In Pursuit of Pickle Perfection
As regular readers of this blog know, we at Big Duck love food. And we really love food challenges. (If you haven’t already, check out our posts from last year’s Peanut Butter Taste-off and our now-legendary Luther Burger adventures). In our most recent snacktime smackdown, we set out to celebrate that pleasantly pungent New York City classic: the pickle.
Plucked from jars and barrels across three boroughs, we assembled a plethora of pickles in hopes of finding that one special sour. Grocery store standbys and local legends were pitted against farmer’s market finds and hoity-toity gourmet brands. Duck-in-chief Sarah Durham even concocted her own herb-infused homemade slices. The only real rule was that each entry had to have begun life as a cucumber.
In a blind (and pucker-inducing) tasting, each contender was rated on looks, taste, and crunch. A vinegary tang filled the air as we made our appraisals–too sweet? Too salty? A little limp? After a good thirty minutes of munching (and not a few unprintable pickle jokes) the final scores were tallied. And the winner? Perhaps not the pickle you predicted. Although the sweet-ish zing of Divine Brine’s Devilish Dills seemed like the crowd favorite–so much that we Tweeted their triumph–when the math was done, the Paragon of Pungency, Dominator of the Dills, and Greatest of the Gherkins turned out to be from…Front Street Pizza. Yep, that’s right. According to the numbers, the no-frills lunch joint across the street is the proud purveyor of a near-perfect pickle.
The graphic below shows how our bevvy of briny competitors stacked up. And check out our photos on Facebook to see the pickle party in action. Have a favorite brand among those listed? Or one you wish we’d sampled? Maybe just a priceless pickle pun? Let us know in the comments below.
