Not all pickles are sweet and innocent. These pickles are wicked. Sweet, sour and HOT pickles you can make in minutes.
The odd time people send me things. Sometimes the things people send me are odd. When I was on television a woman used to send me feathers that fell out of her parrot. I'm not sure if it was because she thought I was a parrot lover, or a parrot hater, or that I needed a little ornamentation myself.
Last summer reader Milton sent me a package of goods native to his hometown in Mississippi, which as any Canadian will tell you, seems as foreign and magical a place as Mars.
In that package that contained everything from olive oil to ridiculously delicious desserts, there was a jar of Wickles. Wickedly delicous pickles. Also hot. Wickedly, deliciously hot, pickles. They're sweet pickles, like a bread and butter pickle, that are also, just for fun, blindingly hot.
You can't get Wickles in Canada. At all. Anywhere. I know this because I've searched. You can get ones that are similar, but they aren't quite sweet enough, or the pickles are a bit mushy or they're just plain wrong for whatever reason. They're je ne sais blah.
So I took it upon myself to figure out how to make Wickles. Luckily for me (and you) it's easy.
You can either make them from scratch using my Bread & Butter pickles recipe, or you can just use this little trick with a jar of store bought sweet pickles.
Ready for your list of incredibly detailed instructions? Do you have a pen? A piece of paper? Maybe an abacus? Here we go.
To turn sweet pickles into hot and sweet pickles:
Add a dried hot pepper to the jar.
Seriously. That's it. They're not just Wickles, they're Quickles.
Just take a dried hot pepper (you can find these in the grocery store), split it in half and add both halves to the jar of pickles. Shove it in there. Seeds and all.
DIY WICKLES
I like 2 hot peppers, split in half, in 500 ml jar of pickles. That's a pint for you non ml folks. They're just hot enough to make me cry out in pain a little bit but not so hot that I can stop myself from eating them.
But one full hot pepper might be TOO hot for you. Or it might not be hot enough. Or, it might be baby bear's bed and you'll think it's just right. You just have to play around and see what you like best.
I'd say start with 1 hot pepper sliced in half in the jar and go from there.
These pickles need to steep for around 2 weeks for the heat to infuse them so if you want to serve them for Christmas for instance, you should think about making them now. And by "making them" I mean you need to start thinking about sticking a pepper in a jar. Yeah. Oops, there is the incredibly difficult and important step of cutting the pepper in half as well.
And I encourage you to serve these for any family get together. I also encourage you not to warn people that these are hot pickles because it's more fun that way. And therefore, now that I've given it more thought, I encourage you to go the three hot pepper route.
I do not encourage you to send me parrot feathers.
Eileen
Ha, I'm sending cat hair fluff balls...none of this feather nonsense. Cat hair fluff balls can keep you warm in Canadian winters, 1 square inch (oh hell, do I have to convert that to metric for you?) at a time.
BamaCarol
Oh we love our Wickles down here in Alabama. I bet this place is as strange to you as Venus if you think Mississippi is like Mars. I was born in Tennessee, raised in Mississippi and have lived in Alabama for the last 38 years. Would love to visit Canada sometime.
Ann Brookens
I really don't like spicy/hot, but all these comments are making me want to try those pickles! And I KNOW I'll regret it if I do!
ronda
i have two kids who are into hot too! AND pickles. sriracha on everthing! what a great "homemade" Christmas idea!
Ev Wilcox
I am not a pickle person nor is their father, but my adult children are, for some reason. Must be one of them there recessive genes. I would like to make up pint jars for gifts, but what pickles do I get? If anyone answers this-please be specific. Thanks!
Lez
I make these. So easy. Just make normal refrigerator pickled cucumbers (gherkins) & literally, as Karin says, just throw in one dried hot pepper. Done!
Karen
Hi Ev. You can just use any sliced sweet pickles. Or bread and butter pickles. Thin sliced would be best. Vlasic or Bicks or anything like that if you don't have access to super-fancy pickle brands (which you don't need) ~ karen!
Ev Wilcox
Thanks Karen-Vlasic I know. If the jars say"sweet pickles" or "bread and butter pickles" I'll be ok. I guess.
Karin in NC
I have tried Wickles and they're fine, but for the best sweet/hot pickles you have to try McClures. They are made in Detroit and Brooklyn (NY) and used to be available only in those two cities, but they are now sold at Cost Plus/World Market stores and online. I don't have stock in the company, by the way, just a huge fan. Anyway, after I eat all the pickles (10 minutes) I use the brine, which is PRETTY and full of garlic cloves, dill flowers and peppers, to pickle all kinds of veggies and even use it for other not so good pickles, and they are all delicious after a week or two in that brine.
