Do you want to stock up on cucumbers for the winter, so that you hear a crunch with every bite? We will try to help you. According to the recipe below, cucumbers are moderately salty and with a pleasant aroma. All ingredients are given for one three-liter jar. So, cucumbers will need about 2 kg. There is one secret in choosing cucumbers - they must be very fresh, firm and small. You also need to stock up on rock salt, cherry leaves, black currant, horseradish, garlic, dill umbrellas, tarragon.
Cucumbers must first be sorted out (all damaged ones are immediately discarded), rinsed and soaked for about 4-6 hours, then taken out and allowed to dry. While the cucumbers are soaking, there is time to prepare the jars. They should be washed well (and it is better to use not the usual detergent, but soda or laundry soap) and sterilize. You can sterilize jars over boiling water or in a hot oven for 10 minutes. Covers also require heat treatment.
Next, prepare the brine. It will need 1.5-2 liters. To do this, boil 2 liters of pure water with salt (4 tbsp. L. With top) for about 3-5 minutes, followed by cooling.
While the brine cools down, dill (1 umbrella), garlic (3-5 cloves), blackcurrant leaves (3-4 maximum) and 2-3 cherry leaves, a sprig of tarragon (tarragon) are placed in the jar. Now the jar is filled with cucumbers in an upright position, the last row is usually tilted. On top of the cucumbers, a dill umbrella, several cloves of garlic, a sprig of tarragon and a horseradish leaf are again laid.
A jar of cucumbers is poured with cooled brine. Several cucumbers along with spices are laid in a container with unused brine (and it will certainly remain). This is necessary so that the jar with the fermented contents later has something to fill to the top. The fact is that part of the brine from the jar will be absorbed by the cucumbers, which, moreover, will also shrink.
Leave the jar with cucumbers and brine under the lid for two days. After two days, drain the liquid into a saucepan, add to it the remaining brine from the container in which it was cooked, and boil. The cucumbers remaining in the jar must be rinsed with clean cold water to wash off the white bloom formed on them. Next, fill the jar with "reserve" cucumbers, add black peppercorns (15-20 pcs.), Pour hot brine and roll up. Until it cools completely, the jars should be upside down, after which they can already be transferred to the cellar or refrigerated.
Lightly salted cucumbers
For this recipe, you will need 3 kg of cucumbers, 2-3 sprigs of dill, 1 horseradish leaf, a couple of garlic cloves, water (2.5 liters), 280 g of salt and blackcurrant or cherry leaves (80 pcs.).
From both ends of well-washed cucumbers, you need to cut off the skin, put the cucumbers in a deep enamel bowl. Leaves, dill and garlic are laid out on top and all this is poured with salt water. You don't need any oppression, just cover the cucumbers with a clean plate. After a couple of days, lightly salted cucumbers are ready.
This recipe has several nuances. Firstly, such cucumbers must be eaten in three days so that they do not become too salty. Secondly, the brine can be used three times.
Another secret on how to speed up the process. To do this, it is enough to put oak leaves on the bottom of the pan and put oak leaves on top (literally 2-3), and the brine for pouring must be hot. Such a trick will allow you to serve mouth-watering lightly salted cucumbers for dinner, if you prepare them the night before.
Pickled cucumbers according to the recipes given will become a table decoration at any time of the year. You should not deny yourself and your guests the pleasure of tasting such a culinary masterpiece.