Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Judging Pickles
I spent the latter part of Sunday afternoon eating pickles. Just pickles - and the occasional wine cracker and swig of peppermint-flavored water (tasted better than I had expected). I was a judge in a pickle contest of an eastern European festival held in Deerfield, Massachusetts. When I left, it was with a few observations:
- Some people should be encouraged in their culinary activities, and some ought to be stopped now.
- It's easy to overlook the qualities of a pickle when you put it next to the main part of a meal. But balance of flavor, crispness, color, and a taste of something other than vinegar are key.
- Pickled hot peppers are fine if they have some redeeming pepper flavor. Hot peppers that only burn the mouth are painful.
- Pickled beans are pretty boring (if the two samples I tried are any indication).
- I'm not going to be purchasing pickled eggs in the near future.
- The variety of opinions that often cropped up among the four judges was impressive, and trying to come up with a method of choosing first, second, and third place winners in limited categories was even more of a marvel.
- When there are only two entries in a category, getting second place is a breeze. But for first, you have to do something.
- There are apparently 48 categories of pickles that, in theory, you could judge in a competition.
- When they hear about it, most people think that judging a pickle contest would be fun - and they'd be right.
