Market Fresh Finds: Slicing into the cucumber question: to pickle or not to pickle?

By Vicki Ivy for The Columbian

The cucumber season is in full swing, and that means it’s time to decide what varieties of this versatile vegetable to buy and what to do with them.

Cucumbers are the perfect snack with only 8 calories per half-cup serving. Over 90 percent water, high in Vitamin K, they can be eaten in many ways including raw and pickled.

Related to melons, squash and pumpkins, cucumbers come in two main varieties which are slicing and pickling. They come in several shapes, sizes and colors including the lemon cucumber, which is yellow-white, round and can be eaten like an apple, skin and all. Pickling cucumbers can be eaten raw, but are grown specifically for pickle-making characteristics.

When buying a cucumber, either slicing or pickling, choose firm cucumbers that are rounded at their edges and their color should be a bright, vibrant green to dark green. Storage life of cucumbers is less than 14 days. Cucumbers like temperatures between 40 and 45 degrees. Store them in a perforated plastic bag near the front of the refrigerator where it is warmer for 3-5 days. Leaving them on the counter for an extended time will make them wilt and become limp. Do not store them with apples or tomatoes.

Slicing cucumbers are meant to be eaten fresh and have a smooth skin and may be waxed. These cucumbers are for eating fresh and not pickling. The most common variety is a Burpee hybrid, and specialty varieties include Armemian and Burpless which are long. Burpbless cucumbers have a thinner skin, few if any seeds, and sweeter than other cucumber varieties. They are great to snack on or use in all types of salads. When ready to eat wash waxed slicing cucumbers under cool water using a vegetable brush to wash off the wax or peel the skin off.

Make a quick batch of refreshing cold gazpacho soup in less than five minutes by pureeing cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers and onions, then add salt and pepper to taste. Top with a dollop of yogurt. Or create a delightful summer beverage by juicing and mixing with sparkling water and squeeze of lemon.

Pickling cucumbers are shorter, thicker, have bumpy skin and are never waxed. Choose fresh, firm, young pickling cucumbers and pickle them as soon as possible after harvesting. Pickling cucumbers should be used as soon as possible for the best quality pickled product. To wash unwaxed pickling cucumbers just brush the cucumber gently with a soft brush under cool running water.

Gherkins use cucumbers 1½ inches long, Dills are 4 to 5 inches. Oversized cucumbers are excellent for making into relish or bread-and-butter style pickles. To prevent spoilage and to be certain you have firm pickles remove 1/16 inch from blossom end of the cucumber before pickling. You can either make a brined pickle, which is fermented for several days in a crock before processing or a quick pickle which is made with vinegar brine and processed or stored in the refrigerator. Additional tips to be sure of a quality safe pickle is to always use an approved recipe, use canning/pickling salt, and make sure your vinegar is 5 percent acidity or higher.

Nine pounds of pickling cucumbers will yield an average 9 pints of pickles.

For more information and downloadable how to publications on preserving, pickling and dehydrating visit the WSU website http://ext100.wsu.edu/clark/?p=1134

Vicki Ivy is a WSU Clark County Extension master food preserver. For more information, call the Master Food Preserver program at 360-697-6060, ext. 5366, or visit clark.wsu.edu.

New Rogue Chipotle Whiskey Aims To Spice Things Up

By  – thewhiskeywash.com

Flavored whiskey, as always, is an odd bird of a category for this spirit type. There certainly is a market for it, though if you suggest that’s mostly women I would say you are quite wrong on that in this day and age. Distillers love to see what, shall we say, unique concoctions they can come with based upon ingredients at hand, such as the just announced Rogue Chipotle Whiskey.

Rouge Ales and Spirits is a multi-location distillery and brewery in Oregon, including its primary distilling operation in coastal Newport that’s complete with its own barrel-making cooperage. They are known up to this point for producing mostly young whiskies, with their rye whiskey from late last year being, up until now, the latest. The Chipotle offering is the first flavored expression from them and, in keeping with the spirit of how Rogue does things, makes use of ingredients they’ve pretty much grown themselves.

