How can a pickle be kosher or non-kosher?
Kosher dill pickles aren’t any more kosher to eat than regular dill pickles. The designation should be "kosher-style" dill pickles. Jewish pickle makers in New York City added garlic and dill weed, not just dill weed, to the brine in which the cucumbers ferment.
There are other kinds of dill pickles. The "hamburger dill", also known as a "fresh-pack" dill pickle, uses vinegar to speed up the pickling process. The refrigerator dill speeds things up even more by pickling the cucumbers under refrigeration. These hurry-up pickles have a raw taste which some claim to prefer. When the pickle is added to a hamburger, the other tastes tend to mask the raw flavor; it is when eaten by itself that a real dill pickle or kosher dill pickle really shines.
Other types of pickles may add other spices to the pickling brine. For instance, polish dill pickles incorporate a variety of spices which may include cloves, peppercorns, coriander, chili peppers, celery seed, and/or other spices. However, kosher dill pickles traditionally are made with no ingredients other than cucumbers, salt, water, dill weed, and garlic.
The primary issue with pickles and their status as a kosher food is the use of animal products at some pickling and canning facilities. A pickle is made by brining a cucumber in a solution of water and salt. Sometimes, the brine is emulsified with polysorbates, which are made from animal fat. If the polysorbates are from kosher animals such as cattle slaughtered in accordance with kosher law, the pickles would be considered kosher. However, the concern is that the pickles could be contaminated with products of so-called unclean animals, such as pigs, or that the animals used to make the polysorbates were not slaughtered properly. As a general rule, it is easier to make pickles without polysorbates if a facility is pursuing kosher certification. In order to be certified, the kosher pickle facility must permit inspection by a rabbinical kashrut inspector, or mashgiach. Periodic inspections will be carried out to make sure that the facility conforms with kosher laws, and a kosher-certifyi
