pickle # 3

Last weekend was the official opening of daylily season in Shohola, PA.  A quick trip to my favorite country road and I had enough buds for a batch of pickles.  These are headed to San Francisco,

along with pickled milkweed florets

and pickled field garlic,

for the next foraged mixology adventure.  Each pickle gets a different brine because each plant deserves a pickling liquid that highlights its unique deliciousness.  I use my mental palate to imagine what the final pickle will taste like.  (The mental palate is sort of like the mind's eye...but for your taste buds.)  For the daylily buds I combined

1 cup white wine vinegar
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbs. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. dried, wild ginger stolons (Asarum canadense)
1/2 tsp. spice bush berries (Lindera benzoin)
1/2 tsp. dried pequin chiles
1 large Pennsylvania bay leaf (Myrica pennsylvanica)

I whisked together the ingredients over high heat, brought the brine to a boil, then simmered for a few minutes.  While the brine came to a boil, I filled the canning jars with buds, then poured the hot brine over the buds and sealed them in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

The result is tangy but not so intensely vinegar-y that it obscures the flavor of the flower bud.  The brine is a little smoky, a little hot, and a lot delicious.  Can't you just picture it in a foraged Gibson?