Rogue, for the last few years, has been raising jalapeños and is now up to two acres of them at one of its farms in the town of Independence. These peppers are used for the brewery side’s Chipotle Ale and, in fact, the Chiptole Whiskey is created from the Ale after the beer wash has been distilled in a copper pot still. More specifically, according to Rogue,

jalapeños are allowed to ripen until they are bright red, the additional time ripening on the vine means more capsaicin in the pepper, which makes for a spicier pepper. Once harvested by hand, the jalapeños are driven 77 miles to the Rogue Brewery in Newport, Oregon, where they are dried and slowly smoked over cherry and alder woods. The smoky chipotles are then used by Brew master John Maier to brew the Rogue Chipotle Whiskey wash.

Once the brewing is complete, the chipotle wash is driven across the parking lot to the Rogue Distillery where more freshly smoked chipotles are added during the distillation process. After distillation, the Chipotle Whiskey is aged in Oregon Oak barrels along with one final addition of chipotles.

This 80 proof whiskey has a total of seven ingredients, which include 2-Row & C40 malts; Liberty & Alluvial hops; chipotle peppers; “free range” coastal water & Pacman yeast. Limited official tasting notes are below and, as for availability; it should hit retail starting at the beginning of August.

Food trends: Hong Kong restaurants turn to pickling own ingredients

Pickling is an integral part of Asian and Latin cuisines. Chefs at two Hong Kong restaurants tell us why they are making their own.

Janice Leung Hayes – scmp.com

Until recently, making your own pickles would have had you labelled a grandma, but nowadays many restaurants are happily offering their own jarred creations.

Vinny Lauria, executive chef of modern American restaurant Stone Nullah Tavern, thinks interest in pickling is rising as food trends steer us away from classical French cuisine. He says: “Classical French cuisine was a foundation for a lot of Western cuisines, and you didn’t see pickle-making as much in that kind of food. However, it’s always been an integral part of a lot of Asian cuisines and in Latin cuisines.”

At modern Vietnamese restaurant Viet Kitchen, executive chef Peter Cuong Franklin creates his own pickles using his own recipe. “The key ingredients include vinegar, chilli, garlic, sugar, salt, whole black peppercorns and Sichuan peppercorns.”

He uses a quick technique that is common in Vietnam to create pickles in a matter of hours, rather than days or weeks. Franklin says pickles are key in heightening the flavour of dishes such as his crispy pork skewers. “The banh mi sandwich would not be the same without the pickled carrots and daikon, which provide a balancing sweet and sour flavour and add a textural element,” he says.

At Stone Nullah Tavern, Lauria says they’ve pickled everything from beets to pig’s feet. At the moment they are serving pickled chillies, cucumbers, beets and garlic. He offers meatloaf sliders served with “picklebacks” — a shot of cheap bourbon chased by a shot of pickling juice from the dill pickles used in the sliders.

 

The Pickle Authority

Posted by Tom Gaertner on July 28, 2015 – wauwatosanow.com

Anyone visiting the WauwatosaNOW homepage may have taken note that in the lower right hand corner under MOST POPULAR for the last month or so the Gas Pains blog about How to Make Crispy, Crunchy, Sweet Pickles has been in the pole position or close to it.  More popular than the crime report, a new restaurant or business opening or someone running for president.

The dang pickle post is persistently on that popularity list.  Having reappeared about a month ago it’s apparently getting clobbered by page views and has demonstrated staying power.

The first week of September, 2011 I threw together a blog post about How to Make Crispy Crunchy Sweet Pickles.  To be fair the genesis of the recipe came to me via my pal The First Mate’s wife.  I think it may have been her grandmother’s recipe. I’ve been tweaking it ever since and last year perfected the recipe for How to Make Crispy Crunchy Dill Pickles.

Seems ‘how to’ posts are perennial favorites but nothing rises to popularity of pickled cucumbers.  Don’t believe me?  Just type – how to make crispy (or crunchy) sweet pickles in your favorite search engine and see what you get for a result.

At the time I tapped-out that blog post I had no notion of becoming the fountain of all knowledge and inspiration as it pertains to home canning of pickled cukes.  But by fluke of luck and search engine optimization I seem to have become an authority on the subject and this time of year emails materialize from all over the country requesting details, diagnoses of problems and the popularity of the end product.  With every passing year interest in this subject post has grown in popularity.

Anyway, about that MOST POPULAR ranking – as soon as the pickle harvest has run its course and everyone has put-up another year’s supply of crispy crunchy pickles the fervor will diminish, the page views will fade and a quietude will fall upon the blog.  The exception being a blip in the winter from residents of the southern hemisphere.  Go figure.

