People living in a warm climate, and having the opportunity to eat fresh vegetables all year round, have no idea why cucumbers should be preserved. Therefore, in no kitchen of the world there is such a rich experience in preserving heat-loving vegetables, as in Russian cuisine, and all the secrets in this direction are an absolute achievement of our housewives.
A variety of marinade recipes for cucumbers is gradually increasing, because Russian cuisine is characterized by constant change coming from outside. Peculiarities of the national cuisine of neighboring nations are welcomed by our housewives, even in canning.
The second important issue in this matter is the quick ways of harvesting, because our people are used to the table being always generous, and having reaped the harvest, you need to have time to recycle it - after all, summer in temperate latitudes is short, and you will have to wait until the next harvest for a long time.
A quick recipe for pickled cucumbers - basic technological principles
If you choose a suitable variety of cucumbers for canning, then there will be no problems with their harvesting and storage. For salting and pickling, the most suitable varieties of medium maturity grown in open ground. It is possible to determine the type of pickling cucumber by its appearance: the fruits have a thin skin with large tubercles and black thorns, dense flesh. The skin color of pickling cucumber is light, almost white - from the side of the inflorescence, turning into a saturated green shade near the stem.
Of course, there are other subtleties that must be considered when canning. For pickling, it is recommended to use freshly harvested fruits, as their quality deteriorates during long-term storage. Also should be selected fruits of small size, in the stage of technical ripeness, when the seeds have not yet had time to form. They are more dense, and small cucumbers are packed more tightly into banks, which allows for economical use of containers and storage space. True, it happens that the fruits correspond to the stage of technical ripeness, but at the same time, their sizes reach 10 cm and above. These cucumbers are great for canning in the cut, making winter salads.
The process of canning cucumbers always begins with sorting the fruit, preparing the appropriate number of cans of the desired volume.
Soak cucumbers before putting them in the jar: sometimes the peel of the fruit contains bitterness, which is removed, due to aging in cold water.
While cucumbers “take water procedures, banks are carefully checked for the presence of cracks, chips and other defects, then they are cleaned and sterilized, together with the lids. The next stage is the preparation of spicy herbs, roots, spices that need to be washed, peeled and cut. Further - everything is simple and very fast. Cucumbers can be preserved by the method of double pouring or pasteurization. For subsequent storage of blanks in the conditions of a city apartment, at room temperature, however, pasteurization is a more reliable method.
A mandatory component of the marinade is an acid that provides a preservation effect. This may be ordinary table vinegar, citric acid, juice of tomatoes, currants, apples, containing acetic acid. The content of acetic acid in the marinade for cucumbers should not be below 12%. When using fruit juices as a preservative, be sure to pasteurize the cans; vinegar pickling is more reliable, and the classic marinade allows you to roll up the jars without pasteurization.
1. Pickled Cucumbers - Classic Quick Recipe
Ingredients:
Dill umbrellas 400 g
Cherry leaves (or green shoots) 300 g
Red carrots 1.2 kg
Roots of horseradish table 700 g
Pepper: sweet Bulgarian - 1.2 kg; spicy, chute - 300 g
Garlic 450g
Sliced black currant leaves 300 g
Stinging nettle (dried or fresh) 100 g
Bay leaf, whole 50 g
Mustard (grain) 70 g
Peas: Fragrant 60 g; black - 40 g
Coriander seeds 60 g
Oak bark, dry (or oak leaves) 90 g Vinegar (9%) 750 ml
Rock salt 360 g
Unrefined sugar 250 g
Purified water 15 l (+ / - 3 l)
Cucumbers of technical ripeness (up to 7-8 cm) 17 kg
Output: 10 cans of 3.0 l
Preparation:
Cucumbers sort, wash and wet, soak in cold water for five hours. At the bottom of each jar, place cooked spices, roots, and chopped leaves. Drain and place the fruit tightly in sterile jars.
Prepare the marinade: put on a tablespoon of salt and sugar per liter of water. Capacity with water, sugar and salt, boil for 5-7 minutes. Pour the cucumbers in the banks with boiling solution. Cover the bottles with sterile caps and allow to cool completely. Drain the cooled water back into the pot using a special lid with holes, and boil the solution again.
Pour 75 ml of vinegar into each jar, and immediately fill each bottle to the neck with boiling brine, immediately stop the cork and turn the bottle over.
Please note that part of the marinade is absorbed into the cucumbers after they are cooled, so the water should cover them 2-4 cm above the level. Wrap the blanks with a warm blanket, hold the jars until they are completely cooled.
Transfer to storage in the allotted place.
2. Spicy pickled cucumbers - quick recipe
For 1 bottle (3 l):
Cucumbers "Nezhen", technical ripeness 1.5 kg
Salt 60 g
Sugar 30g
Bay leaf, whole 3 pcs.
Juniper berries, dried 4 pcs.
Hot red pepper, capsicum - to taste
Table horseradish root 40 g
Dill Umbrellas
Chives 25 g
Black currant leaves and cherry, fresh
Nettle 30g
Black and Jamaican pepper 6g
Mustard seeds 3 g
Water 1.5 l
Vinegar 50 ml
Preparation:
Sort the cucumbers, wash and soak for eight hours. Scald fresh nettle leaves with boiling water so as not to burn your hands and chop. Fresh fruit leaves can be put in bottles of 5-6 pieces. Put the sliced leaves, garlic, sliced plates, spices, pieces of table horseradish, dill umbrellas and half of hot pepper into prepared bottles. Fill the bottles tightly with cucumbers. Boil the water, adding sugar and salt to it. Fill the bottles with a warm solution to the top. Cover them with plastic lids and leave to ripen at room temperature until the brine becomes acidic. Pour it from the cans into the pan, boil, adding fresh spices. Cucumbers in banks pour a couple of times with boiling water, changing the water.
