He can pickle that

Spicy, sweet, tangy, crunchy—a great pickle is tough to beat. And in the realm of locally made artisanal pickles, look no further than Preservation and Co. More than three years ago, Jason Poole and co-owner Brad Peters began their foray into jarred goods. Just last week, they opened their first production facility and retail shop in Midtown. But even more than pickles, Preservation and Co. is best known for its bloody mary mix—the recipe took home the 2012 silver medal in Absolut Vodka’s national competition. Now, business is booming. The bloody mary mix is distributed to more than 100 places in California and served in about 30 bars and restaurants in Sacramento. There’s massive opportunity to expand with the new facility—more than 3,000 square feet—and cooking classes may soon be on tap for fans. Luckily for Poole, who also bartends at Pour House, the craft of pickling is only getting trendier.

What makes a good pickle?

Texture is one of the most crucial things. If you bite into a real soft pickle, it’s gross and weird—that’s what you can buy out of a tin can at the corner store. And not overabusing the flavors of the produce— it should still taste like a cucumber, not like a converted product. Using the freshest produce you can find is going to help with the texture. And then just being creative. If anyone is making pickles at home, don’t mess with the vinegar-to-water ratio—that’s how it stays safe. But when it comes to spices, adding garlic or other produce, that’s open. Whatever flavors you like, you can make it into a pickle.

Go-to flavors?

I’m a heat freak. I use a lot of ghost pepper. That’s actually why our Hellfire Sriracha is so hot. Mustard seed, too. I think it has a really great tang to it. Dill seed is obviously on the top of the list. For more of the exotic stuff, you can always use juniper—that’s a fun one.

Can anything not be pickled?

Yes. I believe on Portlandia they showed [18,000] jewel CD cases. I don't recommend pickling that, even though they claim you can do it. Some things can't be pickled safely with water-bath canning. You have to be careful with anything like meats that are low in pH and not high in acidity. Don't think you can make your own canned tuna. It will not be fine.

How much greater will your production be in this new space?

Our easiest example is the bloody mary mix. We cook that over at the Pour House kitchen overnight, from midnight to 8 a.m., whenever they’re not using it. Over there, we cook out of one pot, 50 quarts at a time. Over here, with two large steam kettles, we can actually make 140 gallons at a time. So it’s a pretty significant difference. … In a year, my goal is to take the mix and hopefully some other pickled products to what I call the “West Coast L:” Washington, Oregon, California and down to Arizona and Colorado.

When did you start doing bloody marys?

The bloody mary was a really lucky fluke. It was right when we were opening Pour House. … Absolut Vodka does a bloody mary search every year, and I was asked to put a recipe in. So I submitted something with a bunch of ingredients that I liked and spent a little time making sure it was balanced. I ended up getting first place in California, so I flew to New York and got second place in the nation. That was actually the best. First place got to go to Sweden to the distillery and all that, but they trademarked that recipe. Second place got to come home, keep the recipe and get distributed.

You really didn’t slave over that recipe? It just came to you?

The honest truth is there are four ingredients that make it different: capers, Dijon mustard, balsamic reduction and pickling brine. Pickling brine was a given because I had tons of that stuff all the time; and Dijon, capers, balsamic reduction are just three things I absolutely love. Finding the balance took a little bit of work to make sure something wasn’t overpowering, that they all complement each other. Also finding the right viscosity to make sure your drink won’t be diluted by the time you get to the bottom of it, which is a big problem with a lot of bloody marys.

You use Sriracha in that mix—were you worried over the big Sriracha scare when there were rumors the manufacturing plant might shut down?

No, for a couple reasons. When the big issue happened, it was right after their production, and they don’t actually start their next production until July. I thought they’d figure it out by then. And by that point, we were making our own sriracha. And I knew if we had to, we could produce more to make our bloody mary mix. The Sriracha scare was like the Twinkies scare—I think they were out of the stores for a week, and then they were back.

For those ghost peppers in your own sriracha, do you have safety precautions?

Yeah, actually. Where’s my gas mask? I have to wear it whenever I make the Hellfire sauce. I made the mistake one time by not using a gas mask, and I will never make that mistake again. Basically, what we’re making is liquid pepper spray. It’s hot. Pepper spray is essentially an aerosol or a sprayed version of a really hot pepper sauce. So when you start hitting it with water vapor or it starts boiling, that is basically pepper spray. I realized, OK, time to go online and get a riot-gear gas mask.

Gloves, too?

Double-layered latex gloves on those days. … It’s a labor of love and pain.