Pikliz (Pickled Cabbage and Scotch Bonnet Relish)

Variations

• Ferment it instead. ko.wikipedia says pikliz is eaten "fresh, or fermented for flavour and for health." Cut the vinegar, add salt, and leave it a few days at room temperature and you get a lactic ferment like paocai or kimchi. That is a different pickle, and the reason is in the tips below.
• Citrus only. Plenty of households use lime and sour orange instead of vinegar. Citric acid is weaker than acetic, so it keeps less well and has to stay in the fridge.
• What else goes in: the same article lists white onion, red onion, shallot, beetroot and habanero as additional ingredients. Beetroot turns the liquid pink.
• Against curtido. That article's "see also" points at curtido, and El Salvador's version is already on this site as step one of pupusa: the cabbage has boiling water poured over it to wilt it, then vinegar and oregano. Pikliz uses no heat at all, and the chillies are the point rather than a seasoning.
• What it goes with. The article names fritay, griot, tassot and bannann peze. In Haiti griot and pikliz are treated as one plate.
• The name probably comes from the French piquer, to prick or to sting. It also goes by piment la kay.

Tips

• The heat moves across on a timetable. Chilli and heat says capsaicin dissolves in fat, not in water — which is why drinking water does nothing for a burning mouth. There it is a warning; here it is the schedule. In a vinegar with almost no fat in it the capsaicin comes out very slowly, so a day-old jar is mild and a month-old jar is strong. It is also why the liquid becomes a hot sauce in its own right.
• The pith, not the seeds. The same guide's point, and it matters most with scotch bonnets. To take the heat down, scrape the white pith out with a knife tip. Picking seeds out and leaving the pith accomplishes very little.
• A pickle that does not salt. Kkakdugi says "do not skip the salting, it is the whole dish," and that is right for a kimchi. Here 5% vinegar is already below the pH at which anything can live, so there is no need for salt to select the microbes. The teaspoon of salt is for flavour.
• The acid is what keeps it crunchy. That belongs to bigos, which explains it: acid sets pectin firm. There the property is needed inside a pot simmering for three hours; here it is needed in a jar on a shelf for months.
• The acid is brought in, not made. Fermentation basics argues that safety comes from lactic bacteria making acid and the pH falling fast — which is why paocai keeps the same brine going for years and kimchi makes the cabbage produce its own liquor. Pikliz pours its acid out of a bottle. It is the one pickle here where the only reason to wait is flavour rather than safety.
• Pack it down hard. Air pockets are where it spoils first, and anything floating above the liquid should be weighed down.
• Wear gloves. Capsaicin does not rinse off with water. Rub oil into your hands first and then wash with soap, as the guide says.
• Do not throw the liquid away. When the vegetables are gone, do not top the jar up with fresh cabbage — spoon the liquid over rice and beans and fried plantain instead, and start the next batch with fresh vinegar. What the vegetables gave up has already diluted the acid.