Sweet and sour pickled cucumbers can be a real treat. Let your creativity run free in the production and choose from the wide variety of vinegars that tastes best to you. There are also different options for sweetening.

Sweet and sour pickles are also deliciously refined with spices

Pickled sweet and sour cucumbers

Pickling cucumbers are usually grown outdoors. The small cucumbers ripen from the summer months until autumn. In high-yield years, there is often a veritable glut of cucumbers during this time. It's worth picking cucumbers in different ways here. In addition to pickles and pickles, the sweet and sour variants are very popular.

  1. Only use cucumbers that are in good condition and remove the base and stem.
  2. Scrub the vegetables under running water. The cucumbers must be really clean and must not show any damage.
  3. Sprinkle the cucumbers with salt and let them soak overnight.
  4. The salt is washed off again the next day.
  5. Prepare a decoction of water, vinegar, some lime juice, honey and mustard seeds. You can experiment to your heart's content when combining the spices. Add, for example, dill, onions, bay leaves or juniper berries.
  6. Boil the stock and once the honey has dissolved, add the cucumbers. Cook the whole thing for about 5 minutes.
  7. Put the cucumbers with the broth in previously sterilized, i.e. boiled, screw-top jars. The brew should be filled up to a centimeter below the rim of the glass, all the cucumbers are covered.
  8. Close the jars and turn them upside down for a short time to create a vacuum.
  9. Leave the gherkins in the cellar or in a dark storage room for at least four weeks before you taste them.

More tips for preserving cucumbers

For sweet and sour pickles, you can use sugar, white or brown, instead of honey. If you like, put other vegetables in the pickle jar, for example sliced carrots, baby corn on the cob, small onions, cherry tomatoes or even a chili pepper. The chilli should be deseeded, otherwise the whole thing will be too spicy.
The additional vegetables are briefly boiled up with the cucumbers.

Do not use iodized salt when preserving cucumbers. Iodized salt softens the cucumbers and robs them of their aroma. It is better to use normal household salt or sea salt.
To prevent the cucumbers from becoming hollow on the inside, prick them a few times with a needle before canning.
Canned cucumbers will keep in a jar for a few months. Once a jar is opened, it should be refrigerated and consumed within a week.

Category:

Vegetable garden