Grandma's Pickled Cucumbers
⏳ Time
30 minutes + 20 days
🥕 Ingredients
8
🍽️ Servings
1
Description
This recipe is designed for one 1.5-liter jar.
Ingredients
- Cucumbers - 24.7 oz
- Salt - to taste
- Black Currant Leaves - 5 pieces
- Horseradish Leaves - 1½ pieces
- Horseradish Leaves - 0.7 oz
- Mild Chili Spice - 0.4 oz
- Dried Dill Stems - 1 piece
- 9% Vinegar - 2 spoons
Step by Step guide
Step 1
It's best to choose small, firm cucumbers. Long Chinese cucumbers are not suitable; while they are crunchy and juicy in salads, they are not good for pickling. Be sure to wash the cucumbers thoroughly before pickling.
Step 2
Then sterilize the jars and pack the herbs into them. For a 1.5-liter jar, use 4–5 leaves of black currant and a dill umbrella.
Step 3
Slice the hot pepper: you will need 3–4 rings for the same jar. The pepper adds heat to the cucumbers and also acts as a natural preservative.
Step 4
Place half a horseradish leaf along with several sliced rounds of the root. Besides its disinfecting properties, horseradish adds strength and depth to the cucumbers.
Step 5
Pack the cucumbers into the jar. You can arrange them as tightly or loosely as you like, but the more cucumbers you fit into one jar, the fewer jars you'll need in the end.
Step 6
Cover the cucumbers with a leaf of horseradish on top. It will prevent any unwanted bacteria. You can either pour in the brine first and then cover everything with the leaf, or do it the other way around.
Step 7
There are two methods for pickling cucumbers. The first one is simpler: dissolve salt in cold water at a ratio of 2 tablespoons of salt per liter of water. Pour the brine over the cucumbers, cover the jar with a plastic lid, and store it in a cellar or another cool place. If you keep the cucumbers in a cold, dark place, nothing will happen to them with this pickling method. Therefore, there's no need to seal the jar. After 45 days, the cucumbers are ready to eat.
Step 8
The second method of salting is a bit trickier. It's more reliable if the cucumbers will not be stored in the coolest place. Pour clean cold water into a pot, add an egg, sprinkle in salt, and stir until the egg floats: this indicates that the brine is very strong. It's hard to say exactly how much salt is needed, so the egg serves as an indicator here.
Step 9
Pour the cucumbers with a hot brine solution. Cover the jar with a lid and place it in a cool location for two to three days.
Step 10
When fermentation begins and the brine starts bubbling, it needs to be drained.
Step 11
Pour the cucumbers with clean cold water; no salt is needed as the cucumbers have already been salted and have even fermented enough, so nothing else will happen to them. Then, add 2 tablespoons of 9% vinegar to each jar. Ideally, this concentration is for one liter of water, and we have about that much in the jar. It's better to replace the top leaf of horseradish with a fresh one, as it will have wilted by that time.
Step 12
Now the jar needs to be sealed. The cucumbers will be ready in 45 days.
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