Make or Buy? Pickles

Let's talk pickles. They seem to be all the DIY rage these days, and there's no denying the awesomeness of a homemade batch of pickled radishes infused with garden-fresh tarragon and black peppercorns. But I'm more curious about the kind of thin-cut, classic, bread-and-butter pickles that I like on my burgers. How do those kinds of pickles stack up?

For this match-up, let's compare Vlasic Bread and Butter Pickle Chips and our recipe for Refrigerator Pickles. All costs were taken from Peapod Online Grocery unless otherwise noted.

• Aunt Lorraine's Refrigerator Pickles
• Vlasic Bread and Butter Pickle Chips from Peapod Online Grocery

COST BREAKDOWN

• Vlasic Bread and Butter Pickle Chips
TOTAL: $2.79
PER 1-OUNCE SERVING: $0.12

• Refrigerator Pickles
Makes 2 quarts

8 c sliced cucumbers (estimating 8 pickling cucumbers total): $2.64
1 c thinly sliced celery (estimating using 2 stalks and 8 stalks/bunch): $.50
1 large onion: $0.89
1 T salt: $0.01
2 c sugar: $0.50
1 c white wine vinegar: $1.50
1 T celery seed (price taken from Penzeys): $0.60
1 T mustard seed (price taken from Penzeys): $0.62

TOTAL: $7.26
PER 1-OUNCE SERVING: $0.11

TIME BREAKDOWN:

• Vlasic Bread and Butter Pickle Chips: 0 Minutes

• Refrigerator Pickles: Active Time (chopping veggies and making the pickling liquid) - about 15 minutes, Total Time (letting the veggies sit, cooling the liquid) - 1 hour, 15 minutes.

CONVENIENCE

Without the whole canning process, these refrigerator pickles are remarkably easy. Chopping all the cucumbers is really the hardest part, though a mandoline would make that a snap and allow you to make super-thin pickles besides.

A batch of pickles will also keep refrigerated for up to two months according to the recipe. This takes care of my fear that the pickles would go bad before eating the whole batch. From a time and effort point of view, these pickles seem well worth it.

TASTINESS AND HEALTHFULNESS

Store-bought pickles just seem to have an ineffable "pickleness" that can be hard to capture when making them at home. It's the taste of childhood, really. And like Kraft Mac n' Cheese and Nestle Quik chocolate milk, that taste-memory is going to be difficult to topple.

That said, homemade refrigerator pickles like these are astoundingly good. They have a freshness and snap that the store-bough variety don't. Let's face it: it's super fun to play around with adding different herbs, using various vinegars, and throwing in whatever veggies are in the crisper drawer. I know that gets us away from our bread-and-butter pickle purity, but...that's also part of the point of making pickles yourself.

I should also add that Vlasic pickles contain high fructose corn syrup, as do Claussen and probably most other major brands. If corn syrup is something you prefer to avoid (which it really seems like we should), here's your number one argument for making pickles yourself.

MAKE OR BUY?

I was on the fence about this one until I saw corn syrup on the ingredient list. That really turned me off to my favorite intensely-pickley Vlasics. Dang. Personally, unless I can find a store-bought brand that is both affordable and contains your standard pickling ingredients, I'm going to switch over to making my own.

VERDICT: It's a tough call, but I think we should give homemade a chance.

Do you make your own pickles? How do you think they compare to store-bought for those of us having trouble letting go?

(Images: Peapod and Dana Velden)

Comments (21)

My grandmother used to make large batches of homemade bread and butter pickles from cucumbers grown in her garden, can them, and give them out to the family. No storebought ones could ever compare!

Though the rigors of canning are beyond me (or rather, my kitchen's available storage space for extra equipment), I think I should find her recipe and make a smaller batch, refrigerator version!

Pickles are one of those things (like Mac and Cheese) where I feel like the store-bought and homemade are almost different things. The homemade being more subtle and having more complex flavor and the store-bought having a particularly delicious, crave-able kind of fakeness.

@Kat88 - Well said! I totally agree with you.

