Reddit reviews The Joy of Pickling: 250 Flavor-Packed Recipes for Vegetables and More from Garden or Market (Revised Edition)

I don't think you can water-bath or pressure can ginger, likely for the reason that Yossarian33 says: it would lose its crispiness. I have the awesome book The Joy of Pickling and all the recipes for pickled ginger, including the sushi-restaurant style, are for refrigerator pickles.

If your really interested in the art of charcuterie I suggest purchasing this charcuterie book. It will explain everything, it's an amazing book.

http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Craft-Salting-Smoking-Curing/dp/0393058298


As for pickling veg. It is very easy. Another book for that with ligitimate recipes is

http://www.amazon.com/The-Joy-Pickling-Flavor-Packed-Vegetables/dp/1558323759

Also really good book with great recipes. In the book she refers to pickling salt in almost all recipes. Just use kosher.

https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Pickling-Flavor-Packed-Recipes-Vegetables/dp/1558323759

This is a good book for actually making pickles.

Sandor Katz's books are more fun for reading, but his approach isn't about making refined and perfected recipes as much as just explaining the variety of processes for making different fermented foods. for example, while he explains how to make miso, I wouldn't use his book as a guide to make my own. It's more about reading about the process than a step by step guide by an expert.

http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Pickling-Flavor-Packed-Recipes-Vegetables/dp/1558323759

What people usually refer to as "quick pickles" are pickles that are not water bath preserved, but rather refrigerated. Because you usually aren't "cooking" these by soaking them in boiling water, they tend to come out crisper than a water bath preserved pickle. You usually boil a vinegar based brine with some salt and spices in it and then add it to the vegetables. You let them cool to room temp and then stick them in your fridge (or, if your brine has an acceptable acid level, process them via boiling water bath... these are not longer "quick pickles," but processed via boiling water bath.) There are also directions for a lower temp (like 180degF) pasteurization process that I have never played with. These supposedly result in crisper pickles. You are adding acid in the form of vinegar to create a safe environment for food preservation for these pickles.

Fermented pickles are cured in a brine (usually a room temp) for a lengthy period of time, usually from a week to a few weeks, depending on the vegetable and your final goal. You are creating an environment that favors a certain type of bacterial growth which causes (hopefully) predictable changes in the taste of the pickle. These bacteria out-compete everything else and create an environment hostile to other bacteria that are dangerous for you to eat. The by product of the bacteria you are trying to grow is lactic acid, which lowers the pH enough to create a safe environment- instead of adding vinegar to make a safe environment, you are "growing your own" acid. Obviously, this can be a tempermental process. It's a world onto it's own, with lots of variations steeped in culinary history of different areas of the world. Check out /r/fermentation for some more info on this process.

My suggestion is to ask yourself what you love in a pickle. Sharp "dill pickle" flavor? (probably fermented) Super crisp, fresher tasting? (quick pickles, most likely) Stable, room temp storage and a predictable process? (boiling water bath pickles) These are broad generalizations of course, but those are my opinions of the strengths and characteristics of each style.

Some resources: The Joy of Pickling for an array of styles and anything by Sandor Katz for the fermented styles. I also loved Asian Pickles by Karen Solomon for a whole new range of pickles unfamilar to a lot of people.