Tickle Your Taste Buds: Top 9 Fun Facts About Pickles You Never Knew!

1. Ancient Pickle Preservers

Before Clueless, pickles were "the ancient Cher Horowitz": they were preserving youth and freshness way back in 2,000 BCE! Well, not youth and freshness per se, but pickling has been used to preserve a variety of foods since that time: fermenting them with beneficial bacteria for flavor and submerging them in an acidic brine solution to keep 'em safe from spoilage, like cucumbers, eggs, and even beets!
Source => delightedcooking.com

2. Appert's Canning Victory

In a pickle-tastic turn of events, it seems Napoleon was not the pickle aficionado we all thought he was: In fact, Nicolas Appert, the creator of modern food preservation methods, winningly canned various foods using glass jars reinforced with wire and sealed with wax, and not just pickles! This boil-and-seal technique nabbed him a sweet 12,000-franc prize from the French government and paved the way for the first modern food preservation cookbook.
Source => thevintagenews.com

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=> Fun Facts about Cucumbers

3. Fijian Pickle Pits of Love

In a pickle of love and longing, Fijian men have found a way to relish their chances with potential partners: they woo their sweethearts by showcasing their impressive pickle pits, ancient food preservation holes lined with banana leaves, proving their ability to provide sustenance during storms and hunker down in good taste.
Source => thetravelbugbite.com

4. Columbus' Scurvy-Preventing Pickles

As the captain of the S.S. Pickle sailed the briny deep, slices of this brined wonder became the ultimate in salty snacks aboard the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María: In 1492, Christopher Columbus rationed pickles to his sailors during their historic voyage as a scurvy-preventing measure, although there's no concrete evidence of entire barrels being filled with these green delights for snacking purposes.
Source => cnn.com

5. Pickle Juice Workout Savior

In a pickle during your workout? Fear not, for the juice of the modest cucumber can come to your rescue: Drinking an ounce or two of pickle juice before exercising helps prevent muscle cramps, thanks to its high sodium and potassium content which replenishes the lost electrolytes faster than water, but beware – moderation is key, or you'll end up in a briny situation.
Source => blog.ochsner.org

6. Texas' Pickle-Movie Tradition

Well, butter my popcorn and call me a pickle lover: Texans have been enjoying pickles as a movie theater snack for decades, traditionally served from a large glass jar with tongs by the staff, although individual bags are more common today. Surprisingly, this tangy treat has yet to catch on in the rest of the country, leaving Texans in a bit of a pickle-shaped bubble.
Source => southernliving.com

7. Famous Pickle Fanatics

From Aristotle's brine-soaked brain to Napoleon's pickled platoon and Canada's cuke conquest: Pickles have been esteemed by several famous figures in history for their healing powers! In fact, according to the New York Food Museum, even Columbus contributed to the pickle pandemonium by bringing them to America, while Canada's love affair with the briny treat can be traced back to 1535.
Source => bicycling.com

8. Shakespeare's Pickle-Inspired Slang

In a twist of Shakespearean proportions, our dear Bard might have found himself "in a pickle" after a wild night of Elizabethan bacchanalia: The term "in a pickle" from The Tempest actually referred to being drunk and was a popular slang phrase in those times, revealing no particular affection for the briny treat itself.
Source => writerswrite.co.za

9. Renewable Energy from Pickle Brine

In a pickle about the future of renewable energy? Fear not, for briny breakthroughs are here to save the day: Scientists from NC State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are developing a process called reverse electrodialysis that releases salinity gradient energy from the brine of pickle-making, capable of generating up to three terawatts of electricity - nearly half the world's electric power.
Source => northcarolina.edu