Then as predictably as the swallows returning to Capistrano the process will begin all over again in May or June of 2016.

I’d like to raise a toast to gardening, growing your own food and preserving the fruits of the harvest be it by canning, freezing or drying.

Embrace the heat of jalapenos

by BETHANY GRABER – BostonGlobe.com – JULY 28, 2015

Summer is the perfect time to embrace the heat — of hot peppers. The green jalapeno is relatively mild, but just spicy enough to raise the hairs on your arms. Their heat lies primarily in their internal seeds and pith, which can be removed easily by cutting off the pepper’s top and using a small spoon or knife to scoop them out (or since some like it hot, they can be left in to up the heat level). These delightful petit peppers (also in yellow and purple) pack a raw punch, but cooking brings out their sweetness. Slice them lengthwise. Fill them with a mixture of cream cheese, fresh corn, and a dash of paprika, and bake them for an easy appetizer. Char them on the grill whole to give them a smoky quality; then chop for salsa or guacamole or puree them whole with garlic, olive oil, lime juice, plain yogurt, and cilantro to create a creamy sauce for fish or chicken. Get them while they’re hot. Available at farmers’ markets and farm stands.

Cascabella Pepper Seeds

People call Tito’s asking where to buy cascabella pepper seeds.  Tito’s bulk resources for cascabella pepper seeds are of little use to these callers.  As such, we wish to provide some resources for seeds that will yield cascabellas.  While Tito’s does not endorse any of the resources provided here at least we can confirm that the images associated with their products appear to be cascabellas and not some other variety of yellow chile peppers that are often confused with real cascabella peppers.

Here is one resource that is a very reputable seed company:

reimerseeds.com

Cascabella Hot Peppers Pack/ 10

Non-Treated Seeds

Description: 85 days. Capsicum annuum. Cascabella pepper plant produces good yields of 1 ¾” long by ¾” wide conical shaped hot peppers. Cascabella peppers have thick skin and turns from creamy-yellow, to orange, to red when mature. Plant has green stems, green leaves, and white flowers. Most often used when creamy-yellow. An excellent pickling variety. United States Department of Agriculture, NSL 20162. A variety from the USA. pk/10

Directions per reimerseeds.com website:

Hot Pepper Seed Planting Information (per reimerseeds.com website):

Some hot pepper varieties come from tropical humid regions and some varieties come from dry desert regions. The temperature, moisture, and air circulation all play a role in growing plants from seeds. Too little heat, too much moisture, and lack of air circulation will cause poor results. Do not use jiffy peat pots, plugs, or potting soil as the soil becomes too dry or too wet, which can lead to disease and fungus. We have experienced disease and low germination when using these types of products. Use Miracle Gro Seed Starting Material for best germination results. Read theHot Pepper Growing Tips and Planting Instructions for information on growing hot peppers from seeds. Please take time to watch the Hot Pepper Planting Instructions Movie . Plants can grow 1 to 7 ft tall.

 

Fermenting Revolution: The Universal Fermented Pickle Recipe

By Kevin West – MotherEarthNews.com – 7/27/2015 8:57:00 AM

Making fermented pickles requires us get friendly with bacteria.

As discussed in my previous post, a pickle is nothing more than a vegetable preserved in an acidic brine. Acid is the silver bullet against botulism and also gives pickles their signature tangy taste. For quick pickles, often called vinegar pickles, the brine is acidified with vinegar.

In making fermented pickles, also called brined pickles or lacto-fermented pickles, the brine acidifies naturally, thanks to the activity of beneficial lactobacillus bacteria. The microbiology is fascinating and complex, but all you really need to know is that the beneficial lactobacillus bacteria occur naturally on the vegetables you’ll pickle, and the fermenter’s role is to encourage them to do their thing. In one sense, fermenting is akin to gardening. Gardening requires patience, diligence, and careful attention, but you don’t actually make the garden grow. Instead, you create the conditions for the garden to flourish as nature takes it course. Likewise, with fermenting, you don’t make the ferment bubble, but you do tend the microenvironment of your ferment in order to foster conditions favorable to the beneficial bacteria. And, just as the gardener takes steps to discourage weeds, you take steps to discourage undesirable microorganism such mold and yeast.

