fiddlehead pickles

Yield: 4 pint jars, I like the Ball wide-mouth style 

Crunchy Pickled Fiddlehead Ferns

2-2.5 lbs of the youngest (tightest fiddlehead ferns you can find)

vinegar apple

water

Tbsp salt

garlic (lightly crushed)

dill

lemon zest

water (for blanching the ferns)

Bring the 4 cups water, salt, lemon zest, garlic, and thyme to a boil, allow to sit for 5 minutes, then add the vinegar. This is your pickling liquid-reserve it until needed.

Bring the 1.5 gallons of water to a rolling boil. Add the fiddlehead ferns to the pot, then cook for exactly 1.5 minutes (90 seconds) covering the pot to increase the heat, stirring the fiddles occasionally to ensure even blanching.  Immediately remove the fiddleheads to cold water to stop their cooking.

When the fiddleheads are cool, remove them and drain very well in a colander, pressing on them lightly to remove any excess water. (You don't want them to absorb water and dilute your pickle liquid).

Let the fiddleheads come to room temp for a while, about an hour or so, to make sure they don't cool down the pickling liquid too fast.

Pack a pint jar full of fiddleheads, placing a piece of lemon zest, a clove of garlic, and a sprig of thyme in each jar (or whatever flavorings you&#39;re using). Reheat the pickle liquid to rolling boil in small pot and pour into the jars, covering all of the fiddleheads, up to the very top of the jar. Screw on the lids and and turn the jars upside down. Leave the jars to cool, for a few hours like this.

After the jars are completely cool, inspect the jars, you will find they have formed hermetic seals, just as if you were to use a water bath canner, but without the excess heat and time that would make them soft. Voila! Crisp pickled fiddleheads. Look over the jars carefully to make sure they've all formed seals. Refrigerate any that haven't sealed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0efgg-GIrk

Fiddlehead pickles can be good-I used to serve them throughout the summer on a relish tray at my first restaurant. If you don't have a walk in cooler though, you can't cold-pickle them to keep them crisp. Water bath canning, just like ramps, will make them mushy, so I use the same trick here. 

This recipe is for ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris). You can probably do it with lady ferns (Athyrium filix-femina) too, but I wouldn't do it with bracken fern. 

You can flavor your pickles any way you like. I have two different recipes I use depending on what I'll use them for: one with salt only and herbs, and a sweet and sour bread and butter version that I demo here. Both recipes are linked in the comments. 

If you're new to them, I'd try the bread and butters first. The spice blend and proportions I use here were given to me by my old sous chef who worked for an acolyte to the grand master of Southern Cooking: Chef Paul Prudhomme- one of the first and biggest celebrity chefs to come out of Louisiana.

Crisp Fiddlehead Pickles

Bread and butter style pickled fiddlehead ferns. Make 4 pints jars.

Bread and Butter Fiddlehead Pickles

cider vinegar

white sugar

2.5 lbs fiddlehead ferns (washed and cleaned to remove the brown husk)

salt

celery seed

turmeric

ginger

white peppercorns

yellow mustard seeds

onion

water (for blanching the fiddleheads)

Toast the spices, then add them and the vinegar, water, salt and sugar. Add the sliced onions and bring the mixture to a boil, then allow to cool, uncovered.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil then add the fiddleheads and blanch for 1.5 minutes. Remove the fiddleheads to a cold water bath immediately to stop cooking. Drain the fiddleheads well.

Afterwords, add the fiddleheads to the pickling liquid, weight down with a plate to keep them under the liquid and reserve until needed. The pickles will keep in the fridge until next season if they’re in a container with a tight fitting lid, always weighted down to keep them under the liquid. There should be as little air as possible too in the container, since any excess air can cause exposed fiddleheads to mold.

For long term storage, remove the onions from the cooled liquid, then mix with the fiddleheads and pack into pint canning jars ¾ full. Bring the pickling liquid back to a boil, then fill the jars up to the line on the top of each jar, seal tightly and turn upside down to cool and seal. The pickles can also be processed for 10-15 minutes in a water batch canner, but will yield a less crisp result.

Top 2 fiddlehead pickles recipes from across the web

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Crunchy Pickled Fiddlehead Ferns

Bread and Butter Fiddlehead Pickles

Top 2 fiddlehead pickles recipes from across the web

The most viewed fiddlehead pickles recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

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Crunchy Pickled Fiddlehead Ferns

Bread and Butter Fiddlehead Pickles

The most viewed fiddlehead pickles recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine