My latest column for the Charleston Gazette-Mail:

Pickling is a favorite mountain culinary tradition because it seals up those bright flavors of summer to be enjoyed as sour snacks months later in the dead of winter.

Pickling is a method of preservation that works by anaerobic fermentation or immersion in vinegar. And everything from vegetables and fruits to meats and fish can be pickled.

Like many Appalachian foodways, pickling may have started as a means to survival, but it expanded beyond a necessity to a preference and has helped define the cuisine in many ways, along with drying, canning, curing and fermenting.

You may have enjoyed pickled cucumbers, pickled eggs, pickled beets, pickled okra, pickled cabbage, pickled green tomatoes or even pickled pigs feet.

There’s chow chow, which is a pickled relish. And then there are dilly beans. Dilly beans are pickled green beans. Why they’re not just called pickled green beans, I have no idea. But green beans in general have always been part of a mountain meal — whether they’re fresh from growing as part of the three sisters method or dried and strung on a thread as “leather britches” or “shuck beans.”

Dilly beans — and pickles in general — add a punch of sweet, hot, spicy or dill flavor to meals that may otherwise be one note. According to Mark Sohn in “Appalachian Home Cooking: History, Culture and Recipes,” pickling continues to be popular today because it adds intriguing flavors and textures to meals.

Pickling spice tends to be a favorite ingredient in the vinegar mixture, but so are allspice, bay leaves, cardamom, ginger, mustard seeds and peppercorns. But you can choose a number of different seasonings to flavor pickles to your personal preference. While pickling may have initially started as a means of survival to preserve food during harsh Appalachian winters, it has continued on due to its ease and ability to spice up dishes.

It has even become a hallmark of Appalachian cuisine, with pickled vegetables adorning appetizer trays and heavy meals for flavor. What is your favorite pickled food?