Pickle Perfect

(Intro Music plays) Cucumber pickles are a way of life here in eastern North Carolina.

In fact, we make more pickles here than almost anywhere else in the country.

(Theme Music plays- The Avett Brothers "Will You Return") I'm Vivian and I'm a chef.

My husband, Ben and I were working for some of the best chefs in New York City when my parents offered to help us open our own restaurant.

Of course, there was a catch.

We had to open this restaurant in Eastern North Carolina, where I grew up and said I would never return.

(Theme Music plays) (Theme Music plays) So this is my life.

Raising twins, living in the house I grew up in, and exploring the south, one ingredient at a time.

Previously on A Chef's Life.

I am trying to write and deliver a cookbook.

I'm doing everything I can to write this fig chapter in a matter of three days.

A few weeks ago the Boiler Room chef quit and it still ain't that easy to find qualified kitchen staff.

I've been working in the kitchen for two weeks.

I'm so frustrated.

(Music plays) I got a number two double and a popcorn to go.

Alright, I got a number four well here and a number four med well, no ketchup, no onion, no pickle.

It's been over a month and we still have not hired a chef at the Boiler Room.

Ben is here all the time.

The children and I actually come eat at the Boiler Room on Sundays just so we can see him.

So, are you working the line?

I will.

Are you working tomorrow night here too?

Yeah.

Friday and Saturday?

Probably.

It appears that I'm the only one that is willing to put in the time to make sure everything goes okay over here.

No one is volunteering.

I volunteered.

I am going to make the pickles for over here.

We can talk about the schedule for next week.

The easiest part is expediting for two hours.

That's not really where we need the most help.

We need help prepping.

We need help with stuff that I don't have any experience with.

It is what it is.

(Music plays) You know, from day one the Boiler Room has never been my baby.

I was reluctant to do it in general.

So, it's always kind of been Ben's thing so I guess that's why he felt inclined to step in and take over.

That and I just absolutely didn't have the time.

I told Ben I would cover for him at the Boiler Room the 13th, the 14th, and the 15th.

Well either way I'll see if I can....

I'm hoping we hire this chef between now and then.

(Music plays) I'm working on a big batch of hamburger pickles for the Boiler Room so that I can participate over there in the words of my husband.

And, we're going to make egg and chicken salad to go on our bread plate.

Ummm, sounds like I got a lot to do.

(Music plays) The oldest way to make pickles was through fermentation.

So when you think about dill pickles, the pickles floating in the brine, you know at the Jewish deli that you take out with tongs, those are all fermented pickles.

In the same vein as sauerkraut or collard kraut it's something that is preserved via lacto fermentation, So, this is all kind of scientific and not my expertise.

I just know how to do it.

We're going to flavor our pickles not with dill because I think that can be kind of overwhelming.

So, we're going to use some bay leaves, chili flakes for some heat, coriander, which I like in just about everything because it adds a lot of nice lemony pop, and black peppercorns.

Now, what I'm going to start doing is adding my cucumbers in here and you just want to make sure they're really clean.

Now that this is about half way through I'm going to add another layer of coriander, red chilies, a few more bay leaves, and then I'm going to finish filling it with more cucumbers.

What I need to do at this point is cover it with a brine because if it's not salty enough the pickles will rot.

If it's too salty they will not ferment so what we're trying to create is an environment that is supportive of this controlled rotting, which is what fermentation is.

Theoretically we could buy pickles.

I mean, most places do but I think fermenting pickles or making quick pickles even, are skills that I want my staff to understand.

Alright, so what we're going to do John, to get this going is one gallon of water per like a half a cup of salt.

And we're using kosher salt.

Ideally, you don't want to use an iodized table salt because it has an anti-caking agent that will make your pickles cloudy.

We're going to fill it up and these are going to float a little bit.

We're going to need to put more of the same concentrated brine in something to weigh it down.

You want it to be the brine so if these were to break or getting tipped over, it wouldn't change what we've got going on inside.

I think we're at capacity.

I think we are.

There we go.

Cool.

