and a lot of oil. In India, even a small amount of achar can add a delectable punch and help finish off a boring meal in no time.

The world of pickles

Vasundhara Jhunjhunwala's Lemon chhuhara pickle.

Depending on the part of the country you come from, your pickles may constitute of anything from raw mangoes, lemons, gooseberries, carrots, turnips and chillies to lotus stem, bamboo shoots, garlic, even brinjal, prawns and meats. And every single one of them is delicious. The Lemon Chhuhara pickle from Old Fashioned Gourmet is one of them. “This sweet, sour and spicy achar is made from lemons and chhuhara (dried dates) which are fibrous and prebiotic. The recipe is from my amma Shyamlata Sihare’s recipe book. Amma used to collect recipes from family and friends and noted them down in her book. Some of them have their ingredients in tola and masha,” says Vasundhara Jhunjhunwala, who is carrying on her mother’s legacy of making pickles. “The whole idea of achar is to make your mouth salivate and help you release digestive juices. Amma used to say that achars should be had judiciously — not more than a teaspoon,” says Jhunjhunwala, who also makes a ker ka achar where the dried berries get fermented in curd.

Every summer, blogger and writer Nikhil Merchant would wait for his grandmother to make gunda pickle, a popular summer berry nicknamed lasoda and bhokhar across India. “An entire week was dedicated to shopping for ingredients, prepping, sun-drying, masala making and then pickling. Each berry had to be cleaned individually and it used to be a summer activity for the entire family. Even before the gundas could soften, we would scoop out fresh, plump (almost raw) gundas to smash into our dal rice and eat it that evening itself,” remembers Merchant, who is looking forward to making a fresh batch very soon.

Mangaluru's Kukku da Pajji Uppad ready to go into barnis.

How about a pickle that uses no oil at all? Mangaluru’s famous Kukku da Pajji Uppad (raw mango pickle) is one such delight made with wild mangoes. “Since the pickle has zero oil, sun-drying the masalas is the most important step in the pickle-making. Amma used to sun-dry the ingredients along with spoons and jars in the courtyard and it was our job as kids to keep an eye on them. The mangoes would be brined in sea salt for three days, then strained and boiled. The masalas would then be ground on a stone grinder called kadepi kal using some of the brine. This pickle lasts for a year if you don’t expose it to wet spoons or moisture. A dollop of this pickle with ganji (red rice gruel) is soul food on rainy days,” says Parinita Salian Crasta, a Mangalurean now based in Edmonton, Canada.

Sun-drying the masalas for Kukku da Pajji Uppad.

Most Tamilians have a love-hate relationship with the pungent smelling mahali pickle. Made from the mahali roots (decalepis root) the pickle uses no oil, and instead relies on yogurt to ferment. A spoonful of mahali is enough to decimate a bowl of tempered curd rice. In Himachal Pradesh, fiddlehead fern pickle also known as lingri ka achar is used lavishly to perk up everyday meals. The fern is not cultivated but foraged from hills and around streams or springs. “We look for leaves that are young, fresh and tightly coiled with firm stems. These make the best pickle,” says Neelima Sharma, a Shimla native now settled in Mumbai.

Pickles from the Northeast may not be a common sight on grocery store shelves but they are a treasure trove of flavours. Pork intestines, banana flower, beef with king chilli — all get pickled and preserved for harsh winters. But those wanting to tip-toe their way into the cuisine should start with the sprightly bamboo-shoot pickle. Called mesu, the pickle is hugely crunchy with a mild flavour. In Nagaland, fermented soybean cakes, known as ‘akhuni’ are used to make akhuni pickle. The sharp, slightly bitter and smoky pickle is also added to meat dishes.

Uppilitta manga (mango in brine by Ummi Abdulla.

The world of pickles is not restricted to vegetables alone. Andhraiites make a mouth-watering mutton pickle with tangy gongura leaves. And true to Andhra cooking, it’s spicy and finger-licking good. The starlet of all non-vegetarian pickles is the mussels pickle (kallumakaya pickle) by Ummi Abdulla, also known as the ‘matriarch’ of Mappila cuisine. In her book A Kitchen Full Of Stories, there is an entire section dedicated to Mappila pickles which have a strong Dutch, Portuguese and particularly Arab influence. Abdulla, now 89, still makes a variety of pickles but the most sought-after is the humble upilitta manga — raw mangoes in brine which are relished with kanji or rice gruel a common and daily food of most Malayalis.