Ingredients Of Pickling Cucumbers

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

What Russian does not like to crunch a pickled cucumber when a winter blizzard sings mournful songs behind the wall, and at home it is warm and cozy, and boiled potatoes with butter are smoking on the table set for dinner, and, perhaps, there is something stronger

Unreasonable misconceptions

There are many disagreements about the correct pickling of cucumbers. For example, it is believed that black-thorn cucumbers are more suitable for pickling than light-thorn cucumbers. Or that salt greenhouse cucumbers, especially the so-called parthenocarpic hybrids (capable of bearing fruit without pollination), is tantamount to immediately throwing them into the trash, without wasting precious time and spices.

So, scientists studying the behavior of vegetables during their storage and processing, convincingly state that the genetic nature of cucumbers does not play any role in salting them. The quality of salting is influenced by such indicators as the density of the skin of the cucumber, the density of its pulp, the chemical composition, more precisely, the content of sugars in the cucumber.

Salting components

Only two preservatives are involved in pickling cucumbers. This is a well-known table salt, and not everyone knows lactic acid.

In addition to the two preservatives, the quality, or rather the taste of pickled cucumbers, depends on the quality of the cucumbers, the quality of the water and the spices used for salting.

Lactic acid

Lactic acid is produced by lactic acid bacteria, which are always available on the surface of young green cucumbers. They form acid using the sugars of the cell juice of the cucumber. Since oxygen is harmful to lactic acid bacteria, cucumbers should always be kept in brine, completely immersing the cucumbers in it.

Salt

Salted salt has two functions:

1. Interferes with the reproduction of harmful microorganisms.

2. Destroys the cell walls of the cucumber, allowing the sugars from the cells to pass into the brine, accelerating the fermentation process.

Cucumber sugar

In the process of exposure to table salt on cucumbers, the sugars from the cells gradually pass into the brine. The less brine in the container, the greater the concentration of sugars in it, the more food for lactic acid bacteria.

Those who know a lot about pickling cucumbers try to put cucumbers in a container more tightly, put a clean pebble on top of it, and also not postpone pickling cucumbers until tomorrow, but pickle them on the day of picking so that they preserve their sugars as much as possible.

In order for pickled cucumbers to be stored reliably, for a long time and have an excellent taste, at least 0.7 percent should be formed by the end of salting of lactic acid. This requires varieties of cucumbers that contain at least two percent of sugars in their cells.

Cucumber quality

In addition to the conditions for the content of sugars, the density and meatiness of the pulp, the small size of the seed chamber (no more than 25% of the total cucumber) affect the quality of pickled cucumbers.

Cucumbers of the same variety and size, slightly ribbed and lumpy, small in size, are salted more evenly and faster.

Overgrown cucumbers, varieties with thick skin, with voids inside, are wrinkled and not crunchy.

Amount of salt

If the cucumbers are stored at 0-4 degrees, then for 1 liter of water you need:

for small cucumbers - 60, for medium - 70, for large - 80 grams of salt.

At a storage temperature of 10-12 degrees, the indicated rates should be increased by 10 grams.

Water

The best salting is obtained by using spring water or well water. Soft water softens cucumbers, hard water rewards a metallic flavor.

Spices

Along with the traditional ones: garlic, horseradish, dill, you can use currant, oak, cherry leaves, as well as lemon balm, tarragon, along with flower buds.