Making pickles is very easy. For the most basic pickle, all you need is vinegar and sugar. These two ingredients preserve foods, and at the same time add their sour and sweet flavors. Acid, sugar, and salt all prevent bacteria from growing; this is why these three ingredients are often used in pickling solutions.

From the basic pickle, you can move on by changing the ratio of vinegar to sugar to water, for sweeter or more acidic pickles, or by adding aromatics to the pickle liquid: star anise, cardamom pods, mustard seeds, peppercorns, fennel seeds, etc.

Pickles are made all over the world, but in each country different ratios are used for different tastes. The first pickles I learned to make were Swedish pickles, when I was working at the Swedish restaurant Aquavit. Traditionally, pickling was very important in Sweden, as the Scandinavian country has a very short growing season, and pickling was the only way to ensure a year-round supply of many vegetables. Swedish pickles are on the sweeter end of the spectrum, as more sugar and less vinegar is used in the liquid. The traditional Swedish ratio for pickling is 1:2:3 – 1 part vinegar to 2 parts sugar to 3 parts water. So, to make a quart and a half of Swedish pickling liquid, you would use 1 cup vinegar, 2 cups sugar, and 3 cups water.

Italians love pickles too, but in Italy the pickle is more vinegary, and less sweet, than in Sweden. The Italians love the sweet-sour, agro dolce taste, so they use a lot more vinegar and a lot less sugar, proportionally. A common ratio for Italian pickles is around 1 part sugar, 2 parts vinegar, and 4 parts water. So whereas the Swedes would use one third the total volume of sugar, the Italians would only use one seventh. They would use half as much vinegar as water, while the Swedes would use only one third as much.

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