I love pickled cucumbers: I’m a little ashamed that, like Snooki, I’ll often stand my tiny self (only part Guidette, sadly) in front of the fridge and just eat pickles out of the jar. Thankfully, I’m a little less orange and a little less be-pouffed. And I’m a little more adventurous: I just branched out from classic pickled cucumbers to try pickled grapes.
Don’t they look like something from a curio cabinet? I love it. There are tons and tons of canning recipes I want try from my collection – this one, for “Amelia’s Pickled Grapes” from The Best of Shaker Cooking happened to catch my eye this week. Amelia, by the way, was apparently from North Union Shaker Village in Ohio. Here’s her recipe:
Amelia’s Pickled Grapes (Makes 6-8 pints)
16 c. stemmed half-ripe grapes
8 c. brown sugar
2 q. wine vinegar
1/2 c. each cloves, whole allspice, and cinnamon stick pieces
Sterilize the jars by boiling them for 5 minutes. While boiling, make a syrup of the sugar, vinegar, and spices. Place the grapes inside the jars, pour the syrup over, and seal by immersing in boiling water for 20 minutes. See this post for more detailed discussion of canning and sealing jars.
In making this, I used ripe but crisp grapes. I also wound up with red wine vinegar, since the store didn’t have white today…check back next week to see how this all turns out!
Update: Check out the delicious results of the grape pickling here!
This is so unique and interesting! I know I would be eating those out of the jar too. What types of dishes or recipes would you pair those grapes with??
Oh I want this! I LOVE pickles and all things pickled!
@Jessica – Well, Amelia recommends pairing them with ham, and that sure sounds tasty…we’ll see when I unpack them…
You are a kindred spirit with my daughter. That kid will eat pickles until she falls asleep doing so. I canned a bunch this summer and every last one was gone by October. I love what you’ve done with these, I look forward to making them. Does it matter if they are green or red grapes? Good call on the red vinegar, I prefer the flavour of it over the white vinegar.
Pickled grapes what a lovely idea! Very nice!
This is very interesting .. nice idea indeed ! 🙂
LOL @ be-pouffed! I’m also glad that you aren’t as orange. 😉
Love the idea of pickling grapes … I have a grape vine in the backyard and we use most of it for homemade wine … but I’ll keep this in mind for next fall!
This definitely intrigues me! Will have to try it soon!
I can’t wait to see how these turned out… You have me very intrigued!
Wow I love to can, but would’ve never thought of canning grapes… great idea!
This sounds super interesting! I want to try it!!!!!
Super cool! I can’t wait to see how they turn out. I wonder if these could be pickled via lacto fermentation.
It sounds really interested 🙂 And how to use them, with what would they taste best?
How cool! There’s a recipe for pickled champagne grapes in Ad Hoc at Home that I’ve been eyeing but never got around to making. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Sorry for all the questions, but these look fascinating.
1. Where does a person find half ripe grapes? Do you need to purchase them direct from the farm?
2. What type of grapes? Does it matter?
3. Wine vinegar? Looks like you used red?
4. 1 1/2 cups of spices? That seems like a lot?
@Nicole – No worries about the questions…here are my attempts at answers:
1. I couldn’t find half-ripe grapes either, but crisp fresh ones do just as well!
2. I used red grapes because they’re generally a little crisper and less sweet than the green ones.
3. Most recipes call for white wine vinegar. I’m using red – I think it’ll turn out nicely, since it’s balanced by brown sugar and…
4. Lots of spices! 1 1/2 cups spices isn’t a ton for 6-8 pints: you’re using whole spices, so it takes a lot more to get the flavor into your vinegar syrup. I made a quarter recipe, and that wound up being about 1/3 c. spices to a quart of grapes – totally reasonable!
This just looks like fun. I can’t wait to see how they turn out. 🙂
How neat! I love this idea, I really love to can!
Very cool! Pickled grapes sound very interesting. Can’t wait to see how they come out!
I’m glad I read through all the comments before leaving one because I was wondering what to do with these other than eat them out of the jar (which is what I’d do anyhow). Using them with ham sounds amazing. What a clever idea. I can’t wait to see the results.
Wow, this is new! My mom loves pickles and now this recipe will totally blow her mind! Thanks for posting! 😀