After that, shift the cucumbers again: since after ripening in the brine their volume will noticeably decrease, compact the fruits. Pour alternately boiling brine, add 50 ml of vinegar, and immediately roll up the cans with tin lids. If cucumbers are stored in a cool place, you can not add vinegar.
Turn over, cover the bottle with a blanket until it cools. Banks transfer to the pantry.
3. Korean Pickled Cucumbers with Carrots - Quick Recipe
If a large number of large cucumbers are harvested from the garden, which need to be “put into action”, then a quick recipe of a ready-made cucumber snack is always useful.
Composition:
Sugar 120 g
Vinegar (9%) 120 ml
Cucumbers 2.4 kg
Salt 50 g
Seasoning for Korean carrot 15 g
Garlic 70g
Carrots 0.6 kg
Oil 150 ml
Cooking Technology:
Choose a red carrot, with blunt noses, rinse the roots well, chop thin and long straws. Sprinkle with Korean seasoning, sugar, salt and pour vinegar. Stir and soak for about half an hour, until the juice is separated. Cucumbers, washed and aged in water, cut into the same straw. Mix the vegetables and pack them into prepared containers (0.5 - 0.7 l cans).
Pasteurize ten minutes, from the moment of boiling water in the container for pasteurization. Seal the jars immediately and turn them over. Allow to cool by wrapping them.
4. Spicy pickled cucumbers with vodka and lemons - a quick recipe
Ingredients:
Caraway
Mustard seeds
Dill umbrellas
Horseradish roots
Hot Peppers (Pods)
Bay leaf
Garlic
Cherry and blackcurrant leaves, sliced Pepper Peas (mix)
Oak bark 300 g
Lemons 10-12 pieces
Sugar 600 g
Salt 900 g
Purified water 10 l
Vodka 1.0 l
Cucumbers 12-15 kg
Cooking:
Spicy roots and spices add to marinade to taste. Sort cucumbers: for canning, select the smallest fruits, and large ones will be useful for salads and snacks. Soaked cucumbers soak in cold water. Prepare a strong broth of oak bark, and for the third time pour cucumbers for an hour with warm infusion.
Peel and chop the horseradish roots with ringlets, chop fresh leaves of cherry and black currant, cut lemons into rings, and garlic cloves into plates.
Boil the prepared purified water, adding sugar and salt, cumin, mustard seeds, bay leaves. In sterile bottles spread out the chopped spices, dill, pepper pods. Put cucumbers and lemon slices. Pour 100 ml of vodka into each bottle, pour hot marinade and immediately roll up the lids. After cooling, transfer the cans to the basement.
5. Cucumbers in spicy tomato marinade - quick recipe
Composition:
Water 800 ml
Tomato paste 250 g
Ground coriander
Allspice
Carnation
Salt 75 g
Sugar 200 g
Garlic
Bay leaf
Chile - to taste
Vinegar (9%) 70 ml
Cucumbers 1 kg
Output - 1 can (1.5 l)
Preparation:
Wash the cucumbers. For this recipe fit large fruits. Cut them lengthwise into 4 pieces, or cut them into plates about one centimeter thick. Put in a jar, as tightly as possible.
Pour the water into the pan, mix it with the tomato paste. You can replace the paste with fresh, but thick tomato juice: you need to take it in the amount of 2 liters and reduce it by half. Put spices in boiling tomato dressing. Their number can be adjusted to your liking. Boil marinade for five minutes on low heat, pour cucumbers with boiling water, adding vinegar to the jar.
Pasteurize for ten minutes. Hot jar immediately cover and cover with a thick cloth. Stand in this position until cooled. After checking the quality of the capping, transfer the cucumbers to the pantry.
6. Cucumbers with red currants - a quick recipe for savory pickle
Ingredients:
Cucumbers (small) 700 g
Garlic
Sugar 50 g
Red currant 300 g
Salt 30 g
Berry puree 250 g
A mixture of peppers (peas)
Carnation
Water 300 ml
Technology:
Put spices in the bottom of the jar. Wash the cucumbers, cut off the edges on both sides, put them in a jar vertically. Sprinkle currants, shake the jar so that the berries are evenly scattered in the jar
For the marinade, boil water, add berry puree, sugar, and salt to it. Boil for 3-4 minutes, strain through cheesecloth so that the marinade is transparent. Pour into a jar.
Pasteurization time - 7 minutes.
Quick Pickle Cucumber Recipes - Tips & Tricks
I always want very much that canned cucumbers look as bright and green as fresh.
Our ancestors knew such a secret:
First, cucumbers in Russia have been salted for a long time, when no one heard of any glass jars, seamers and pasteurization. Oak barrels for pickles were scalded with boiling water, rinsed with vodka. Then the barrels were filled with cucumbers, shifting each layer with leaves and stalks of nettle. It is clear that not all housewives have the opportunity to store cucumbers in oak barrels, but you can take note of the old secrets when canning vegetables for the winter. Oak bark, vodka and nettle help to preserve the natural green color and crispy density of cucumbers.
To preserve the color of cucumbers, you can use another way: for 10 liters of pickle or pickle for cucumbers, instead of vinegar, add 0.7 liters of vodka and 1/2 teaspoon of burnt alum (you can buy them at any pharmacy).
