Pickled cucumbers according to grandma's recipe
1 serving
30 minutes
Andrey Chakhurin, a baker at the Kolomenskaya Pastila museum, tells how to make pickled cucumbers according to his grandmother's recipe. The recipe describes two methods of pickling.
1
Cucumbers should be small and firm. Long Chinese cucumbers are not suitable; they are crunchy and juicy in salads but not good for pickling. Cucumbers should be thoroughly washed before pickling.
2
Then sterilize the jars and place the herbs in them. For a one-and-a-half-liter jar, you need to take 4-5 black currant leaves and a dill umbrella.
- Blackcurrant leaves: 5 piece
- Dill stems: 1 piece
3
Cut the hot pepper: you need 3-4 rings for the same jar. The pepper adds spiciness to the cucumbers and acts as an antiseptic.
- Chili pepper: 10 g
4
Add half a leaf of horseradish and several sliced rounds of the root. Besides disinfection, horseradish gives cucumbers strength and substance.
- Horseradish leaves: 1.5 piece
- Horseradish: 20 g
5
Place cucumbers in a jar; they can be packed with any density, but the more cucumbers fit in one jar, the fewer jars will be needed in the end.
- Cucumbers: 700 g
6
Cover the cucumbers with a horseradish leaf on top. It won't let any extra bacteria through. You can pour the brine first and then cover everything with a leaf, or vice versa.
- Horseradish leaves: 1.5 piece
7
There are two ways to pickle cucumbers. The first is simpler: dissolve 2 tablespoons of salt in 1 liter of cold water. Pour the brine, close the jar with a plastic lid, and store it in a cellar or another cold place. If kept in a cold dark place, nothing will happen to the cucumbers with this pickling method. Therefore, there is no need to seal the jar. After 45 days, the cucumbers can be eaten.
- Salt: to taste
8
The second pickling method is a bit trickier. It's more reliable if the cucumbers are not 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.
9
Pour cucumbers with hot salt solution. Cover the jar with a lid and place it in a cool place for two to three days.
10
When fermentation starts and the brine bubbles, it needs to be drained.
11
Pour cucumbers with clean cold water, no salt is needed — the cucumbers are already salted and even fermented enough, nothing else will happen to them. Then you need to 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 horseradish leaf with a fresh one as it will have wilted by then.
- Vinegar 9%: 2 tablespoons
12
Now the jar needs to be sealed. The cucumbers will be ready in 45 days.