How to Pickle

1. Prepare the pickling jars. Use clean jars that have been sterilized in boiling water. Keep the jars hot until you use them. Always fill the jar, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Always heat the jar lids and bands in hot water but do not boil the lids.

2. Boil the pickling base until the sugar is dissolved. If you use regular iodized salt in for your particular food, the pickling solution will turn cloudy. Use pickling or kosher salt.

4. Put the hot food in the jar and cover with hot brine.

5. Make sure no food is on the edge of the jar or the sealing edge of the cover. Wipe carefully with a damp cloth if necessary. Put on the lid and the band. Immerse full jar in water and boil for 20 minutes. Make sure all the lids are tight. If a lid flexes at all, keep the food in the refrigerator and use immediately.

What to Pickle

1. Pickle okra and green beans to use in Bloody Marys. Pickle onions and add grenadine, then watch the onion turn fluorescent pink from the grenadine.

2. Pickle mirlitons (alligator pears), combine them with fresh lemon juice and champagne vinegar in a salad of jumbo crab meat.

3. Pickle watermelon rind, green tomatoes and red onions. Don't forget to pickle peaches and pears for a great holiday treat.

4. Experiment with pickling almost any fresh produce. A real winner that is unusually delicious is pickling boiled peanuts in Coca-Cola and rice vinegar. Keep thinking. You will find you can pickle almost anything.