Are pickles really just smaller cucumbers?
By crunkyjens
@crunkyjens (463)
United States
July 24, 2008 5:29pm CST
So I'm sitting here browsing through mylot and posting and I made a comment to my boyfriend that raisins were just shrivled up grapes. Then he tries to tell me that cucumbers are just smaller pickles? Is this true? My sister is claiming this is true also, but I have to wonder if they are both just trying to pull my leg?
Pickles taste so much different than cucumbers though. I LOVE cucumbers and HATE pickles, so I can't see how they can be the same thing. Of course they look quite similar but the taste alone HAS to mean they are different vegetables.
Does anybody know the truth?
7 people like this
17 responses
@greenglitterturtle (2750)
• United States
24 Jul 08
i've always been told that. in the old days people had pickle barrels outside their home. and later people canned them it's all how you make it. all you have to do is look it up on the web. you can see how they make them. they are cooked of course.
1 person likes this
@TessWhite (3146)
• United States
25 Jul 08
Ahhh but some pickles are indeed cooked. I remember my mom making a kind called "bread and butter" pickles. No idea how they came by that name by the way. But I do remember sitting on the kitchen stool watching her cook them on the stove and then canning them in canning jars.
If you soak cucumbers in vinegar long enough then you get pickles! There also is something in the vinegar, but I forget what it is. @crunkyjens (463)
• United States
24 Jul 08
Thank you for your response! Gosh I feel so silly!!! Well no wonder why I don't like them, I'm not a big fan of vinegar either!
@creative_genius (992)
•
26 Jul 08
I can't believe I didn't know this- I feel a bit daft. I love cucumbers too, specially in sandwiches. I figure it is the vinegar taste I don't like!
@bmorehouse1 (1028)
• United States
25 Jul 08
Pickles ARE cucumbers. I know, I have grown them and made them into pickles. It takes days of soaking them in salt water, and then you drain them and put them in jars along with vinegar and spices. You have to put lids on them and then put them in a pressure cooker where the cucmbers are cooked into pickles and the jars are sealed. It is a long process and I'm sure in a factory it is very similar. You know many things are made out of fruits and vegetables with the end product being different than the original food item.
1 person likes this
@blkmage1214 (151)
• United States
25 Jul 08
Well yea pickles are cucumbers.They're,soaked in vinegar.THen they change color,and taste.I also remember the first time somebody told me this fact.I kept on denying it.=D
1 person likes this
@bdugas (3577)
• United States
25 Jul 08
have you tried the new fried dill pickles, they are actually good, pickles come from cucumbers, I love cucumbers but they hurt my chest when i eat them, I think it depends on what you pickle them in what kind of brime as to what taste you get, kosher or garlic pickles. Either way I love them on cheeseburgers, but other than that not a real fanof them.
@newtondak (3946)
• United States
25 Jul 08
Cucumbers are the vegetable that you grown on the vine - you plant cucumber seeds and you get cucumbers. You pick the cucumbers and process them in various ways, with vinegar or salt brine and various spices - and they become pickles.
@julievy (593)
• United States
25 Jul 08
Yes, pickles are made from smaller cucumbers. They are "pickled" in salt brine. You can also pickle stuff like eggs, watermelon rind and many other veggies. It was a common way of preserving vegetables back before refrigeration or freezers were invented.
I'm the opposite of you, I love pickles but can't stand cucumbers!
@Lindalinda (4111)
• Canada
24 Jul 08
Pickles are indeed baby cucumbers. I know this because my mom and my mother-in-law used to put up pickles. You buy or pick the baby cucumbers, soak them in salt water over night, then stuff them into sterilized jars and pour a mixture of water, vinegar and pickling spices over them, you seal the jars and cook them il for a time and let them rest in a cool place for a few weeks before eating them.
Cucumbers come from the sme plant but they are grown bigger and you eat them fresh, eithe by themselves or in a salad. I like both pickles and fresh cucumbers.
@desertdarlene (8910)
• United States
25 Jul 08
Oh, yes, pickles really are smaller cucumbers that have been soaked in brine for a period of time. That's why they taste different, they have a lot of salt added to them which makes them shrivel up. And, they can be different flavors depending on what you put in that brine. I don't eat them anymore because they have way too much salt for me, but I used to love them on hamburgers.