Deb
We've been buying Wickles here in Alabama for years. My husband LOVES them. But now he has a second pickle addiction: Market Stand Spicy Maple Bourbon Pickles, found at the local WalMart! A couple of jars of pickles, some Pirouline cookies and a book of postage stamps (yes, he's old school, for sure!) and his Christmas stocking is filled! ? Gotta love a low-maintainace guy!
Jenifer
Omg! Market Stand Spicy Maple Bourbon Pickles sound great! I am going to search for a recipe right now...unless Karen is feeling inspired...what do you say Karen? eh? (See I've even learned how to speak Canadian from you!)
eh?
Karen
Ha! Eh, is the Canadian equivalent of the American, huh. :) I'd love to make Market Stand Spicy Maple Bourbon Pickles. But I don't know what they taste like. :/ So for now I'm just going to recommend you take a swig of maple syrup, a swig of bourbon, then eat a pickle. ~ karen!
Karen
A book of stamps, lol! That's great. :) ~ karen!
Mary W
Bet the juice would be good sprinkled over a plate of nachos that were first dripped with melted boxed cheese. I NEVER use that cheese, ever and think it is made with plastic, but this quick chipendip is just not right without it. Your Wickle Quickles will make it over the top good. Wonder if I could name them Qwickles?
Karin
My husbands coworker got him hooked on homemade hot pickled beets. The sweet is already in the beet but the guy uses ghost peppers so I won't touch 'em. I'm told they're delicious.
Sandy Z
I have a jar in my fridge right now called "Sweet Fire". They also have jalapeno pepper rings in there, and they ARE sweet fire for sure. Be v-e-r-y careful!
Marilyn
Quickles. Lol my spell check wants to make it quickies. Not quite the same thing. ..
KariMcD
I always have a jar of Wickles in the fridge.,,,dear God, they're addictive!
Karen
They really are! It's weird! Even when I'm thinking, O.K. ... this is too hot now, I've had too many ... I just keep shoving them in my mouth. ~ karen!
Nancy Blue Moon
No thank you Ma'am...I like hot but I'm not touching wicked hot...lol...
Susan
We call them fire and ice pickles in Louisiana.
Tere Crow Lindsay
I positively love Wickles. Try them on your tuna sandwich. Old tuna fish never tasted better. MMMMMM makes me want some right now, only, it's almost 2 a.m. Maybe I can have some with my oatmeal.........not. LOL! Love your quickle trick!!!! That's a good one.
Thandi Welman
And here I was, just randomly putting together a parcel of Birdbird's best moult to send to you for Christmas. Well fine. Be that way.
Karen
hahahaha! ~ k!
Melissa L.
Je ne sais blah... I'm totally stealing this. But first I'm gonna stick peppers in pickles. Well, first I'm gonna buy pickles, then put them in canning jars, then stick peppers in there... "homemade" gifts. Shh.
Karen
Thank you for noticing Melissa, I'm pretty proud of that one. ~ karen!
Maryanne
Loved the "Je ne sais blah..." Definitely give yourself a pat on the back for that clever wording! :)
Shirley
I think I can one up you on the hot department. This fall I had some spring planted garlic that didn't really clove out if you get my meaning. They just turned into large single cloves. I made a jar of refrigerator pickled garlic. There was room in the jar so I thought what the heck and threw in some sliced Shishito peppers. I put the jar n the fridge for about a month. One night after some socialization involving various liquids, we cracked open the jar! I think I can still feel the burn! Grown men with tears in their eyes. If there had been wallpaper it would have gone up in flames! Strangely no one has asked for the recipe!
Auntiepatch
Oh, Shirley, you made me spray tea all over my keyboard and squirt tea out of my nose at the same time!
That same guy.
Linda's Carolina Reapers make for a nice bump in the bread and butter pickles.
Reuse of brine for pickled eggs is heartily endorsed.
Karen
You are going to read about my exact opinion on pickled eggs in an upcoming post That Same Guy. ~ karen!
Tina
There used to be a pickle I found in Oregon called Sweet-n-Heat...I think made by Killer Dave...but he's a bread guy so maybe I'm wrong. But they were SO amazingly good I'd buy them any time they were on the shelf!
Martha
Famous Dave's...Costco has them once in a while!