Make sour cucumbers yourself in 5 easy steps

Looking for a cucumber recipe? Then pickle them in vinegar with spices. This is how you can make sour cucumbers yourself!

Your garden is full of cucumbers and you do not know where to go? Or did you unexpectedly get a whole load of cucumbers? No problem. Here's how you can make your own pickles and preserve them for a long time.

Then you can always eat homemade pickles in the winter.

Everyone who has his own garden, knows the phenomenon: first nothing grows, and then you do not know what to do with it. If you yourself are already tired of cucumbers, then aunts, neighbors, friends come with a nice gift: even more cucumbers.

But that doesn't have to drive you to the brink of insanity. Because you can conjure up something quite delicious from it: pickles. And at Christmas you just give the DIY pickles back. :)

Pickling cucumbers is not even difficult or very time-consuming.

Today you'll learn how to do it easily and a delicious recipe that I've been using for years.

Why you should pickle cucumbers

Yes, you can buy pickles in any supermarket. Often a whole jar costs not even 50 cents. But still, the DIY variant is worth it. Especially because of the taste.

In the summer, you can get fresh cucumbers very cheaply at any farmers' market. Go ahead and get your hands on them. Because if you make sour cucumbers, you can easily preserve the vegetables. That way, you'll always have something homemade on hand throughout the winter.

I put the vegetables in beautiful jars and already prepared for Christmas. A cheaper and edible gift that comes from the heart, you can not have.

Pickled cucumbers can be kept for over a year. Probably even longer, however, they survive with me not even a year, because they are just too tasty.

If you choose to make your own pickles, then you have a free hand in the choice of spices. Mix everything you like. My favorite is a small chili pepper in each jar. This provides fiery flavor and looks purely visually beautiful.

If you like variety, you can also mix zucchini pieces and peppers with the cucumbers. Then you no longer have pure pickles, but sour, pickled vegetables.

If you love to preserve vegetables, fruits, then I recommend you the book the preserving bible at Amazon* to view. You'll find 325 recipes and tricks for preserving, pickling and fermenting.

I have myself the preserving bible at Amazon* and have been using them since last year. I've already made lots of recipes with it, such as pickled gherkins, tomato sauce and baked apple spread.

Very important: Before you get down to work, you must sterilize the jars and lids! Only then germs can not form and the sour vegetables will keep for a long time.

Which cucumbers are the best for pickling?

Salad cucumber, field cucumber or braised cucumber? If you want to make pickles, then field cucumbers or braised cucumbers are the right choice.

Salad cucumbers have a much too soft flesh and a higher water content. They are not suitable for pickling.

It is different with field cucumbers. Their flesh is firmer, which means that they do not lose their bite and remain crunchy. Their skin is very dark and has small spines.

Snack cucumbers can also be canned quite wonderfully.

You can either take very small cucumbers or large ones. I usually opt for large cucumbers because the small ones are comparatively expensive. Up to a size of about 10 cm you can pickle the cucumbers without peeling them or removing the core.

From about 10 cm it is worthwhile to remove the kernels, because here particularly much water collects and the kernels are tough. With fully grown Cucumbers you can remove the peel (mustard cucumbers)because it sometimes tends to become tough. I usually leave them on, which saves work.

How to make sour cucumbers yourself

So, let's get started. Here you will find the very detailed instructions for those who have never pickled vegetables before. If you're already experienced, then you can find a short version of the recipe at the end of the post.

To keep your cucumbers crisp and tasty, follow this tried-and-true recipe. It works for me every year.

Ingredients

• 1 kg field cucumbers
• 1-2 onion
• 1 bunch dill
• 1/2 chili per jar
• 10 tablespoons mustard seeds
• 500 ml herb vinegar
• 1 L water
• 2 tablespoons salt

Also: screw jars, a peeler, a pot, knife and board.

1. prepare the cucumbers

Wash the cucumbers thoroughly with tap water. Clean them, cut away bad spots and remove the stalks.

If the cucumbers have many spines, rub them individually in a kitchen towel. This is the best way to get rid of the spines.

If you like, you can peel them now. Use a peeler for this, so as not to cut away too much of the cucumber. I leave the peel on, which saves a lot of work and makes no difference to the taste.

If you have large cucumbers, cut them in half lengthwise. Remove the inside with a spoon.

Then cut the cucumbers into pieces of about 1-2 cm.

Put the cucumbers in a bowl and salt them properly. Let them stand for about half an hour. In this time you can prepare the jars and the rest of the spices.

