Why are pickles called pickles?!
Answers: pickled pigs feet are called just that, along with other assortments of pickled things. But why is it that the pickled cucumber is the chosen one to be known as "THE PICKLE"? What makes it a "pickle"?
Good question!
What makes it a pickle is that it has been marinated in brine.
The middle Dutch word "pekel" meant brine. (However, there was already a Middle English word "pikel" for "a spicy sauce or gravy served with meat or fowl" as early as 1400. )
The term "pickle" in reference to a pickled cucumber began to enter our language in the 18th century. Why the cucumber in brine won the right to be known as a "pickle" over other veggies or foods may have been due to its common and frequent use. I'm guessing that it was an easily grown and cheap item. Even poor city people would buy them for a treat.
http://www.nyfoodmuseum.org/_pkwhat.htm
"While today we use 'pickle' primarily to mean a pickled cucumber, strictly speaking a 'pickle' can be anything preserved in brine, from other vegetables to (yuck) such meat delicacies as pig's feet. More importantly, 'pickle' (from the old Dutch word 'pekel,' meaning 'brine') originally referred to the brine or vinegar 'pickling' solution itself, and 'to be in a pickle' metaphorically conjured up the image of finding oneself submerged in such a stinging, sour bath."
http://www.word-detective.com/021402.htm...
Because they are put through a pickling process =)
The process in which items undergo using vinegar is called pickling. Technically it should be called a pickled Cucumber, but they just leave off the cucumber part. Lazy Americans.
A pickled cucumber, most often simply called a pickle in the United States and Canada, is a cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or other solution.
Because the inventor of pickles decided to name them pickles.
To pickle anything, is to use an acid or other chemical solution to flavour, preserve, to remove scale or other adhering substances, to clean or bleach.
because thats how i wanted it
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