San Mateo, CA — One hour with Rabbi Shmuel Marcus and you’ll never look at a pickle the same way again.
Marcus is leading a crusade across the country to teach people how to make their own kosher pickles. At a recent stop in at the Chabad Center of San Mateo, Marcus led a fast-paced lesson in pickle-making spiced with lessons on Jewish faith and human nature.
Getting into a Pickle
San Mateo, CA — One hour with Rabbi Shmuel Marcus and you’ll never look at a pickle the same way again.
Marcus is leading a crusade across the country to teach people how to make their own kosher pickles. At a recent stop in at the Chabad Center of San Mateo, Marcus led a fast-paced lesson in pickle-making spiced with lessons on Jewish faith and human nature.
Attendees in San Mateo were mostly Jewish. The event helped the young and old connect to their heritage on multiple levels. But Christians don’t have to be green with envy. Marcus is crisscrossing the country holding hosting “The Kosher Pickle Making Experience” open to everyone. He estimates more than 1,200 people have already pickled their own cucumbers with him and places in Georgia and Florida are requesting classes too.
“This is the first in Northern California,’ Marcus said. “We’re getting calls from all over. We even get calls from non-Jewish.”
Marcus has a full beard and wears a white shirt with a bright green tie. His black apron reads “Real men don’t need recipes.” He holds true to his apron motto. His class has no measuring cups and the pickle recipe calls for a spritz of spice and a two to three spoonfuls of salt.
Salt is the most important part of a kosher pickle, Marcus said.
So what makes a kosher pickle kosher? It is the salt. Kosher salt. What makes kosher salt kosher? Size. Kosher salt does not get its name by following the guidelines for kosher foods as written in the Torah — nearly all salt is kosher, including table salt.
Kosher salt is course commonly used in the meat-salting process that contributes to koshering meat. The course grains remain on the meat longer to absorb more fluids.
“That was a random fact you didn’t need to know,” Marcus told his Monday night class.
Another fun fact is that pickles made with vinegar and sugar are considered goyshe pickles.
So much to learn and only and hour to absorb it all. Marcus doesn’t dilly dally, he moves fast and the approximately 40 participants shuffle to keep up. When it comes down to it, making pickles isn’t hard at all.
A few cucumbers, kosher salt, four to five garlic cloves, pickling spice and fresh dill. After a few days on the counter and a few days in the refrigerator, anyone can pucker up for a pickle.
“If it tastes like a cucumber, you did something wrong,” Marcus jokes with the class.
About 25 percent of the pickles made in his class don’t turn out right, Marcus admits. Someone probably wasn’t listening to his directions. Regardless of the final product, chances are you’ll live a little happier and that’s a mitzvah — or “a good thing.”
For more information about The Kosher Pickle Making Experience visit www.jewishcypress.com and look for the next class under event listings.
goan yakov
whats with the yarmulke?
Shliach Ben Shliach
what a weird thing. I guess it matches the yarmulka.
11213 mentality strikes again
what’s with the negative comments? i hope it doesn’t match the commentators lack of expereince with shlichus.
i have been to the pickle making in Agoura at Chabad of Conejo with rabbi bryski and i would guess that the people absorbed more about kosher and chassidus in that one hour from rabbi shmuel marcus than commentators “gaon yakov” and “shliach ben shliach” have ever taught with with their limited 11213 mentality. aside from the fact, that the people who came to the event have never showed up to anything else, and rabbi marcus’ “weird” idea brought these yidden in to the Rebbe’s Chabad House of Conejo and other chabad’s in california where rabbi marcus has done his kosher pickle show.
gotMyselfinaPickle
Excuse the prior comments, I attended this event and it was a big kiddush hashem with lots of toichen involved. Rabbi Marcus did a wonderful job incorporating chassidus with a fun activity. It was not just wierd, it got people thinking and doing something positive actually!
otnick
The comments are on the article and picture. people who did not attend the actual show have no way of knowing from the article that there is toichen and chasidus involved. all they see is a guy with a funny yarmulka doing a funny thing. Can’t blame them for looking strange.
Maybe someone should explain what pickle making has to do with chasidus.
al kol korbancha takriv melach?
Moshe Rubashkin
A man named the alter rebbe, perhaps, you never heard of him, wrote a book you may never heard of, and in it, he a has a maamar you may never have read, called Lo Sashbis Melach. Perhaps, its the first maamar they teach in chabad yeshivot. You will read there that the founder of chabad says that chasidus in the “salt.”