A Pickled Obsession that Infests Me Right Now: Ginger & Garlic

Pickling: Ways to Up Daily Ginger, Garlic Intake

It has been a slow recovery from my bout of jaundice and among the few lifestyle changes and dietary adjustments that I had to make, I took upon another innocently addictive exploration – pickling using vinegar. I have to ramp-up basic detox agents like ginger and garlic apart from herbs that help the liver to leach away the abundance of contaminants in the blood. My wife not being a very garlic-ky person made it clear that having a persistent Sulfur breath was akin to killing our couple time. Now, I had to find a way of consuming more of garlic without the breath and without the torture of consuming it in a raw, highly potent form. 

The next big idea was consuming cloves of garlic along with food rather than eating it with honey and lemon – no major success here either as the flavor would last for a long time in the mouth and it was messy keeping garlic as a side-dish. This is when I saw some pickling food item on Amazon and decided to pickle-up things. While ginger consumption was easier to manage with lots of ginger being put into tea concoctions, ginger was the big hurdle.

This is what my current pickling exploration looks like:

• Pickling ginger and garlic together is not a good idea – the high Sulfur content of garlic turns the damn thing turn pale yellow. Now remember, Jaundice is a disease that creates a yellowish skin texture and therefore, at that time, just having recovered from the liver impairment, this was not the type of visual that infused a smile on my face. The pale hues spread quick, leaving the pickled contents look miserable
• Using lemon juice for ginger is better – I started a batch of ginger and lemon juice early this week and within two days, the content was ready for consumption. The aesthetics are much better with the juice turning a dull shade of pink and ginger strands turning a darker shade of maroon. The taste was much better as compared to pickling ginger with synthetic vinegar which made the ginger too sour-like and a bit overpowering
• Small batches work best – don't make huge batches that need to be refrigerated in bulk. The problem likes with the artificial cooling that does something to the taste. There is no freezing and thawing option here. Once you have a jar on the dining table, consume it quickly. Summers are going to be crueler on the pickled contents and I will be ensuring that the fridge to table transit time and the window for consumption is even shorter
• Have more garlic in the morning, none at bedtime – consuming garlic early in the morning is more useful in keeping away the bloating and acidity to some extent. It also means that by the time you reach the workplace, the breath issues have been somewhat mitigated and you have time to use a mouth-freshener. Don't use it at supper time as garlic breath will dampen any nighttime exploration enthusiasm with your partner

Updated on Jan 31st, 2018: Restarting After Pausing, Not Stopping!

The pickling enthusiasm has slowed down a bit. The reasons are very different for the garlic and ginger pickle respectively. Ginger-in-lemon pickle did not last as I had expected, i.e. out of the refrigerator. I will be preparing a new batch soon. Want to get the volume up before summers coming knocking and knock down my door of patience. Garlic-in-vinegar was stopped a few days back as I did not get the time to create the new package. Instead, I chose to feast on raw garlic, once with honey, and the results were good but frankly, it tasted horrible. February 2018 should be the period for maximizing the volumes…will also be trying a small batch of vinegar-ripened onions and spring onions too.

Pausing Garlic – May 9, 2018: It is the peak of summer season, and we have stopped the regular garlic intake. A seriously hot herb, it does make a difference if I consume it in large numbers, every day. The self-pickled variety has given way to buying a simple preparation, i.e. basic garlic pickle without being too sour or saucy. This is just to ensure that some amount makes way to my digestive tract. More necessary these days since I have started some form of regular workout and egg consumption will get dense. Garlic keeps away the eggy burps and that feeling of fullness if I overeat immediately after a short but intense workout bout.