In general, cucumbers are easy to cultivate. Even in small greenhouses or in containers on the balcony, good yields are not uncommon. If the cucumbers are already a little overripe and are already turning yellow, you can boil them down as mustard cucumbers.

The mustard seeds add flavor to the pickles

Pickle the mustard gherkins yourself

Fully ripe cucumbers or the slightly shorter country cucumbers are ideal for preserving mustard cucumbers. This special cucumber variant works best as follows:

  1. First peel the cucumbers and cut them in half.
  2. Take a teaspoon and use it to scrape out the core of the cucumber halves.
  3. Halve the cucumber halves again and cut each quarter into bite-sized pieces.
  4. Sprinkle some salt over the cucumbers and let them sit in a bowl for at least two hours, preferably overnight.
  5. In the meantime, prepare the glasses. Twist-off jars or jars with swing tops are suitable for mustard pickles.

Sterilize the jars in boiling water or in the oven at 100 degrees for ten minutes.

  1. When the jars are ready, you can cook the brew.
  2. Boil water, vinegar, salt, some sugar and spices, such as mustard seeds, turmeric (colors beautifully yellow), coriander seeds, fennel seeds or bay leaves. Let the whole thing cook for about 20 minutes.
  3. Remove the pieces of cucumber from the salty water, dry them a little, and then put them in the prepared jars. Here you can add a piece of horseradish (brings the necessary spiciness to the sweetness of the sugar). Leave 2 cm space towards the edge.
  4. Pour the hot broth over it. The cucumber pieces must be completely covered.
  5. Dry the edge of the glass again and then close the glasses.

Now you can preserve the gherkin jars in the preserving machine or in the oven.

In the preserving machine

The glasses should be half in the water and not too close together. Cook for half an hour at 85 degrees.

In the oven

Here the glasses are in the fat pan 2 cm deep in the water. After heating (170 degrees), cook for half an hour at 100 degrees.

After the preserving time, leave the jars in the alarm kettle/oven for about half an hour, then let them cool under a cloth.

Category:

Vegetable garden