From viral pickle subs to dill-flavored snacks, this is the summer of picklemania
Pickles are officially the hot food trend of summer 2024.
From a plethora of dill-flavored snacks to another iteration of the viral sub sandwich, consumers have a hankering for all things pickles.
Seven Brothers Gourmet in Oceanside, New York, is the latest east coast sandwich shop to reach viral status -- in large part due to TikTok -- by replacing bread with a giant seed-scooped pickle.
In 2019, people were making "pickle pilgrimages" to Elsie's Sub Shop in Haddon Township, New Jersey, where the owners won over pickle fans, especially eaters with dietary restraints, with their "sandwich" made with a pickle instead of bread.
The sandwich creator Katherine Cohen told "Good Morning America" at the time that she came up with the idea using an old family pickle recipe.
"My mother is a diabetic -- so I made her one," Cohen said, adding that a customer who had spotted the unique off-menu item asked for another, "so we made them one and after that it was posted on social media and spiraled from there."
Flash forward to present day and 111 miles northeast, Anthony Fiorito is making a similar concoction that's creating crowds of pickle fans to line up around the block.
"We used to order one pail of pickles a week. Last week we ordered 70 pails, and we went through them, so we've been averaging about 10 pails a day -- about 500 pickle sandwiches," he told "GMA."
How to make the perfect pickle sub sandwich at home
For any pickle enthusiasts outside the New York area who want to recreate the recipe at home, Fiorito shared his expert technique.
"You just need a decent size pickle -- you want to core out a decent amount of it, too, so you have the room on the inside," he began. "You want to put just the right amount of meat, the right amount of cheese, the right amount of lettuce into it, and shredded lettuce."
His suggestion to home cooks for the fillings, "honey turkey is probably the best cold cut to put on the pickle sandwich because it has that sweet taste. Then you want to definitely put bacon on it -- the lettuce also helps out with the juice from the pickled sandwich. So that's why all of those ingredients together make the perfect pickle sandwich."
Another tip from Fiorito, "put the dressing on the side so it's not too messy."
Pickle-flavored food craze from condiments to snacks
Some of America's beloved brands have also adopted the essence of pickles, adding its signature briny, salty, tangy flavor to everything from salad dressing to dessert.
Pickle condiments
Hidden Valley created a pickle version of its famed ranch dressing, Heinz has a pickle ketchup and Trader Joes created its own pickle mustard.
Pickle snacks
There's now dehydrated pickle chips, pickle popcorn and pickle-flavored Goldfish crackers available.
Pickle desserts
Cheryl’s pickle cookies and a new collab from Baked by Melissa and Claussen who teamed up to create mini pickle cupcakes.
