"Cucumber!" This is the cry of the human soul who wants to give herself at least a little joy. This is a requirement of an obligatory element of a feast of various scales: from “for three” in a smoked kitchen to a crowded “meadow” on the occasion of a wedding or a name day. Without a doubt, one of the main questions in the summer, in the midst of cucumber crops: "How will we pickle?"
But not everyone likes the seemingly endless, and even time-consuming, cooking, boiling and sterilization procedures. In addition, the memory is still fresh of those times when cold pickled cucumbers without any sorcery with fire turned out in barrels, and what delicious! Well, the recipes are not forgotten, carefully stored and, if there are appropriate containers, are successfully applied. In this case, of course, we are talking about large volumes.
Get in the barrel!
Barrel recipe is based on 100 kg of cucumbers, best late-picked, unripe, 8-15 cm long. To prepare them, you need to soak them for 6 hours, periodically change the water. Then wash them thoroughly. Also do with seasonings, and then prepare them properly: dill (stalks with leaves and seeds, 3 kg) cut into pieces 15-20 cm long; peel the horseradish roots (300 g) and garlic (10-15 heads). Leaves of horseradish (1 kg), black currant (1 kg) and hot red pepper (10 pcs.) Do not touch.
Before laying the walls of the barrel, you need to rub with garlic. Seasoning lies on the bottom of the container and on top of the cucumbers, and if the volume of the barrel is more than 100 liters, then in the middle. The denser the cucumbers laid, the more it will stand out during the fermentation of lactic acid, the better they will remain. The brine is prepared taking into account the prevailing size of the laid cucumbers: 840-950 g, 730-840 g and 620-730 g, respectively (for 10 liters of well water) are taken for large, medium and small specimens of salt. After pouring the brine, the barrel must be covered with a linen napkin, put a circle of hardwood on it and crush everything with oppression.
For several days, the tank must be kept at room temperature - for a quick "start" of fermentation. At the same time, mold accumulated on top is removed every day and the circle is washed in boiling water. Then the barrel goes to a cold place (best of all, to the cellar), where the cold pickled cucumbers "reach" for a month or a little more.
No barrels - take cans
Confused by the presence of barrels of pickles in a city apartment? Of course, there is a solution for this case as well. Just do not forget that this three-liter jar recipe for cold pickling of cucumbers involves the use of clean, not tap water. You can take bottled or clean it yourself, using the freeze / thaw method.
One and a half or two kilos of cucumbers are soaked in cold water for 5-6 hours, after which they lose the “buttock” on both sides. The seasoning set includes 3 cloves of garlic, 7 leaves of currant, cherry and oak, 2 leaves of horseradish and several branches of dill with inflorescences. Immediately before laying, the cans are cleanly washed under running water without subsequent drying. The bottom is covered with several leaves with garlic, after which the future cucumbers of cold salting are stacked mixed with seasonings. Above the contents are also covered with leaves. In one and a half liters of water you need to dissolve 3 tbsp. l salt and wait two minutes, until impurities settle to the bottom. Then pour the jar.
The pickling of cucumbers ends with a cold pickle capping the jar with plastic covers for hot closing. It is worth holding them in hot water for half a minute - and they are easily put on a jar, and when cooled, they reliably “block oxygen”. It remains to remove the banks in a cold place and wait a month.
The next day
But there are, it turns out, cold pickled cucumbers, for the preparation of which no pickle is needed! Pig tails are removed from small cucumbers, they are pricked several times with a fork and sent to a plastic bag. There, you need to chop coarsely greens and garlic, add pepper and peas and 1 tbsp. l salt. Tightly tighten the bag, send to the refrigerator and shake its contents 2-3 times a day, 2-3 times, without untying. The next day, to please the household and guests with salted express cucumbers.