JerseyNana's (Almost Daily) Rant!

When I was a child, my grandmother babysat for me quite a bit of the time. I loved her with all my heart and I was very close to her. One of the things I remember was shopping with her in the local bakery and butcher shops. The butcher shop was especially a treat, because when my grandmother would purchase their special German baloney, I always got a sample from the butcher, unlike the bakery, that never gave samples. As I was writing my name with my foot in the sawdust on the butcher shop floor, I would be enjoying a delicious treat too. Talk about being in kid heaven!

So when we went home, we would have a baloney sandwich on Bond Bread and Nanny would bring out the Forman's Piccalilli. I can still smell the sauerbraten, veal chops, pot roasts, dumplings and other German style dishes she would prepare. So unlike my mother, of Irish descent who must have had no taste buds, because she cooked everything bland and/or burnt. Had it not been for the salt shaker on the table, we would have no taste at all. Is it any wonder I would marry an Italian and spend my life loving food?

A few years ago, I found Heinz piccalilli and purchased a few jars and my grandmother's memory got to live on all over again. Now I find myself almost out of this treasure and after finding a German baloney at a local shop, it has now become an emergency. I have hunted all the local markets and nobody seems to have this piccalilli or anything like it. I went to the Heinz website and it is nowhere to be found. Now I could not have purchased this that long ago, because the jar has a bar code and nutritional facts. The ingredients are; tomatoes, distilled vinegar, dextrose, sugar, dehydrated onions, salt, dehydrated red peppers, spices, xanthan gum, paprika oleoresin. After hunting the internet for comparable substitutions, I found out that piccalilli is called chow chow in the South, and in other parts of the country it contains ingredients such as; mustard, hot peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, green tomatoes and whatever! There is British piccalilli, hot pepper piccalilli and yet nothing seems to match what I am looking for.

So as my piccalilli continues to dwindle, I am now getting desperate to find a suitable replacement. If you know of anything that contains those ingredients, please let me know! And thanks in advance for hearing my rant and understanding my plight!