13 Types Of Pickles Perfect For Snacking

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Pickles have been popular throughout recorded history, which makes sense considering that in the days before refrigeration, people needed ways to preserve and store food that didn't involve electricity. In the case of fresh produce, they discovered that pickling, or covering fruits and vegetables in a brine of salt mixed with spices, plus water or vinegar, did the job nicely. Pickled produce allowed people to store harvested food for months, giving them nutrition during the off-season (via PBS).

Today, pickles are found wherever groceries are sold. Although we don't need them for survival anymore, they're a popular addition to sandwiches, burgers, salads, or dressings, and are even eaten straight from the jar. Pickles combine tanginess with crunchy, salty goodness, and are unlike anything else. In the United States, pickles are understood to be pickled cucumbers, even though other fruits and vegetables are pickled. When you consider that Americans eat around 20 billion pickled cukes every year, you can see why that happened.

While every pickle lover has a favorite, there are so many pickles to try that keeping an open mind might let you discover a new pickle for your plate.

While many of us love pickles for their sharp, vinegary tang, sweet pickles are also delicious. Their salty, sharp kick is balanced with sugar, and gives a flavor we're hardwired to crave. Salt is meant to bring out the flavor in food, and pairing salty and sweet boosts the sweetness while creating a balance between tastes that people find irresistible (via How Stuff Works).

Bread and butter pickles are made by slicing pickling cucumbers and letting them sit salted before brining. Unlike salad cucumbers, pickling cucumbers are firmer, with sweet skins and undeveloped seeds that make perfect pickles. Using salt on the cucumber slices draws extra moisture to ensure crunchy pickles.

The brine is a mixture of sugar, vinegar, and spices like mustard seed, celery seed, garlic, chili flakes, ginger, and curry powder. The brine is boiled and poured over the cucumber slices, then packed into jars. Slices of onion are often added to homemade bread and butter pickles, but store-bought brands usually don't include them.

Making pickles at home is easy and fun, but make sure to always follow food safety guidelines. Refrigerator pickles should always be made in small batches and eaten promptly. The good news is that you can play around with spices and flavorings for bread and butter pickles to suit your tastes and how you plan to use them.

There's often some confusion between kosher dill pickles and regular old dill pickles. Both are made with cucumbers and flavored with dill, so what's the difference? If you've figured it has to do with Jewish dietary laws, you're on the right track. But according to Chabad, in the case of kosher dill pickles, it's all about the pickling process, not having a rabbi present at the pickle factory.

Kosher dills are called kosher dills because they are made the way Jewish delis in New York City (which traditionally did have a rabbi oversee the pickle-making) made them. Kosher dills are fermented in a brine of water and Kosher salt flavored with garlic and dill. Regular dills may or may not have garlic; kosher dills do.

Jewish immigrants introduced kosher dill pickles to New York over a century ago, where they were sold on carts in the street. People couldn't get enough of them, and eventually, they were mass-produced. Traditional kosher dills were fermented in salt brine instead of vinegar, because vinegar could be made from Kosher wine. Using a kosher salt-and-water brine to ferment the pickles took questions about vinegar out of the equation. Today, kosher-style dills are sold everywhere, but only jars labeled "Kosher certified" are kosher according to Jewish dietary law.

Cornichons are smaller than gherkins and less likely to be pickled with sugar. Their name translated from French means "little horn," which suits these bite-sized curved pickles to a tee. They came to Europe from India, and the French adopted them quickly, eventually cultivating new varieties like the Parisienne Cornichon de Bourbonne. They are eaten pickled and fresh and might be found in salads, alongside sandwiches, on charcuterie boards, or even blended into sauces.

Other countries often use the term gherkin and cornichon interchangeably, but eating them side by side reveals that cornichons are crunchier and are usually more savory than sweet. In France, cornichons may be made with white wine vinegar, peppercorns, tarragon, and chili pepper. Tarragon is widely used in France and has a slight licorice flavor that is sometimes also likened to mint or described as citrusy. Although there are Russian and Mexican tarragon varieties, French tarragon is most often used in the kitchen. No matter what you call them, these petite little pickles will quickly become a favorite.

