Hey All! So last Friday I enlisted my guinea pigs - I mean my good friends and tasting crew down at the pub - and did the great alum/no alum pickle tasting experiment. I had 13 people participate, not including me. The results listed don't add up to 13 in all catagories because not everyone had an opinion on both issues.
Setup. As described above I made pickles same day, same cukes, same brine, just didn't add alum to one jar. At the time of tasting they had been in the fridge ~7weeks. I took pickles from each jar, cut into thirds and had my peeps first taste pickle "X" then pickle "Z". I asked which they thought was crispier and also if they had a taste preference. Pickle "X" was without alum.
Results: Pickle "X" no alum - 5 people thought it was crispier, 5 tastier.
Pickle "Z" w/alum - 7 people thought it was crispier, 6 tastier.
Not exactly a convincing data set. Most people had an opinion of "slightly" crispier or tastier either way. My buddy Joe was a standout in very emphatically preferring pickle Z in both categories. I even got Irish Frank (he's from Dublin) who hates pickles to give it a try and he found pickle Z "less offensive" than the other ;)
My opinion - I thought the pickle with alum was slightly crispier and I preferred the taste as well. For taste, my crew and I pretty much agreed that the pickle with alum has a more forward in your face flavor while the no alum is a bit more subdued, which makes seance to me as adding a mineral such as alum should have that effect. Overall it appears you can make these pickles with or without alum and have a crisp and flavorful pickle. There is a subtle difference but it seems to come down to personal taste.
Yeah, I could have just wrote "results inconclusive" or "no difference" but what fun would that that be
