To Pickle Young Cucumbers
Ingredients
Directions
Salt and drain
Spread the gherkins on dishes and sprinkle them with coarse sea salt.
Let the gherkins sit for a week.
Drain the gherkins.
Pickle
Place the gherkins in a jar and pour boiling vinegar over the gherkins.
Set the jar near the fire and cover the jar with dried leaves.
If the gherkins are not a good green, pour the vinegar into another jar and heat the vinegar until it boils.
Pour the boiling vinegar over the gherkins again and cover the gherkins with fresh leaves.
Repeat until the gherkins reach the desired color.
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
- Nice young gherkins
- Firm, young fruit that makes up the pickle itself and takes on the green colour during pickling.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the gherkins, firming them and preparing them to absorb the vinegar.
- Boiling vinegar
- Acidity that preserves the gherkins and gives the pickle its sharp, sour flavour.
The step that matters
Judging the colour before repeating the vinegar pour. Green colour depends on the gherkins staying acidic and hot enough while covered. Checking colour at each round, rather than assuming, prevents over-softening or dull, olive-brown results from too much heat or time.
“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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