Pickles Can Make Your Food So Much Exciting!

When you visit one of the leading online grocery shops, one of the first things to strike you is the amazing variety of food stuff that is available. A typical online grocery store is more than likely to offer diverse products that encompass beverages and branded foods, bread and dairy products as well as fruits and vegetables besides grocery and staples. Besides these, there are imported and gourmet items and products that your baby needs. The branded foods category is stacked with a fabulous range of products. These include baking and dessert, biscuits, breakfast cereals, canned foods, chocolates and sweets as well as Indian sweets, Jams and spreads and Noodles, Namkeen and other snacks.

One of the most delicious products available in this section is that of pickles, a type of food that the average Indian cannot do without.

Many Benefits of Pickles

When you go online food shopping you will find a range of pickles. These include Mother’s Recipe Mango Pickle and Tops Pickle in lime, mango, green chilli, mixed pickle and pickle mixed in a large 1 kg bottle. Pickles are actually beneficial to one’s health if consumed in moderation. These advantages include a substantial supply of different vitamins and minerals as well as antioxidants. Pickles help contribute to diabetes control and improve one’s digestion. They protect the liver and have the ability to heal certain forms of ulcers. Pickling is actually one of the earliest forms of food preservation.

Before the arrival of refrigeration, pickling was the sole method to preserve different foods for consumption at a later date. This gave rise to pickling of foods that were either seasonal or exotic and therefore limited by cultivation and nature. The pickling process will probably be traced back to India and it is likely that the process probably started around 5000 years ago. India is well known for its hot summers when there is generally a shortage of water and the production of food also decreases. The excess food produced during the winter is therefore preserved by pickling so that it could be consumed during the summer that followed. It is the traditional way of pickling that has hardly changed over the years. This consists of using ingredients that include salt and oil besides dry chilli powder and various condiments. The proportion of the additives is kept such that the real taste of the food being preserved comes through.

Indian Pickles: Variety is Thy Name

There are pickles made by different parts of the world. One will therefore come across Korean pickle and Chinese pickle. There is Japanese and Western pickle as well besides of course Indian pickles. In our country fruits such as the ubiquitous mango and tamarinds, the Indian gooseberry and lemons are traditionally used for pickling. There are several vegetables too that are pickled. Some of these include the gherkin and the bitter gourd besides cauliflower, carrots, ginger, garlic, jackfruit and onion.

But like everything good, consumption of pickles also calls for caution to be observed.

Occasionally two or more vegetables are mixed and a pickle made of the mix. Pickles are also made of unripe fruits as well as chicken and fish besides prawns and mutton. Instant or fresh pickles known as chutneys are also prepared in India and these last for only a few days and are rarely bottled. These chutneys mimic the sauces and ketchups produced in the west.

Care has to be exercised while one eats pickles since these invariably contain a high proportion of salt. These are also made in a fair amount of oil. Both oil and salt are used to ensure proper preservation. However, these ingredients are both harmful if consumed in large amounts. One must therefore consume pickles in moderate amount.

No Indian can stay away from pickles. Fortunately, today’s leading online grocery shops stock some of the best pickles.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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