Usha's Pickle Digest: The Perfect Pickle Recipe Book

This book is so amazing! 1000 pickle recipes that you definitely won't find online, perfect for people who love making pickles. There is so much variety and a wealth of information about ingredients, techniques, and other tips. The index is very well organized and it's easy to find what you're looking for. I would easily pay $100 for this book.

I first heard of Usha's Pickle Digest about a year ago. At that time, it was long out of print in India and had never been in print outside of India as far as I know. I'm fortunate to count many diaspora Indians among my friends and several of them knew this book. Finally, it's available! The printed-on-demand volume is of excellent quality, arrived quickly, and contains (as advertised) 1000 pickle recipes. One thing not usually mentioned is that the book, among its many qualities, has a superbly well-organized index. That doesn't seem like a big deal until you start looking for a particular pickle you want among 1000 pickle recipes. Then it gets to be a big deal. India's cuisines are vast, varied, and delicious and pickles run right through their hearts. This book is a road map for exploring those cuisines from one of their most essential parts.

Generally the recipes are good, and the variety of how to pickle an item so many ways is almost overwhelming. However, a couple of caveats- there are limited instructions so you have to go with your instinct. Second, the salt proportion is too high- the several pickles I make were salty in the extreme even for a pickle, and I used Kosher salt which is generally less obtrusive. Play around with the salt, knowing that it is also your preservative. Print quality for the book is lacking, but hopefully the book will stand the test of time physically.

What do you get a chef who has everything? Who is obsessed with pickling & fermentation and all its associated processes? You get him the biggest, baddest, most interested pickling book you can find. I had planned on gifting this present the moment it arrived and have yet to do so as I am fascinated by all the various recipes and ideas. Who knew so much was possible? Seriously, this is an amazing collection of recipes my mind boggles with the research and the diversity of the ideas within these pages. I might just have to keep this copy for myself and get my chef friend another one.

I ordered this wonderful book after reading about it in the New York Times. It lives up to the hype. A practical, thorough, and utilitarian book on Indian pickles, pickling techniques, and ingredients. I will only note that a digital kitchen scale is a necessary accessory because the ingredients are listed in grams. This is, of course, a positive trait of the book in terms of producing precise and constant results. We owe Ms. Prabakaran a debt of gratitude for her labor of love.I can't wait to get started!

Excellent book if the topic interests you! Amazing variety of recipes here. I suggest the actual book rather than the Kindle version due to the way it is formatted for Kindle, but of course you can download a sample and make your own decision.

Not only are there recipies for hundreds of chutnies and pickles, it's a thorough guide to the thinking behind Indian cooking.

Author covers an amazing number of pickles, chutneys and topics. Many ingredients are hard to find in the USA, or appear with unfamiliar names. The translation table, which contains various plant names and Latin names, at the back, is almost unreadable. As a Biologist, I saw one potentially fatal error, a recipe where garlic is stored under oil to preserve it. Cooked or not, this can lead to Botulism; don't do it unless you freeze it and keep it frozen. This was a common error years ago. All in all, a worthwhile book for the serious pickle geek!