To Pickle Gherkins
Ingredients
Directions
Lay the gherkins on dishes.
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Let them remain for a period to draw out moisture.
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
- Gherkins
- Form the main body of the pickle; their firm flesh stays crisp once brined.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the gherkins through osmosis, firming them for pickling.
The step that matters
Letting the gherkins sit with the salt. Salt draws water out of the cucumbers by osmosis. Leaving them too briefly leaves them soft and watery, while the salting period sets the texture that the finished pickle depends on.
“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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