Pickles

In the Lady’s Annual Register (Boston 1837) there is a recipe for “Yellow Pickle, or Axe-jar.”8 It is one of the root recipes from which several later American pickles derive, among them corn relish and chow-chow. The etymological clue lies in the term Axe-jar, which points in the direction of India as the ultimate origin for this dish, since capsicum peppers are called ahcar there.

In the manuscript cookbook of Sarah S. Wagonhorst, wife of Kutztown printer Isaac F. Christ (1840—1904), there is an 1870s recipe for Kutztown Jar-Jar that exhibits two important Pennsylvania Dutch features: its mild sweet-sour flavor and its reliance on green fennel seeds to create a contrasting taste.