Still too many cucumbers? Taste braised cucumbers with salmon!

2. prepare the glasses

It's best to use smaller jars, so you don't have to stress about eating later. Once the jar is opened, the cucumbers must be consumed quickly.

Disinfect the jars and lids. I wash the jars very thoroughly with detergent for this. Then I fill them with about 3 cm of water and then they go into the microwave.

I leave them in the microwave at full power for 4 minutes until the water really boils.

Pour out water and place glasses next to the stove.

I boil the lids in the kettle. When they have boiled for a minute, I dry them with a clean cloth and place them next to the jars.

If you want to make a lot of pickles yourself, you should already put the lids in the order in which the jars are. Then there will be no surprise later.

Have you ever made your own sauerkraut?

3. prepare the spices

Wash the dill and dry it carefully. Cut it into small pieces.

Peel the onion. Purely visually, onions in a jar of cucumbers are particularly beautiful when cut into wheels.

Finally, add the chili. If you don't like it so spicy, then you should take a maximum of half a chili per glass.

Put on gloves. Cut the chili in half and remove the seeds if you don't like it so spicy.

4. fill the glasses

Distribute mustard seeds, onion, dill, chili on the jars.

By now, the cucumbers should be ready. Pour off the salt water and rinse the cucumbers. Caution: Do not soak cucumbers in water, but rinse them very briefly.

Fill the jars with cucumber pieces up to 2 cm above the rim. Place them firmly in the jar and press down.

5. prepare the vinegar

Boil the vinegar with water and salt. Really wait until the mixture boils really solid.

Pour the boiling vinegar water on the cucumbers. They must be covered by the vinegar.

Immediately close the jars and let them cool.

Project sour cucumbers make yourself completed!

I found a particularly good and easy to understand video for beginners on YouTube. Here you can watch how to make gherkins as a beginner

How do sour cucumbers stay crunchy?

It plays a big role for the crispness when the cucumbers were harvested. The fresher they are, the crisper pickles stay. I therefore prefer to buy the vegetables for canning at the farmer's market or visit a self-harvest field. Some of the vegetables I grow on my small balcony - here you will find a tutorial for homegrown cucumbers.

Guaranteed to get mushy are cucumbers and any that have been sitting somewhere for days before being processed. If you can't pickle the cucumbers right away, you should store them in the refrigerator.

If you want the pickled vegetables to keep for a long time, you need to boil them down. For this you need to Boil down for 30 minutes at 90 degrees in the pot. Prolonged boiling leads to a mushy consistency.

Where is the best place to store gherkins?

Now put the cucumbers in a dark place. Here they will easily last a whole year.

I put them in the cellar, but a storage cabinet also serves its purpose. The only important thing is that the pickles are protected from sunshine.

Preserving tomatoes has never been so easy!

The pickles are discolored - is this normal?

If you put them in the jar at the beginning, the cucumbers are beautifully rich and green. A beautiful color. But after a very short time it becomes clear: they will not keep this color. The skin becomes dark green to olive green.

This is nothing to worry about, the cucumbers from the supermarket have the same fate.

If you don't want that, you should peel the cucumbers before pickling. Then the flesh will be white.

Make and eat sour cucumbers yourself

The jars are cold right now and you want to jump right into one? Give the pickles a little time. They absorb the flavor of the spices and vinegar as they ripen.

You should let them steep in the vinegar brine for at least three weeks. Better still four weeks. The longer, the more intense.

If you want to speed up the process, you can cut the cucumbers into thin slices before pickling. Then they will be ready after only three days.

If you have opened a jar, you must keep it in the refrigerator. Eat the cucumbers within a week.

How can I refine gherkins?

As we all know, tastes are different. Here are a few ingredients and spices that you can use to give your sour vegetables a personal touch. If you have a lot of vegetables, you can make different kinds of pickles yourself. So it's guaranteed never boring.

Try these ingredients

• Peppers - especially beautiful: red and yellow
• Chili
• Garlic
• Zucchini pieces
• Onion pieces or small onions whole
• Herbs like dill, thyme or oregano
• Bay leaves
• Juniper berries
• Coriander seeds
• Peppercorns
• Honey
• Curry for an exotic touch
• Table vinegar, white wine vinegar or herb vinegar

My conclusion

Making your own pickles is anything but difficult. Vary the ingredients so that each jar tastes different. Store the pickles in a dark place and you can eat them for a year. If you like, you can put a nice label on them and give them as a little gift.

Have fun making it and enjoy!

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