Cucumber Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cucumbers
Cover the bottom of a cask with common salt.
Gather cucumbers every other day in the morning or evening.
Cut cucumbers with a short piece of stem and place them in a basket without bruising.
Rinse cucumbers with cold water, being careful not to rub off the black briers.
Layer and brine
Layer cucumbers in the cask, covering each layer with salt.
Pour in some water after the first layer to create brine.
Cover with a cloth, then a board with stones on top.
Repeat layering with fresh cucumbers and salt until the cask is full.
Cover the top with salt and tuck the cloth around the edges, placing the board and weight on top.
Seal and store
Seal the cask tightly; pickles will be ready for two to three years.
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
- Form the main body of the pickles, becoming crisp and firm as they cure in brine.
- Common salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and preserves them, shaping the brine that flavours the pickles.
The step that matters
Pour in water after the first layer. Salt alone may not fully cover the cucumbers, so adding water helps form a brine that keeps them submerged and evenly cured, reducing spoilage risk.
“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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