Some people prefer the unique, rich flavor of traditionally fermented pickles (kosher dills, for instance) to the sharper flavor of vinegar pickles, but to me the most significant difference between the two classes of pickles is that fermented pickles are a raw, live, pro-biotic food. (See Michael Pollan’s New York Times Magazine article here for an overview of research linking our bodies’microbiome, including gut flora, to health.) In my experience, the effect of fermented pickles on digestion is noticeable and beneficial.

Many firm vegetables—including cucumbers, summer squash, green beans, turnips, and green tomatoes—can be fermented. The only essential ingredients apart from the vegetables themselves are sea salt and bottled water.

The 6 Elements of Successful Fermenting

The six basic elements of all successful ferments are: vegetables, water, salt, aromatics, time, and care. At the bottom of this post, I’ll give you my Universal Fermenting Recipe, which is basically a simple ratio of salt to water with some added aromatics.

But the real secret to successful fermenting lies in your attention to the Six Elements, so I’ll start with each in turn.

Vegetables: As with all preserving, good results begin with good ingredients. Choose fresh, crisp, young vegetables picked at the height of the growing season. Rinse well, and trim the blossom end of cucumbers and squash to remove enzymes that can cause the pickle to soften. Vegetables can be sliced (zucchini spears), chunked (large cucumbers or squash), or left whole (green beans, small cucumbers, small green tomatoes).

As for greens: many dark leafy greens will develop an unpleasant chlorophyll taste. But when fermenting turnips I’ll sometimes add a handful of the tops, and trimmed chard stems make a good pickle.

Water: Tap water from municipal water systems has been treated with chlorine or chloramine to kill microbes. It will disrupt the beneficial bacteria you’re trying to encourage in your ferment. Always use bottled spring water instead.

Salt: Salt adds flavor, hardens the vegetables’ pectin to make pickles crunchy, and regulates bacterial growth. The brine will taste quite salty at first, but a portion of the salt is absorbed by the vegetables, and everything comes out right in the end.

Unrefined sea salt is the best choice. Salt’s weight-by-volume varies substantially with flake size, and sea salt will come closest to the recipe measurements. (Kosher salt, which is much flakier, will under-salt the brine.) Unrefined sea salt also contains trace minerals that yield a crunchier pickle.

Incidentally, there is no “right” amount of salt in a brine. The standard ratio of 5% salt by weight is a useful guideline, not a fixed rule. A less-salty brine will ferment faster, and extra salt will slow down a ferment. In summer’s heat, stick with the recipe below.

Aromatics: Be generous with aromatics, such as whole garlic cloves, sprigs of fresh dill and whole dill heads, and whole spices including black peppercorns, dill seeds, and caraway seeds. My recipe below gives suggestions, but don’t feel constrained by them. Other options include fresh horseradish, dried red chilies, and pearl onions.

Incidentally, one often sees the advice to add grape leaves or oak leaves to a ferment, the idea being that their tannins help crisp the pickle. It’s a nice touch, but not at all necessary.

Time: As mentioned, fermenting is a natural process, and it requires time to work. Warmer temperatures accelerate the process, and colder temperatures slow it down. In a comfortable room, around 70 degrees, the brine will begin to cloud in two days. Within three to four days, it will start to bubble and sour. The pickles will be half-sour in about a week, and fully sour in two weeks. At 80 degrees, the whole process might happen in a week. In a cool cellar, it might take three weeks or more. In a cold refrigerator, fermentation occurs imperceptibly over the course of months.

Care: Because of the variables inherent to each ferment (salt and temperature), the only way to judge your pickles’ process is to inspect them carefully. You can’t leave a crock or jar unattended for a week and expect good results. Instead, look at the pickles daily. Make sure they stay submerged (more on that below). Expect to find a thin film of yeast to form on the brine surface and maybe even tiny pinheads of mold. Don’t worry about these signs of life. Skim off the floaters and wipe the wall of the crock or jar if necessary. As long as you keep the micro-garden of your ferment well “weeded” by skimming daily, everything will be fine.

Once the pickles start to sour, taste daily. Once they are soured to your liking, put them in the fridge for keeping. They will last a month or longer.

Universal Fermented-Pickle Recipe

Yields about 2 quarts

2 pounds sturdy vegetables, such as Kirby cucumbers, small zucchini, green beans, baby turnips, or green tomatoes
• 6 4-inch sprigs fresh dill (including seed heads, if available)
• 6 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon dill seed
• 6 level tablespoons sea salt (2.25-2.5 ounces)
• 2 quarts bottled spring water

1. Wash and trim the vegetables, and pack into a one-gallon jar or crock. Tuck in the dill, garlic, and other aromatics as you go.

