The quick salt-pickled cucumbers of the Russian and Siberian summer, brined for a day or two with garlic, dill, and the wild tarragon of the steppe, crisp, sour, and garlicky, the homeland's everyday use of the herb at its most ancient
Origin: Russia (Siberia and the steppe)
From the journey of Cucumber.
Tarragon's homeland is the great belt of steppe and southern Siberian forest that runs from the Russian and Kazakh plains into Mongolia, and it is here, where the wild herb grows of its own accord, that we find its oldest and most everyday use: not the refined sauces of France nor the green soda of the Caucasus, but the humble pickle barrel. The lacto-fermentation of cucumbers in a salt brine is one of the great preserving traditions of the cold North, born of the need to carry the brief summer harvest through the long winter, and across Russia, Ukraine, and Siberia the brine is made aromatic with a fixed handful of herbs: garlic, the flowering heads of dill, a leaf of horseradish or blackcurrant for crispness, and, very often, a sprig or two of tarragon, the estragon whose wild form grows across the whole region. Malosolnye ogurtsy, 'lightly salted cucumbers', are the fresh, quick version of the tradition, brined for only a day or two so that they stay crunchy and bright rather than fully sour, the taste of the Russian and Siberian summer eaten with black bread, boiled potatoes, cold meats, and a glass of something strong. Tarragon is not the loudest voice in the brine, but it is one of the signature aromatics of the herb's own native ground, and the salt cucumber is the dish in which the people of tarragon's homeland have always known it best.
This is the quick, lightly-salted summer pickle (malosolnye); for the long-fermented sour winter pickle (solyonye ogurtsy), use a stronger brine and ferment for one to two weeks. Tarragon is one of the classic brine aromatics of the Russian and Siberian pickle, alongside the more dominant dill and garlic; it is included here as the signature herb of tarragon's own homeland. The horseradish, oak, or blackcurrant leaf is traditional and helps keep the cucumbers crisp through fermentation. The leftover brine is prized in its own right, drunk as a restorative and used to flavour soups such as rassolnik.
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