Turşu (Turkish Mixed Pickles)

Turkey takes pickles seriously enough that shops sell nothing else — walls of jars, and a glass of the brine to drink. This is the vinegar route. The word turşu covers both methods at once, and the tell is the brine: cloudy means it grew its own acid, clear means somebody poured it in.

Ingredients

• 2 lb mixed vegetables: small cucumbers, cabbage wedges, carrot batons,
• green tomatoes, long green peppers, cauliflower florets
• 1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled
• 2-3 hot green peppers

BRINE

• 3 cups white or grape vinegar (5% acidity)
• 3 cups water
• 1/4 cup pickling salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon dried chickpeas (traditional — see Notes)

Directions

Key ingredients

Black Pepper · Salt

1. Step 1 - Cut for the jar, not for the plate. Vegetables in generous pieces — cabbage in wedges rather than shreds, carrots in thick batons, cauliflower in large florets. Turkish pickles are robust and meant to be eaten with a fork alongside a meal, not shredded into something.
2. Step 2 - Trim the cucumbers. Take 1/16 inch off the blossom end of every cucumber. That end carries the enzyme that softens pickles, and this is the cheapest insurance in the whole craft.
3. Step 3 - Pack tight, mixed. Layer the vegetables into large clean jars, distributing the garlic and hot peppers throughout rather than in a layer. Pack firmly — they settle and you want them under the brine.
4. Step 4 - Make the brine. Bring the vinegar, water, salt, sugar, peppercorns, coriander and bay to a boil and stir until the salt dissolves. Cool completely before pouring, to keep the vegetables crisp.
5. Step 5 - Cover and weight. Pour the cooled brine over to cover everything completely. Anything above the brine line goes soft and then goes wrong — use a small glass weight or a folded cabbage leaf to hold things under.
6. Step 6 - Rest. Cool dark place 2 weeks, then refrigerate. Edible at one week, correct at two, good for months.
7. Drink the brine. Tursu suyu is sold by the glass in Turkey and treated as a hangover cure. It is genuinely good.

Notes

One word, two crafts. Tursu is the Turkish word for pickles, and it covers both methods:

• Salamura — the older way. Vegetables in rock-salt water, no vinegar or barely a splash, and wild lactic bacteria do the work over two to four weeks. Cloudy brine, live culture, funkier. That is a ferment.
• The vinegar route — this recipe. Grape or spirit vinegar plus salt, preserving on contact. Clear brine, harder crunch, shelf-stable before opening.

Nobody in Turkey needs to distinguish them to order lunch, and the language does not force the issue the way English does. The tell is the brine. Cloudy means it grew its own acid; clear means somebody poured it in. That reading works nearly everywhere in the world.

The chickpeas. A traditional Turkish addition — a spoonful of dried chickpeas is said to help the pickles ferment and stay crisp. In a vinegar pickle like this one there is nothing to ferment, so treat it as tradition rather than technique. In a salamura it is doing something real.

Grape vinegar is the authentic choice and is worth seeking out at a Middle Eastern grocer; it is softer and fruitier than distilled white. Check that it is 5% before using it for anything you intend to keep.

What struck me about the Turkish approach is that the pickle is a course, not a garnish. A pickle shop is a shop. That is the opposite of the American habit of a spear beside a sandwich, and it took travelling to find out that was a local custom rather than the nature of the food.