Bottom Line: As the name suggests, Picklesmash Hot Salsa is a salsa for pickle lovers and it delivers a nice burn as well.
Salsa is a simple thing, usually consisting of tomatoes, onions, chilis, and a few other veggies and/or fruits along with herbs and spices. But out of all the times I have made salsa (and that’s quite a lot), I’ve never thought about adding pickles to the mix. After tasting Picklesmash Salsa, though, I am going to be reconsidering that the next time a whip up a batch of the stuff.
I stumbled upon this salsa while in Fredericksburg, Texas, and it is made not far away in Austin. Surprisingly, it has no tomatoes in the mix (I thought I tasted them in there) as cucumbers, onions, jalapenos, and distilled vinegar are the main ingredients, and apparently the pickling is done during the process. I was dubious upon first seeing the jar, but they had samples available and one taste had me hooked.
The initial flavor of this salsa is very much like a dill pickle relish. It has plenty of pucker and a nice sourness balanced by just a little bit of sweetness. Then you get the jalapenos that add a nice chili pepper flavor and pull it away from being a full-on relish. There’s also a bit of garlic in there to expand the flavor profile. It has some richness as well which I initially thought came from tomatoes, but apparently that is driven by the combination of other ingredients.
Basically, if you like dill pickles, you will almost certainly like this salsa. If not, you have been warned. As they say on their website, it is Dill-icious®! (And note that trademark, so check with your lawyer before using that word extensively.) This is also pretty salty (it does include MSG), so it might be paired best with something that does not have too much salt.
The heat kicks in right away and starts around the Medium level. And the more you eat, the more the heat increases as it works its way up to the Hot level. And that burn lasts for a while. They have a Mild version as well, so if you want more pickle and less heat, that may be the one for you.
This goes really well just with chips. But it also works quite well as a relish on burgers and hotdogs. I’m thinking you might be able to make a good dip with this as well, mixing it with sour cream or cream cheese.
HEB carries it and apparently Walmart does as well, though I don’t remember seeing it at the locations near me. I may have just ignored it in the past because it seemed like an odd variation on salsa. But after trying it I will be searching it out going forward. It sells for around six bucks a jar which is more than the typical salsas you see on the shelves, but not as much as some of the craft concoctions. I recommend giving it a try, because you may find yourself hooked on this pickled version of salsa.
Tale of the Tape:
Ingredients: Cucumbers, onions, jalapeno peppers, distilled vinegar, spices, xanthan gum, monosodium glutamate, garlic, dehydrated garlic, annatto (color), salt, natural flavor, mustard seed, water
Serving Size: 1 Tbsp
Calories: 5
Fat: 0g (0g Sat/0g Trans)
Protein: 0g
Carbs: 0g
Sodium: 190mg