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Pickled Gherkins

A method of pickling small gherkins using a salt brine and hot vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Pickled Gherkins

Ingredients

Directions

Brine

  1. Wash the gherkins and place them in a stone pan.

  2. Make a brine with ¼ pound of coarse sea salt dissolved in 1 quart of water and cover the gherkins with it.

  3. Cover the pan and set it in a warm place for 2-3 days until the gherkins turn yellow.

Pickle

  1. Remove the brine and cover the gherkins with hot vinegar.

  2. Keep the gherkins warm for 8-10 days until they turn green.

  3. Pour off the vinegar and prepare fresh vinegar to cover the gherkins.

  4. Seal the gherkins with a bung, shoulder, and leather.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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
Provide the main body and crisp bite of the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the gherkins and begins the fermentation-style preservation.
Hot vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the gherkins and sharpens their flavour.

The step that matters

Keeping the gherkins warm for 8-10 days until they turn green. The colour change depends on steady warmth over several days. Too cool and the change stalls; too hot and the gherkins can soften, so the warm holding temperature needs to stay even.

“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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