2. Dissolve the salt in the water, and pour over the vegetables to cover. Weight the vegetables with a plate so that they remain completely submerged. Alternatively, fill a Ziploc freezer bag with brine, and use it to submerge the vegetables. (Make extra brine using the same proportions if necessary). If using a jar, loosely close the lid. (Do not seal it so because gases produced by the ferment need to escape.) If using a crock, cover it with a plate or board to keep out unwanted visitors.

3. Store the ferment in a cool, dark place, and check daily. Skim any scum or flecks of mold. Insure that the vegetables remain submerged. The pickles will begin to sour in less than a week. You can eat them at any point in the fermenting process. Once soured to your likely, transfer the pickles to the refrigerator, and keep submerged in brine. They will keep for a month or longer.

Tour de Jalapeno Bike Race & Tour

Tito’s is proud to sponsor this years Tour de Jalapeno bike race & tour taking place in San Marcos, Texas on August 2, 2015.  Tito’s is even prouder that the organizers of the Tour de Jalapeno had to make a last minute announcement after picking up the jalapenos last week.  Per the Tour de Jalapeno Facebook page:

“HOT Jalapeno Alert !!!!!!!
Tito’s Jalapeno’s are BIG and HOT…… Due to the large size and Heat we are adjusting the time deductions for each Jalapeno eaten from 2 minutes to 5 Minutes.

This brilliant event incorporates a race where riders have the opportunity to stop at two different stations where they can consume as many jalapenos as possible and for each jalapeno eaten 5 minutes (historically two minutes) will be deducted from their total time.

Riders will be enjoying Tito’s dill pickle juice at all rest stops and those who are brave enough to will have an opportunity to eat all of the whole jalapenos they can handle in an effort to reduce their overall times.  Everyone who comes out gets a package of sliced jalapenos in their riders kits.  This is going to be a great event and Tito’s is proud to sponsor it!

Tour de Jalapeno Logo

 

Pickle party: annual canning event draws fans from all over to Delmont

DELMONT — They’re claimed to be “the best pickles you’ve ever had.”

It’s a big statement, sure. But there may be justification for the Grosz family’s pickles. About 50 people—some traveling up to three hours away—recently spent their entire Saturday on a pickle-making assembly line. And they paid to take some of these famous pickles home.

For each of the last 18 years, family and friends and some newcomers have made their way to Delmont to be a part of the annual Grosz Pickle Packin’ Party held at the Delmont Community Center. Nearly 2,000 quart jars of pickles were produced during this annual one-day event.

Organizers Terry and Sam Grosz send out invitations more than a month in advance to prepare for the event. Starting out as a way to hold a family reunion and see distant relatives, now there’s what could be considered a “pickle family.”

“We see some of these people once a year and it’s grown to the point where I don’t know every person here,” Terry said. “But people are here to have fun and make some pretty good pickles in the process.”

The process starts in the back of the community center, where five propane turkey cookers are brewing up the brine for the pickles. It is kept as close to boiling as possible before it goes into the jars. By the end of the day, they’ve mixed hundreds of gallons of brine.

In the front of the building, a U-shaped assembly line is formed, where cucumbers are the first item in the jar, followed by a litany of vegetables and seasonings before the brine is added and the jars are sealed.

One of the sons in the operation, Brian Grosz, wears welder’s gloves to keep from getting burned cooking the brine. He said the pilgrimage to Delmont for the pickles starts with their quality.

“They’re good pickles, number one. They’re good pickles,” he said. “But I think so many people just like spending time with each other because we have a good time with each other.”

History of the party

For the last 18 years, the Grosz family has been holding a canning party on a July weekend. Terry said the idea started about 20 years ago when his cousins from California—who had 15 children—invited them out to participate in their pickling party as a way to see the family. They brought home 18 jars of pickles. When the party started, it was just five members of the Grosz family under a tent in the yard.

“It took us all day to make 120 jars,” Terry said. “The next year we had a few more and then it was a few more after that. We moved into the community center about 14 to 15 years ago and it just keeps growing.”

This year, the final count for jars made was 1,967, a figure that flexes each year depending on the number of people and how many supplies are available. The record for quart jars produced by the group in one day is 2,800.

