Pickling

Using some sort of liquid or brine—typically a combination of salt, acid, and seasoning—is common to all pickling. It is an old technique for preserving food—older than freezing. Pickling may have begun when people discovered that spice added to salt and vinegar or citrus juice was highly flavorful and could mask the taste of foods too bland or rotten to eat otherwise.

Pickling is a preservation process that occurs when fresh raw food is introduced into a moderately acidic liquid or brine that denatures fresh foods to the extent that they are no longer raw though not necessarily cooked, thereby temporarily halting spoilage. The acidity in vinegars and citrus juices, or that produced naturally by fermentation, is what “pickles” a food.