In our weekly newsletter, we wrote up Tim's attempts to make a "cryo" pickle work—vegetables soaked in a frozen ice brine.
Here's the write up, in case you missed it. If you give the technique a try, we'd love to hear what you think of it!
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The idea was to leverage two techniques simultaneously: the freeze-thaw process and cold pickling in an acidic brine. Why? Well, because it sounded cool in a pitch meeting!
But ideas often sound better on paper.
I started by making pickle brine “slush,” a combination of vinegar, salt, sugar, and spices. I then buried various vegetables in the slush, and either froze the tray or left it in the refrigerator overnight. (I was originally banking on freezing point depression to do its thing and sinking the veg in the slush and setting them in the refrigerator overnight would suffice, but it worked better in the freezer.)
I then thawed the vegetables and compared them to refrigerator pickles (same brine, just poured over and refrigerated). The freeze-thaw process is intended to expel moisture from the vegetable, effectively “blanching” the flesh without heat. Because this happens under cold temperatures, their vibrant color is preserved.
Surprisingly, the differences were stark! The standard refrigerator pickles had a more raw, uncooked quality and texture to them, which was more apparent in hardier vegetables like carrots, cauliflower, and green beans. Meanwhile, the “cryo” pickles had a distinctly more “cooked” texture, with a more tender-crisp crunch; the brine also appeared to penetrate the frozen vegetables more deeply. And we preferred the frozen ones in all cases except high-moisture vegetables, like cucumbers and daikon, which the freezing made floppy, not crisp. The freeze-thaw process seemed to rupture too many of these vegetables' cells, disrupting their structure and turgor.
And that’s where the idea ran into the ground. Because the use case for “cryo” pickling was limited to hardier, lower-moisture vegetables, we had a hard time coming up with fully formed ideas utilizing the technique. “Cryo giardiniera” and “cryo escabeche” were the only options that came to mind. But we couldn’t say this technique was universally applicable, and if you can’t cryo-pickle a cucumber, the most iconic pickled vegetable of them all, is the technique even worth publishing?
In the end, we decided to cut development on this project. Not because it wasn’t promising, but because it didn’t have broad appeal and a clear hook. You see, culinary development is just one part of the process toward publication. The recipe needs to be written, vetted, edited, shot and put through post-production; graphics need to be designed, and someone has to build the page and hit publish. All of these steps involve multiple staff members with different specializations.
So while an idea could be cool, it has to be fully formed and worth the time and money we spend on bringing the idea to the site. But that doesn’t mean we need to disappear the technique (or all the work I did freezing and thawing pickles).
If you want to give this technique a try, here is a rough recipe and guide:
For the brine:
10 g Black peppercorns
5 g Coriander
5 g Bay leaf
3 g Red chile flakes
500 g Water
500 g Vinegar, white distilled or apple cider vinegar
300 g Granulated sugar
100 g Kosher salt
1. In a 3-quart saucepan, toast spices over low heat until fragrant, about 1 minute.
2. Add water, vinegar, sugar, and salt, and stir until dissolved.
3. Transfer brine to a shallow heatproof container and let cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.
4. Freeze brine until mostly solid (it will never fully freeze), about 2 hours. Using a fork, scrape brine until it turns into slush.
5. Submerge cut vegetables in slush and return container to freezer. Freeze until vegetables are frozen solid, at least 12 hours. (Alternatively, pour room-temperature brine over vegetables and freeze container for at least 12 hours).
6. Remove container from freezer. Let brine thaw at room temperature until vegetables are no longer frozen, about 2 hours. Serve.
This technique works best for:
Hardy brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi).
Hardy root vegetables (carrots, beets).
Garlic.
Woody green beans.