Seven days later we'll check it.

Pickle culture here is huge.

Every grandma, grandpa, mom, dad has their very own closely guarded recipe.

My friend Nancy always brought this amazing chicken salad to parties and to dorm.

I'm convinced what makes this chicken salad so special is here Dad's sour pickles.

(Music plays) This is my dear, dear friend Nancy and her Dad, Big N, and her Mom, Ja.

(Laughter) They have real names.

So, you're going to show me today, how to make these.

Now, did you develop this recipe?

No, my Mother did.

Alright, so what's the first thing we do here?

So, we wash them.

So, the recipe that you sent me said a peck of cucumbers.

I know what a peck of oysters are.

I know what a peck of oysters is.

I know what a peck, I know about a peck of oysters.

(Laughter) Okay, that's a peck bucket.

Fill it up.

Okay.

So, can you still buy a peck bucket, you think?

Absolutely.

Hardware stores have them.

Okay, what do we do now?

Pour about a box of salt.

That's good.

That's all?

They'll be good.

(Laughter) Okay.

Then we pour... Boiling water.

What we do is we leave them over 30 hours.

Sometimes it's 35, 36 but at least 30.

Okay, and that does what?

It gets the salt in the cucumbers to brine them.

Okay.

I have a confession to make.

They gave me the recipe a couple of days ago and I did this first step at my house.

Cucumbers have to sit for 30 hours and they do not want me here for 30 hours.

We'll see if what I did was okay.

(Music plays) Got to boil the vinegar.

Put the pepper in the bottom.

And that will just kind of slowly... because I can taste a little bit of heat.

Yeah.

And then start putting the cucumbers in and then pour the boiling vinegar over it.

Okay.

So it's just vinegar?

And there's no sugar in there at all?

A little bit of sugar.

Sugar on top.

Okay, after you can them are they ready to eat?

I think they need to cool to room temperature.

And then my mother would eat them the next day if she was out.

What did your mother do with them?

Make chicken salad.

Have them with chocolate cake.

She kind of invented the chocolate cake pickle.

The pairing.

What you do because it's gonna leak.

You go right up to the top.

As full as you can.

Okay.

(Music plays) There's something so satisfying about doing this.

It is an accomplishment.

It really is.

But now I don't want to use any of it.

I just want to keep it and look at it.

And look at it.

(Music plays) Put it in there for ten minutes.

Ten minutes.

Okay.

So, chicken salad.

When you talk about southern food I feel like chicken salad is a staple.

I probably put three stalks of celery for this much chicken salad because it makes two quarts.

I did four bone in chicken breast.

And we've got four eggs here.

And that's one thing you know, you either put in your chicken salad or you don't.

Right.

I think it makes it richer.

I think so too.

(Music plays) I don't know how much mayonnaise.

It really takes quite much to do all this.

You want a little pickle juice?

(Music plays) Here we go.

Awesome.

You know, I was supposed to go be at the beach this week but I just can't.

The chef at the Boiler Room quit so Ben's working in the kitchen there.

How's that going?

(Laughter) Cheers.

Mmmmmm I love it.

It's very comforting to me.

It's like really good chicken salad.

It reminds me of summertime.

So, this is your chocolate cake?

This was Nat's mother's recipe.

Try the pickle and then the cake and then the cake and then the pickle.

Okay.

It's pretty good together.

Surprisingly.

It really is.

Thank you for doing this with us today.

It's what every dessert plate should look like across America.

(Music plays) We've been advertising locally and all over the country for the chef position at the Boiler Room and I wish we had more local candidates because it would be a lot easier to hire someone who already lives here but we just don't.

We do have one guy coming in from DC who we are really excited about.

This is going to be an andouille sausage and sweet potato hash.

It's going to be part of my brunch dish.

I'm going to put a poached egg and some crispy oysters on there.

We'll see where it goes from there.

(Music plays) We are in our second round of interviews with this guy.

He is a chef from DC who left the restaurant that he was at which was an oyster bar because he wanted to spend more time with his kids.

