Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge Vol. 15(2), April 2016, pp. 330-336 Traditional pickles of Himachal Pradesh Monika, Savitri, Anila Kumari, Kunzes Angmo & T C Bhalla* Department of Biotechnology, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla-171005, India E-mail:bhallatc@rediffmail.com Received 18 March 2015, revised 17 April 2015 The traditional pickles of indigenous fruits and vegetables, viz., galgal, lingri, aaroo, plum, lasura, dehu, kachnar and beedana are popular in rural and urban areas of Himachal Pradesh since the very early times. These are used as appetizers and served practically with every meal. The traditional pickles of Himachal Pradesh are unique in the raw material, method of preparation and taste from the pickles in other parts of country. In the present study, the methods of preparation of traditional pickles as practiced by the rural folk have been documented. Keywords: Himachal Pradesh, Traditional, Pickles, Fermentation IPC Int. Cl. 8 : A23L 19/20, C12C 11/00, C12Q Traditional fermentation is a form of food preservation method used since ancient times. In addition to preservation, fermentation improves the nutritive value of foods, enhances flavor and enable the foods more digestible thus making these foods popular all over the world 1-3 . Fermented foods play a crucial role in providing food security, enhancing livelihoods and social wellbeing of people all around the world 4 . The rural folk have preferred fermented foods over the unfermented ones due to their longer shelf life, pleasant taste, texture and appearance. In India a lot of diversity prevails in the food habits of the people living in different states and many of the states especially the hilly states have their conventional fermented products 5,6 . In ancient time when hilly state did not have transport systems, people were dependent on food material available seasonally/locally and developed their traditional recipes for food processing and preparation 7 . In Himachal Pradesh traditional fermented pickles, viz. brinjal, lingri, beedana, peach, pear, plum, tomato, dheu, radish, carrot, chilli, garlic, mushroom, etc., have been consumed as a regular food in different recipe over a long period of time. The plant materials used by the people for pickle preparation included its leaves, stem, fruits, buds, vegetables and roots.The fermentation of vegetables and fruits with the addition of salt and spices increases the shelf life of food generally by 8-10 months 8 . In addition, mutton, chicken and fish pickles are also prepared and consumed in different regions of Himachal Pradesh. Pickles are fermented mainly by lactic acid bacteria which are considered to lower serum cholesterol level and help in preventing tumors by stimulating immune response thus acting as probiotic 9 . So far, the traditional processes for the production of pickles of Himachal Pradesh have not been documented and these folk recipes for pickles preparation are losing sheen in the fast food culture. So, there is a need to conserve our traditional knowledge of pickling for making fruits and vegetables persistable, shelf stable and easily transportable without aid of refrigeration. This paper focuses on documentation of traditional methodology of pickle preparation in Himachal Pradesh and efforts have also been made to elaborate some of the traditional pickling processes. Methodology A survey of rural and tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh was done to identify popular indigenous pickles of Himachal Pradesh. Survey was carried out in around 70 households in ten district of Himachal Pradesh representing the diverse ethnic groups and different geographical conditions. Data on the raw materials, spices used in preparation and popular fermentation procedures used in pickle production were collected by active interaction with people of rural and tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh. The local names of raw materials used were included —————— *Corresponding author