Cucumber Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Dissolve 1 quart of rock salt in 2 gallons of scalded water.
Add 1 gallon of vinegar to the solution.
Cool the mixture.
Pickle and store
Throw in cucumbers as they are picked.
When desired for use, put the cucumbers into spiced vinegar.
They will keep a long time in this preparation.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Rock salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and helps preserve them and firm their texture.
- Vinegar (in the method)
- Its acidity preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
- Cucumbers (in the method)
- The vegetable being preserved, whose texture is firmed by the salt brine.
The step that matters
Cool the mixture before adding the cucumbers. Hot brine would begin to cook and soften the cucumbers, leaving them limp instead of crisp. Cooling first keeps their texture firm while they cure.
“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.
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