I thought this guy is too good to be true.

I don't even care what he's cooking for us.

I just want to hire him.

(Music plays) Alrighty.

Start with the lady first.

A fried cobia fillet with a pickled green tomato and a sunny side egg on top cooked in bacon fat.

Reminds me of my Dad's when I was a kid.

And right here you have some house made andouille that I took from across the street, a sweet potato hash, and some cornmeal fried oysters.

Cool.

Sandwich and brunch.

Awesome.

Thank you.

It looks great.

This is a great dish for this place.

This is what we already have.

The idea is to keep the pantry simple.

That's really good.

You guys are too kind.

No, we're not.

I wouldn't be if it weren't.

I'm a go clean up my mess.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

It's awesome.

It is.

It really is.

Great food.

I'm in love with James Huff.

Shut up.

So are you though.

It's called a bromance.

(Music plays) Wow, this guy was awesome and I was ready to settle for somebody that wasn't awesome.

I am just ready for Ben to have some free time and not as much stress.

(Music plays) So, I think let's go old fashioned white bread, house made saltines, deviled egg spread.

Then tomorrow I just need to think about it a little bit.

Okay.

I haven't given any thought to any....

There's a lot of things you're giving thought to right now.

And there's a lot... We have a bunch going on.

It's season.

Seasons change.

Sorry, God!

The season is changing.

I'll give you a book deal, a record deal, alright?

(Laughter) (Music plays) A few weeks ago we started serving bread and having people pay for it and that's been going okay.

When I ask servers about it I get kind of you know, uhhh it's okay.

So, we're trying to elevate the bread service even a little more.

Kim has been working on this white bread, which is kind of a tongue and cheek version of the way people like to eat sandwiches around here which is with really soft, white, wonder style bread.

I'm going to do a deviled egg spread and pump up the pickles and pump up the egg and make it unique and if I see value in it, hopefully they will.

These are some sour, fermented pickles that I made kind of in the style of what Mr. Sylvester did.

So, what I did was soak them in the saltwater brine for about seven days during which time they started to ferment and bubble.

Once that bubbling stopped I canned them in a hot water bath using the same brine.

We want it to be kind of familiar but also different.

Wooo I love grating these eggs on this grater.

Wooo!

Sorry.

Okay, weirdo.

(Laughter) I know!

Really!

(Music plays) That's so good.

I'm actually going to put some more pickles in it because I want it to be very pickley, puckery.

I'm gonna go be alone for a minute.

(Laughter) (Music plays) Growing cucumbers is big business here in eastern North Carolina.

We grow more than 100 million pounds every year.

Over the past few years we've been getting a lot of our produce from Curtis Smith.

I love working with him because his produce is always consistent.

It's always washed.

And they deliver to us.

(Music plays) Is it okay for me to get up here?

Sure.

If you don't mind a dirty truck.

I grew up with my Dad.

You know all about it.

So, we picked pretty much the hottest day of the year to do this.

You haven't missed it far.

Probably one of the hottest day we've had all summer.

It's terrible.

It is terrible.

People don't understand like I think, I would have never chosen to be a farmer because I saw what it was like for my Dad.

You know, even Christmas day he worked.

I grew up in the livestock business.

When I was 13,14,15, everybody was playing ball in the afternoon and on the weekends.

Me and my brother were feeding hogs and cows.

Right.

At three o'clock we better be home feeding the sows.

If you want to, they're waiting to get started.

They're waiting?

Can we go?

Got one row done picked.

(Music plays) (Music plays) So you planted this the very last part of July.

That's right.

Last part.

And this is labor day.

That's right.

That's right.

So, it happens really fast.

It does.

You get so many growing.

It's fast.

A cucumber, this shows how little I know, but they look like they are related to squash in some way.

They're in the cucumber family.

They're all related.

Watermelon, cantaloupe, squash, they're all related.

They are related.

Yeah, they are related.

And these are pickling cukes.

These are pickling cukes.

They're shorter.

They don't get as long to slice, what we call long green slice.

This is kind of big.