My mom made pickles every year - a LOT of them. We'd always have a pickle jar in the fridge, and fish out a big one for a snack. I'll have to invite her over sometime so she can show me how to make them again.

There are two kinds of pickles in the grocery store: the shelf-stable ones like Vlasic, and the refrigerated ones like Claussen. The refrigerated ones are hands-down better! Way crunchier. That said, I'm still very happy whenever my friends bring homemade pickles to a BBQ.

Our CSA has a surplus of cucumbers every year, so we've been making pickles for a while. We've had a hard time getting them crispy (and don't really have enough time to invest for the way to make them with ice) but we love the pickles we make! And it is way more fun to play around with herbs and spices and see how each batch turns out. And it really doesn't take long to make!

I love pickles (except for bread and butter/sweet ones, go figure)! I've always bought them from the store because it's easy and, as mentioned, nostalgic. The closest I've come to "homemade" pickles is putting other veggies in the leftover Vlassic brine to make Zesty Dill Whatevers. But, I've always been intrigued by these artisinal pickle makers and the flavors they produce. i think this article may have pushed me over the edge and into making my own pickles. Zesty, of course, not that sweet stuff.

I just finished pickling about 20 lbs of cucumbers. I got 20 jars of dill pickles and 11 jars of bread and butter pickles. Homemade all the way for me.

Cutting off the blossom end of the cuc and/or adding a grape leaf will help with crispness.

I grew up with mostly homemade pickles and have dearly missed them. We just canned a few batches and they turned out wonderful, however we don't have a garden space and it was quite pricey.

Yes, Kat88! Both are necessary. As far as I am concerned, you can never have too many pickles.

Depends on where you are getting your pickles. Typical store bought pickles, no thanks. However, living in Philly I'm in love with Zayda's Hot pickles. Which reminds me, I need to restock on them. They are the best!

Homemade all the way! I make kosher style refrigerator pickles with cucumbers, but branch out to squash and jalapenos for bread and butter pickles. I have to beat friends back from my pantry when they visit!

I make them, (I have a bounty of cucumbers this year), and occasionally buy a local brand in the off season or as a treat.

Homemade always. I make a Russian sweet and sour dill. Sometimes I put in garlic and a bit of hot pepper. Sometimes I just put in garlic. They also have onion and bay leaves in them. They are slightly crispy and totally wonderful. I wouldn't trade them for the store ones ever.

I agree with Kat88- two different things!

If I had to pick though, I'd probably end up going with store bought; a jar of pickles lasts about a year in our apartment, something that homemade simply can't do.

We had a deli that we got pickles from (the Kosher nosh) and nothing can compare to their half-sours. And my (Jewish) grandmother always made Japanese pickled cucumbers for us, I have no idea where she got that recipe from as I'm quite sure there are no Japanese family members :)

Make! We are rounding the end of the supply we made last September... good thing they are on the docket to be made again in a couple of weeks.

This post misses some very important points.

I can't double check it because the Vlassic website doesn't list ingredients, but I believe they have food colouring. The processing makes them grey. Blech.

If you pickle in brine as opposed to vinegar, the pickles are probiotic. They are very beneficial for your gut flora, and most of us could use the help.

I wrote more about that here http://ruthsrealfood.blogspot.com/search/label/fermented%20foods

And the homemade ones are soooo good. Going to make a new batch today!

I agree with Kat88 also, but I have to add... that if I had to ONLY have one kind or the other, for the rest of my life, Vlasic would lose. No question.

i have a 'quick pickles' cookbook, which has made it fun and easy to try different spices and vinegars, and different vegetables. pickled beets with a spicy kick from horseradish became a gift for friends when i had a glut from my csa.

Your costs per ounce for homemade pickles is of course lower if you either grow your own cucumbers or know someone whose garden has produced more than they can use. I enjoy making my own pickles. I've made both the refrigerator variety (for nearly immediate use) and also canned pickles to enjoy during the winter. Always vinegar pickles though, I've not had much luck in my attempts to make brined pickles, something always ends up not going quite right (same with my attempts at homemade sauerkraut)