Indian Pickle making and Hot sun

Fresh fruits and vegetables are dried, salt cured and aged during summer in hot sun for 3 weeks to 5 weeks

During summer, the ambient temperature reaches over 102º F by noon. The hot-sun and dry weather are key to pickle making.

What are benefits of hot-sun in pickling?

Drying

The vegetables are blanched, the fruits are washed. The exemplar is dried in the hot sun for about four hours. A Manji is used for this purpose. Manji is a small sleeping cot made of a simple wooden frame (four pegs to serve as legs, and four bamboo sticks to complete the frame). A thin jute string is woven across the frame to form the platform. Manji is covered with a thin muslin cloth. The exemplar is scattered over the cloth in single tier, the exemplar itself is covered with another thin muslin cloth. The woven string and the thin muslin cloth help the air to circulate.

You need hot dry and breezy atmosphere. Do not lay out exemplar on a cloudy or humid day. The temperature should reach a minimum of 90º F by noon, the humidity should be less than 60%

Drying in oven

We can dry exemplar in the oven. Preheat oven to lowest setting about 200º F for 25 minutes. Spread the exemplar in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet in the oven. Leave the door ajar about 2 to 3 inches. After 45 minutes, shut off oven and let the exemplar continue drying for an hour.

Salt Curing

How to cure pickles with salt?

The exemplar is cured with salt in hot sun. An earthen pan called Paraat, is used. Paraat is about 18" diameter with the edge rolled up to about 3". Exemplar and salt are mixed in the Paraat. The Paraat is covered with a thin muslin cloth. In the morning, the exemplar is stirred. The Paraat is covered with thin muslin cloth and set out in direct hot sun. In the evening, the Paraat is brought back inside the house.

At night, the exemplar should be brought inside the house. If left outside, the lower night temperature will cause condensation adding the moisture back in.

The process is repeated for 4 to seven days.

In seven days, the salt has made the exemplar soft yet firm without breaking down the cell-walls.

Remember, the salt will draw the moisture and some sugar out of the exemplar and will continue getting evaporated in to the atmosphere. Paraat gives you water-proof vessel with a large surface area.

Salt curing in oven

Mix exemplar and salt in a glass baking pans and cover with muslin cloth. Repeat the following steps every day for 4 to seven days

1. Remove the cheese cloth from the baking pan. Stir the pickle

2. Preheat oven to lowest setting about 200º F for about 25 minutes.

3. Place the baking pans in the oven for 45 minutes. Keep the door ajar about 2 to 3 inches.

4. Shut off oven. After one hour remove the pan. Cover the baking pan with cheese cloth

5. Place the baking pans on the top shelf of your kitchen cupboard.

6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 for four to seven days.

Aging

The cured pickle is preferably transferred into wide-mouth glass jars. Cheese cloth is tied to the wide-mouth. Every morning, the pickle is stirred and the Jars with thin muslin cloths are set out in the hot sun. In the evening, the jars are brought back inside the house. Normally, the pickles are aged for 3 weeks after they have been cured with salt for about one week

Aging in oven

Repeat the following steps every day for 3 weeks

1. Remove the cheese cloth. Stir the pickle.

2. Preheat oven to lowest setting about 200º F for about 25 minutes

3. Place the jar in the oven for 45 minutes. Keep the door ajar about 2 to 3 inches.

4. Shut off oven. Wait one hour. Remove the jar. Secure the cheese cloth to the wide-mouth.

5. Place the Jar on the top shelf of your kitchen cupboard.

6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 for four to three weeks