Pickle & Preserve

These are delicious as part of an appetizer plate, or as a Martini garnish.

The tanginess of the homemade pickled eggs (they're easy!) balances the richness of the chicken liver. Timing note: Begin making the eggs at least one day ahead.

Any leftover onions would be delicious layered in a chicken, turkey, pork, or roast beef sandwich.

A quick pickling gives the shrimp a bright, tangy flavor. Timing note: The shrimp need to chill in the pickling mixture for three to six hours before serving.

A big jar of beet-pickled hard-boiled eggs anchors many a neighborhood bar in Pennsylvania, but you can take the idea a step further, melding a colorful finger food with another classic snack. Caraway seeds add an aromatic note to the eggs’ deviled filling.

Sweet-tart pineapple is wonderful with pork, as are collard greens. The two together, plus a healthy dose of vinegar, morph into something that's utterly surprising and utterly delicious. It both complements and cuts the richness of the meat.

The piquancy of little sweet-and-sour squash helps balance the lavishness of the creamed corn and okra stew. The surprise ingredient here is maple syrup: It adds a more rounded flavor to the pickles than sugar. A mixture of tiny green, yellow, and pattypan squash makes a visual impact, but slices of regular zucchini would be delicious, too.

It's hard to overstate the importance of kimchi, which is typically a spicy dish of fermented firm leafy cabbage and other vegetables. This mild version omits chilies. Begin making it at least three days ahead.

Food editor Melissa Roberts learned the ins and outs of making escabeche—a Spanish dish that preserves fish by frying it, then pickling it—at Alicia Juanpere's Catacurian cooking school, near Barcelona. As the fish (in this case, robust sardines or mackerel) absorbs the vinegary dressing over time, its flavor deepens, picking up the notes of paprika and cinnamon, orange and lemon.

Korean tables—both in restaurants and at home—are always set with a series of banchan, or little dishes that can be eaten alone, with rice, or as an accompaniment to the main course. To keep things lively, banchan should run the gamut of tastes and textures, and this particular pickle really sparkles: It is sweet, tart, crisp, and fresh. Salting the sliced cucumbers and then squeezing out their excess water allows them to fully soak up the pickling mixture.

No Korean meal is complete without kimchi, a piquant condiment of fermented vegetables (most popularly cabbage) seasoned with ginger, garlic, chile, and all manner of fresh or preserved seafood. Fermenting the ingredients over several days gives the dish its distinctive tang, but this easy version, which takes advantage of the funky depth of Asian fish sauce, offers relatively instant gratification.

Eben Freeman, bartender of Tailor restaurant in New York City, developed this bitter, Cognac-based cocktail, which makes for a great after-dinner drink.

Possibly the most versatile of condiments, pickled vegetables meddle their way into most every culinary tradition, from giant kosher dills at the deli and ume plums in Japan to German sauerkraut and French cornichons. Because they keep indefinitely, a good batch of pickled red onions will wake up Chinese leftovers or act as a companion to a luscious grilled cheese sandwich with pulled short ribs . I first served this particular recipe to temper the richness of a refined duck pâté. Easy, cheap, fast: What better combination?

Forget the box of chocolates this year. Instead, make your loved one swoon with a bottle of this chocolate liqueur. Be sure to get started at least three weeks ahead so that the flavors have time to meld. Any leftover liqueur would be terrific stirred into coffee or hot chocolate.

As a wake-up call to his taste buds, food editor Ian Knauer adds a dollop of this vibrant, garlicky hot sauce to his egg sandwich (it often finds its way onto his lunch and dinner plates, too). Its versatility is the key—any variety or combination of chiles will produce a different yet full-flavored, lip-tingling sauce.

Crisp beans are paired with sour onions and a sweet maple dressing.

When preserving ripe tomatoes, it's important to add bottled lemon juice to make sure the mixture is safe for canning. Bottled lemon juice is used instead of fresh because it has a consistent acidity. We prefer the flavor of organic; look for it at natural foods stores.

Mix this relish into tuna or chicken salad, or serve with burgers or hot dogs.