Orange Peel Pickling Spice

This pickling spice is a fun departure from the traditional, dill-heavy blend. It has all the familiar spices, but their proportions are rearranged to create a new take on the old familiar pickling spice blend. The orange peel, particularly, adds a note of citrus, a hint of bitterness, that plays nicely with the vinegar and salt of a pickled vegetable. The recipe comes to us from Preservation Pantry: Modern Canning From Root to Top & Stem to Core, by Sarah Marshall. She listed us in the Resource section! Thanks, Sarah. We like your pickle spice, and lots of other recipes in this book, as well.

If you want to get real fancy, you can make your own dried orange peel; just arrange chunks of orange peel skin side up in a dehydrator, or a 200° F oven, and dehydrate for 1-2 hours, flipping the peels over every half hour. Once the peels are dry and hard to the touch, let them cool, and use kitchen shears to snip them into 1/4” pieces. We got our peels from the bulk bins, though, since we made this blend out of orange season, and they worked real nice in this recipe.

Makes enough spice for 3 pints of pickled goodness.

Directions

Toast the mustard seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, and dill seeds in a cast iron pan or skillet over medium heat. Shake the pan every 2 minutes to keep from burning. After about 6 minutes, or when the seeds begin to pop and dance, remove from heat and place in a bowl.
Crush the cinnamon stick into small (1/4” pieces), using a pestle on a wooden cutting board. Add the cinnamon to the toasted spices.
Crumble the bay leaves into the spice mixture by hand, or snip them into strips using sharp kitchen scissors.
Mix the spices together well, and funnel it into a small (2 ounce) jar to store.
This spice blend can be used in lieu of traditional pickling spice in any recipe that calls for pickling spice.

Over to You

It’s part of our mission here at Mountain Feed to help you make delicious, sustainable, homemade food more often. Stop by and say hello on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. Or, as always, you can do it the old-fashioned way and come by the store to speak with one of our in-house experts.