In praise of the pickle

Have you taken the pickle pill? Pickles and the liquid in which they often come are proliferating across western cuisine. They have been praised for their health qualities, with gut-pleasing, sodium-rich pickle juice becoming a post-workout favourite in Britain and America. It’s even being incorporated into cocktails and beer. ‘Putting a pickle in cheap beer makes it taste better’ claims one food website in what may or may not be a prank on its readership.

A fad? To some extent, I’m sure. But in Poland, where I live, the qualities of pickles will come as no surprise. They could hardly come into fashion in a country where they’ve never been out of style. Poles, like other Slavs, have a deep cultural relationship with pickling. Once, you had to pickle food if you didn’t want to be malnourished in the winter.