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Is there an alternate timeline where my home country is known as the United States of the Pickle-Dealer?
有没有另一条时间线，在那里我的祖国被称为“美国·酸黄瓜商”？
It seems unlikely, but there's an element of truth to this half-sour hypothetical.
似乎不太可能，但这个“半酸”的假设有一定的真实性。
Amerigo Vespucci did not discover the Americas, contrary to what the map-makers who named the continents believed, but his given name did end up lending itself to the so-called "new world."
为各大洲命名的地图绘制者认为亚美瑞格.韦斯普奇发现了美洲，而事实并非如此；但他的名字确实最终借给了所谓的“新世界”。
And Ralph Waldo Emerson once called Vespucci "the pickle-dealer at Seville," a derisive label that may have stretched the truth a bit, but pointed towards a very real part of the itinerant Italian's biography.
拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生曾称韦斯普奇为“塞维利亚的酸黄瓜商”，这个极具嘲讽的标签可能有些夸张，但也揭露了这位四处奔波的意大利人非常真实的一部分。
Before traveling to the New World himself, Vespucci worked as a ship chandler - someone who sold supplies to seafaring merchants and explorers.
在亲自前往新大陆之前，韦斯普奇是一名船用物品杂货商——向海上商人和探险家出售补给。
These supplies included foods like meat, fish, and vegetables that had been pickled, which meant they would stay preserved beneath a ship's deck for months.
这些补给包括肉类、鱼和腌制过的蔬菜等食物，这些食物可以在船的甲板下保存几个月。
Without pickling, expeditions had to rely on dried foods and ingredients with naturally long shelf lives for sustenance.
没有腌制食物，探险队就只能靠自然保质期长的干货来维持生计。
Much of the time, this limited diet wasn't enough to provide crew members the nutrition they needed for the journey ahead.
很多时候，有限的食材不足以为船员提供旅程所需的营养。
This made pickle sellers like Vespucci indispensable during the golden age of exploration.
这让韦斯普奇这样的腌菜卖家在探险的黄金时代变得十分珍贵。
Vespucci even supplied Christopher Columbus's later voyages across the Atlantic with his briny goods.
韦斯普奇甚至为克里斯托弗·哥伦布提供了腌菜，让他成功横渡大西洋。
So while he wasn't the world's most important explorer, Vespucci's pickles may have changed history by preventing untold bouts of scurvy.
因此，虽然韦斯普奇不是世界上最重要的探险家，但他的腌菜可能已经改变了历史，因为他无数次让船员们避免了坏疽发作。
And pickles weren't just enjoyed by 15th century sailors.
不仅仅是15世纪的水手喜欢吃腌菜。
From ancient Mesopotamia to New York deli counters, they've played a vital role in the global culinary scene.
从古老的美索不达米亚到纽约熟食店柜台，腌菜在全球烹饪舞台上扮演着至关重要的角色。
But where do pickles come from?
但是腌菜起源于哪里呢？
How did the cucumber become the standard-issue pickling vegetable, here in the States?
在美国，黄瓜是如何成为腌菜的标配的？
And what exactly is a pickle, anyway?
而且，腌菜到底是什么呢？
And - oo sorry, I just kind of tired myself out asking questions that I'm gonna answer later in the video, so you know what, let's just get started.
还有——抱歉，问这些在后面的视频里都要解答的问题，我有点累了所以，我们开始吧。
Hi, I'm Justin Dodd.
嗨，我是贾斯汀·多德。
Welcome to Food History.
欢迎来到食物的历史。
The verb, "to pickle" means to preserve something in a solution.
动词“to pickle”的意思是在溶液中保存某物。
That solution is often vinegar, which is, at its most basic, made of water and acetic acid.
这种溶液通常是醋，而醋最基本的成分是水和醋酸。
Most bacteria can't flourish in highly acidic environments, so submerging a perishable food in vinegar helps create a sort of natural forcefield against the microbes that cause spoilage.
大多数细菌无法在酸性高的环境中繁殖，所以把易腐烂的食物浸入醋中有助于创造一种自然的力场，让食物不会因为微生物而腐败。
Another common pickling solution is brine, a.k.a. salty water.
另一种常见的腌制溶液是盐水。
The brining method also relies on acid's preserving properties, but the acid isn't added by the pickle maker.
用盐水腌制也依赖于酸有利于保存食物的特性，但酸不是由腌菜的人加入进去的。
It's introduced by bacteria via a process called fermentation.
而是由细菌通过一种被称为发酵的过程生成的。
I've covered fermentation in our episodes on chocolate and beer...
我已经之前的节目中谈到过发酵，例如巧克力和啤酒的那两期……
and ramen...
和拉面的那期……
And ketchup.
还有番茄酱那期。
Look it's kind of a big deal.
还真是重要。
In the case of pickles, lactobacillus bacteria consume carbohydrates and excrete lactic acid, so if you leave a jar of vegetables in saltwater, those bacteria will eventually turn the briny solution into an acidic one.
就腌菜而言，乳酸菌能够消耗碳水化合物并生成乳酸，所以如果你把一罐蔬菜放在盐水中，细菌最终会让盐水溶液变成酸性溶液。
