Well, it’s that time of year: pickle season!
Of course, you can just buy pickling spice if you want to and if you like a mix that exists out there, but I like to make my own.
If you’d rather just buy something, Mrs. Wages seems popular; McCormick also has a pickling product (affiliate links).
But as a general rule, I like to grow my own herbs and buy individual spices and make my own mixes; that way I can adjust them to my taste. I’m somewhat of a control freak. 😉
I use this mix in all recipes that call for pickling spice! Of course, you can adjust it to your taste; e.g. if you don’t lie clove, leave it out. That’s the whole point of making it yourself.
I want to say that it is ridiculously easy to make on your own (especially if you have a spice grinder), except that as it happens I have run out of coriander seeds, so need to get some ASAP as it is pickling season around here!
JACKIE’S HOMEMADE PICKLING SPICE
INGREDIENTS
- about 5 inches of cinnamon stick
- 1 whole nutmeg
- 3 whole cloves
- 4 TB mustard seeds
- 4 tsp coriander seeds
- 2 tsp dry ginger
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 bay leaves, crumbled
- Basically, your first step is to grind up the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. IME, they are too hard for a mortar and pestle, though lots of web pages have pretty pictures of the spices sitting in one.
A manual spice grinder or dedicated coffee grinder (affiliate links) is probably your best bet. But honestly, I don’t have either.
Frankly, I just stick them in a small ziploc bag and hammer them to smithereens (Likely, Julia Child would not approve of this method Well, maybe she would. Gordon Ramsey certainly would not though).
- Mix the ground spices with the rest of the ingredients. BAM! You’re done!
