Barrel-Style Dill Pickles

The pickled cucumber is a recurrent character in the cast of Russian foods. These sour pickles are so widespread that Chichikov in Nikolai Gogol’s novel Dead Souls is only mildly surprised to find his hostess’ hand reeking of pickle brine when she proffers it to him in greeting. Actually, the brine is put to as good a use as the pickles: for some, it’s a sure cure for hangovers; for others, it has a cosmetic effect. I once asked my grandmother, then seventy-two years old, how she kept her s