Preparing Grape Leaf Pickles

[Michael CaricoStudent]

Hello ALL, I am looking for some guidance on preparing Grape Leaf Pickles and the health benefits. Please forgive me if this has been addressed previously!! I may have overlooked it.  Thanks!!

[Dr. Patrick JonesHomestead Instructor]

All I know is you poke grape leaves in the pickle jar. I don’t even know what the grape leaf does for the pickles…maybe makes them crispier or something?? You’ll need someone smarter than me for this one. :0)

What I do know is that if I let the nice lady down the street take grape leaves from my vines in the summer, she brings me pickles later. :0)

Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.

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Michael Carico

[Michael CaricoStudentTopic Author]

Thanks Doc!  Sounds like I need to find “a nice little lady” down the street of my own, huh?

[Victoria StephensonStudent]

In the past, I added a grape leaf to the jar when I was making pickles.  I heard it was supposed to keep them crisp longer.  I don’t know exactly how well it worked because the pickles always flew off the shelf.

[JoelleStudent]

Your pickle-making days may be over for the summer; however, we have used grape leaves in our pickles. I believe the tannins in the leaf are supposed to deactivate the enzymes in the cucumbers that continue to make them more and more mushy as they sit on the shelf. Bay leaves have similar action and make pickles taste yummy too. Also, cutting quite a thick (half inch) chunk off of the flower end of cucumber is supposed to help there be less enzymes introduced into the jar. Now, if you follow the recommended, guaranteed-safe process for canning pickles (as we do), which includes water bath canning the pickles for 20 minutes (if I remember right), then your pickles are still going to be soft. These natural approaches to keeping pickles firm haven’t made a huge difference for us when we have to boil the cucumbers for 20 minutes! I think most anything is going to be soft after that treatment. But we still found a way to use a pickles in a delicious manner. We make our own mayo and blend in our pickles. Then you still have the same pickle flavor on your sandwich and it doesn’t matter that the pickles were soft.

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