That's big.

They tell us if you put your thumb and if you got a gap it's too big.

Too big.

We'll just throw 'em out.

That was always a test when I was young if I was getting too chubby if I couldn't put my hand around my wrist.

I guess that's a good way to tell.

(Laughter) So, this is the first time they've picked this crop?

This is the first time they've picked this crop.

How many times will you end up?

Four to five.

Four to five.

Four the five pickings over.

And I see that they're throwing off a lot of these and these.

This is perfect to me, no?

Well it's crooked.

I don't want it in there.

I understand.

If you were just growing it at home and making pickles you would be fine.

Absolutely.

This you definitely want to pick, maybe a size smaller.

When we come here Friday and pick again we don't want any like this.

Right, because it could take two days to go from that to that.

That's right.

That's exactly right.

And all of these will go to The New Dill?

The New Dill.

That's right.

That's where they're headed (Music plays) Curtis sends his cucumbers to a grading facility called The New Dill.

Get it.

Dill.

A grading facility is where you sort the cucumbers according to how big or small they are.

You know they big ones get sliced into chips.

The small ones are reserved for the prized whole dill.

The irregular kind of messed up ones are chopped for relish.

This is my new friend, Neil Hill.

I'll put on my hair net just so we can both be the same.

(Laughter) This is where cucumbers are graded for size.

From the time the truck gets here take me through what happens.

Okay, we unload them off the truck in the back.

They're dumped into the hopper.

They go through the brush washer.

They go up.

That's the scalper.

It gets the oversize out.

They fall in the box on the end.

They go up, go in the splitter.

Three A's fall down.

Other sizes fall down.

They start off at the beginning of the grader.

They're sized in 6 different grades.

As they come down the line they are picked through.

What are they putting in the center?

The bad ones?

They make relish out of those.

That's one of the grades.

Relish grade.

Relish Grade.. That's 2bs and this is 2as.

Okay.

Pickle these whole and those are bread and butter slices would be a the 2b.

And those would be pickled whole like dill.

Like dill, sweet.

What have you got behind your back?

That's a 3a.

3a.

And these would be what you would find in the big jar at the country store.

That I don't understand why anyone ever buys.

The slabs or the spears.

Quartered.

So at the height of your season how many of these trucks will you do a day?

15 to 20 truckloads a day.

Oh wow!

Do you make pickles?

No.

I don't want no pickles.

(Laughter) I don't eat pickles.

I bet you don't even eat cucumbers.

No.

Well, I'm devastated.

Our ideal candidate is in fact not taking the job.

His wife got a job in Durham and he'll be moving there.

Hey.

Hey.

Pickles.

Nice.

Boy, that's really good.

I don't think I told you I posted the ads.

There's a whole bunch more emails I have to go through this afternoon.

We're going to get somebody on this round especially since... we're going to get somebody on this round.

Okay.

Cool.

Alright.

Thanks for the pickles.

You're welcome.

I feel terrible for Ben because it seems like every time he is able to finally carve out some time to do what it is that he really wants to do, which is paint, something happens and he is pulled away from that and he has to rescue a situation at the restaurant.

It's what happened with the fire and it's what's happening right now with losing the chef at the boiler room.

So, I agreed to do this art show in Durham a couple months ago and about 4 weeks ago we finalized the date and about two weeks after I agreed to do this show Adam decided to give his notice at the Boiler Room.

But, you know we'll see.

We'll see.

I'm excited.

I haven't had an art show in about ten years, since we moved down here.

(Music plays) I think because of the stage of life I'm in and the limited time I get to do this for me it's more of a mental exercise.

You start a conversation and see where it goes.

Sometimes the conversations are cool and sometimes they're not.

It's hard.

You know, at the restaurant you are at the beck and call of people all the time.

You know Vivian and I are fairly antisocial.

She likes to do her own thing and I do too.

You know, at work we are extraordinarily social with people all the time, all day long and into the evening.

At this point this is the only place I have left where I don't have to talk to anybody.

It's nice.

It's peaceful.

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