Natural News - Feb 9, 2019 by: Zoey Sky

Pickling is a handy skill to have, especially when SHTF – and you don’t need expensive equipment or a large work area to start pickling. Pickling can easily extend the shelf life of many perishable food items like fruits or vegetables. (h/t to ApartmentPrepper.com.)

Pickling, one of the oldest methods of food preservation, involves submerging your food of choice in either a salt or vinegar brine to keep it from spoiling.

Here are some of the many benefits of pickling your own food:

• Consuming pickled foods regularly is good for your overall well-being.
• It’s a cost-effective way of preserving food.
• Pickling food helps prevent bad bacteria from growing.
• You can pickle the same food in different ways.

Brine and vinegar pickling

Controlled fermentation is encouraged in brine pickling, like when you make kimchi or sauerkraut. This allows beneficial bacteria to grow in the mixture and crowd out any bad bacteria that can make the food spoil. With brine pickling, you may notice that the flavor, look, and texture of the food changes. (Related: How to quickly pickle a variety of veggies.)

When you use vinegar to make pickles, its high acidity prevents most bacteria from growing in the food. Food pickled in vinegar remains preserved as long as it is submerged in the solution.

Kosher pickles are cucumbers preserved in a vinegar solution. Meanwhile, most dill pickles are preserved in brine. Dill pickles may include vinegar, but it is preserved in a mixture that includes dill and other pickling spices and salt.

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