“It can get to be a bit unwieldy,” Sam joked.

There are a few ground rules for the party. There’s a maximum of 36 jars per person packing pickles. People are allowed to deviate from the basic recipe but they have to bring their own ingredients that they wish to add. The cucumbers—each not longer than about five inches—come from about seven or eight area Hutterite Colonies near Delmont, Terry says.

About 85 invitations were sent out this year and it’s first-come, first-serve for the participants. There’s more than six hours of pickling, and a potluck lunch splits the day at noon.

The recipe

Terry made a promise to his California cousin years ago that he would never give it up, and he’s stayed true to his promise. He’s refuted inquiries from as far away as Arizona for the recipe. But he admits it’s not hard to figure out and there’s one secret ingredient he can always control.

“It’s TLC—tender, love and care,” Terry said. “Honestly, that makes a big difference.”

In addition to the vegetables, the brine includes vinegar, salt and cider to make the magic happen.

“Other than that, I don’t know what makes them so good,” he said. “We buy good cucumbers and clean them up good. It’s a combination of things.”

Speaking of cleaning the cucumbers, the Grosz family cleans by hand but also uses two washing machines that are loaded up. Bath towels line the inside of the washing machine and isn’t too rough on the cucumbers as long as it is set on low, Terry said.

On the assembly line, Terry said some people can become territorial about having the same job each year.

“If it was a dog or a skunk, they would have marked their area with their leg in the air,” Terry joked.

David Malters, of Mitchell, was not one of those people. He had the job of pouring the brine into the jars. They try to keep the brine as close to boiling as possible.

“If anyone else wants to burn their hands, they can,” he quipped.

He’s one of the people who has put in a few years at the pickle party and says the pickle jars have a habit of disappearing when family is around.

“I can’t hardly keep the stuff around,” he said. “They’re as advertised.”

‘They’ve got a zing’

The Grosz family was among the fortunate ones in the May 10 tornado that hit Delmont, avoiding serious damage from the storm that destroyed dozens of homes. On the invitations for this year’s event, a drawing of a tornado was sketched out and reading “a tornado doesn’t stop us … we’re getting pickled” with two cartoon pickles.

“I really don’t think we ever gave it a second thought about not having it,” Terry said. “But it certainly had a huge impact on our town, and there would have been a lot of people let down if we couldn’t have done it this year.”

First-timers at the pickle party, Cotton Koch and his father, Harold, were helping at 150-gallon tanks where the cucumbers sit in pools of water and are washed for a first time. From Madison and Chamberlain, the Kochs admit they’re new at the pickle party, so much so that they had never even tasted the pickles.

“We just heard about it and figured we had to try it out,” Harold said.

Hearing they had never eaten one of the prized pickles, Sheila Kluck interjected with a testimonial.

“They’ve got a zing,” she said. “You won’t find a crisper pickle.”

Kluck, from Richland, Neb., and her friend, Chuck Klement, of Columbus, Neb., are in the same gardening circles. They’re in the club of people who made a three-hour trip to Delmont.

“It is kind of crazy when you stop and think about it,” she said. “But they’re that good.”

Klement said he credits the Grosz family for taking on the big challenge of pickling cases and cases of pickles each year.

“You can tell this is something they put lots of love into,” he said. “They’re great people and my hats are off to them.”

Terry Grosz said he enjoys the fact that all walks of life are represented—lawyers, doctors, farmers, mechanics—and they’re part of what makes the annual pickle party what it is.

“It’s a case of happy people that enjoy themselves and like what they’re doing and they certainly like the finished product,” Terry said.

Burger lovers like to heat things up in Australia

David Johns | July 24, 2015, 9:00 AM | GUARDIAN EXPRESS

WEST Australian burger lovers like it hot, according to new research released by fast food chain McDonald’s.

Statistics gathered by the company show that WA customers were more likely to add jalapenos to their burger than customers in any other State.

The research follows on from a new initiative in which customers can construct their own burgers in-store at McDonald’s outlets.

The figures also showed that West Australians had created more than 78,000 different burger combinations – 60 per cent of which were unique to WA.

South Australians prefer shaved parmesan cheese on their burgers the most while Victorians love their rasher bacon.

Curiously, the preferred burger ingredients for Tasmanians are tortilla chips and pineapple.