Sweet pickles are small, crunchy, and pickled by adding sugar to the brine. They're easy to find anywhere pickles are sold, but are also simple to make at home. They're similar to bread and butter pickles, but bread and butter pickles are packed in a thicker, more syrupy brine (via Old World Garden Farms).

Sweet pickles are made from smaller, younger pickling cucumbers than larger dill and sour pickle varieties, so they have small seed cores and stay crisp. You can buy them (or make them) like chips, spears, or whole. If you like relish on hot dogs, it's made from chopped sweet pickles, but no matter which shape you prefer, these pickles pair well with almost any sandwich, may be chopped into tuna or potato salad or eaten right from the jar.

Home cooks can spice up sweet pickles with spice blends that add unexpected flavor to the sweetness. Garlic, chili flakes, ginger, or peppercorns add heat that pairs deliciously with sweetness. Adding other veggies into the pickling brine adds interest and plenty of health benefits, since pickling not only preserves the vegetables' nutrients, but also adds probiotic microorganisms that aid digestion and boost the immune system (via Livestrong). Carrots, onions, cauliflower, zucchini, and green beans are great additions to a jar of sweet pickles.

Cinnamon pickles can be hard to find, although online shopping can help. Sometimes called Christmas pickles, they get their bright color and distinctive cinnamon flavor from a sugar syrup enhanced with Red Hot candies and red food coloring. They make unique homemade gifts, and fans of these pickles on Reddit rave about their crisp cinnamon taste.

If you have big cucumbers that are getting old, you're lucky because cinnamon pickles call for just that type. Most pickle varieties use smaller cucumbers with fewer seeds to produce crunchy pickles, but cinnamon pickles use seeded cucumbers, and a water and pickling lime soak to crisp the cucumbers beautifully. However, pickling lime is no longer recommended because cooks who don't follow instructions very carefully could end up with botulism.  Pickling salt is considered a widely accepted alternative to pickling lime.

After seeding and salting, the prepared cucumbers simmer in vinegar and alum for two hours, another significant departure from most pickles that are brined using raw veggies. The cooked cucumbers then soak in a syrup made from sugar, water, vinegar, and dissolved Red Hot candies, a multistep process. Cinnamon pickles take five days to complete because each day, the cinnamon syrup must be drained from the cucumbers, boiled, and poured back on (via Taste of Southern). This kills bacteria while allowing the pickles to soak up every bit of spicy cinnamon goodness. If you have the patience, you can taste these uncommon goodies and make holiday gifts at the same time.

For something completely different, try Hungarian pickles. These pickles are fermented in saltwater brine with a critical addition: bread. In Hungary, these pickles are known as "leavened pickles" (via Budapest Market Hall) and are traditionally made with sourdough bread added at the top of the jar, and then the yeast goes to work. This makes the brine bubbly and cloudy, but that's what's supposed to happen.

Another difference in the fermentation process is that in Hungary, pickles are usually fermented in the sun, sitting on windowsills. Traditional advice says to ferment pickles in a cool, dark place, but who are we to go against Hungarian traditions? Hungarian pickles taste like other sour pickles, and are usually flavored with dill, garlic, peppercorns, and mustard seed, while some recipes add juniper berries and chili peppers.

If you want to make Hungarian pickles at home, there are a few things to remember. As with other saltwater fermented pickles, bottled water avoids chemicals in tap water. Leave the jar lid loose during fermentation, or top the jar with a cloth and a rubber band, and set the jar on a plate or tray. These tricks let gas escape while catching any brine that bubbles out. Finally, taste the brine occasionally to make sure it's salty enough. This keeps harmful bacteria from overtaking the process. The bread may be removed after a day or two, and the pickles are usually ready after four days.