When food is pickled for human consumption as much water as possible is removed from the food What method is used to achieve this dehydrating effect?

Answer 1

Oodles of salt! Try it for yourself: grate or slice a cucumber or courgette, place in a colander which you place inside a bowl or deep plate. Watch and be amazed how much water comes out! Incidentally, this will crisp up your cucumber and it will remove the bitterness from your courgette.

So, back to pickling, salt is used and often vinegar as well.