Cucumbers in Salt Brine
Ingredients
Directions
Pack the barrel
Pack the cucumbers tightly in a barrel, covering each layer with coarse sea salt.
Once full, cover with a board and place a stone on top to keep them pressed down.
Brine and maintain strength
Pour cold water over the cucumbers, using previously boiled water.
After two days, drain the water through the faucet.
Reboil the water, adding salt to maintain the brine at 10° to 11° Beaume.
Repeat this process several times if the brine does not maintain its strength.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Cucumbers
- The main vegetable being cured, which softens and becomes preserved as it ferments in the brine.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and keeps harmful microbes in check during the cure.
- Cold water
- Forms the brine with the salt, carrying salinity evenly around the cucumbers.
The step that matters
Maintaining the brine strength. If salt concentration drops, the brine can lose its protective effect and spoilage microbes can grow. Checking the Beaume reading and reboiling with added salt keeps the salinity high enough to keep the cucumbers safely preserved.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
You might also like
Chicken Salad623 recipes
Salad Dressing491 recipes
Tomato Salad179 recipes
Cold Slaw160 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.