the bright green pickle mystery

when i went shopping a few days ago it itched me for some overly sweet bread-and-butter-pickles. it's a kind of pickle not found in germany where the majority of shrunken cukes are bathed in rather tart marinades with salt, pepper, garlic, onion or mustard seeds, which i love. but we miss out on the sweet side of marinating this green vegetable stable. that's why i love bread-and-butter pickles. as the name implies they are just a basic in the u.s. american kitchen, as they are a permanent member of any hamburger compilation. in my fridge there is almost always a jar of them stuffed in the back for random snacking.

but what irks me every time i skim the supermarket shelves for deals on sugary cucumbers, is their bright, almost neon green color. it just reminds me of that green metal piece clinging to homer's shirt when he leaves his nuclear plant in the simpsons' intro. why are they trying to sell me little nukes, i mean, nuclear-green cukes?

the solution is in fact almost common-sensical: color determines taste, as the new york times just recently reported in an april 2, 2011 article drawing from studies coming to that conclusion:

"When tasteless yellow coloring is added to vanilla pudding, consumers say it tastes like banana or lemon pudding. And when mango or lemon flavoring is added to white pudding, most consumers say that it tastes like vanilla pudding. Color creates a psychological expectation for a certain flavor that is often impossible to dislodge, Dr. Shelke said. “Color can actually override the other parts of the eating experience,” she said in an interview."

what's interesting, however, is not only the question of what artificial colors in food do to consumers as the new york times also emphasizes concerns raised by studies over hyperactivity in children, but also from a cultural perspective: why do certain colors dominate the tastiness-perception in certain countries?

cheddar cheese in the united states is often bright a bright yellowy orange, a type of cheese i don't remember seeing in germany. cauliflower comes not only it its natural white but sometimes dons a yellow and purple look here. mustard likes to glow overly yellow. i'm not denying the existence of artificial colors in german food products but somehow they are more on the scale of natural looking colors. the food coloring is a curious case in either country.

instead of putting colors into food, a german ngo called foodwatch is advocating putting colors on the food packaging -- in a stop light fashion green, yellow and red are to signal levels of fat, sugar and salt contents.

that's where the colors should go.

bowing to my pickle cravings, i found a jar of an unknown brand that at least didn't use artificial color yellow no. 5 (oddly enough to make it look green) but natural colors. i suppose to eliminate any extra color i have to dig out my mom's pickling recipes.