Pickling Cucumbers

Cucumbers - delicious and fresh, pickled by yourself!

Too big a cucumber harvest? Here`s a great recipe for pickling cucumbers yourself so you can eat them late in the year:

Ingredients for 3 servings:

2 kg cucumbers
140 g salt
375 ml water
200 g sugar
50 g honey
1 tablespoon peppercorns

Add later:

1.5 l vinegar

Ingredients for 1 jar filling:

¼ onion (cleaned and cut into wedges)
2 dill flowers
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons mustard seeds

Preperation:

First prepare the jars for filling (to do this, first rinse the preserving jars with boiling water or place them in the oven at about 140 °C for about 10 minutes).
From this moment on, only touch the jars from the outside and never the rim.

Wash and clean the cucumbers well, cut them if desired (otherwise use small cucumbers whole). Put the water, salt, cucumber, honey, sugar and peppercorns in a pot and bring to the boil.

Fill the sterile jars with the ingredients for 1 jar at a time (¼ onion in slices, 2 dill flowers, 1 bay leaf and 3 tablespoons of mustard seeds). Then layer the young cucumbers in the jars.

Pour the 1.5 l vinegar into the cooked stock, stir well and then pour the entire stock over the cucumbers in the jars, making sure that the cucumbers are completely covered. Then close the jars tightly and boil down.

Boil down:

Place a folded tea towel on the bottom of the preserving pot to prevent your jars from cracking or falling over. Then place / stack the jars in the pot. Then fill the pot so high with water that at least ¾ of all the jars to be boiled are in the water. The water should always be at the same temperature as the contents of the jars - i.e. precooked vegetables - warm water / raw vegetables - cold water). Then place the pot on the cooker and insert a thermometer. As soon as the thermometer reads 90 °C, the canning time begins (set an alarm!).

The cucumbers should be boiled down for about 15 minutes. When the cooking time is over, remove the pot from the cooker. If you have a way to remove the jars without burning yourself, you can place them on a spread kitchen towel and let them cool completely.

Otherwise, wait until the temperature has cooled down enough to reach into the water without any problems. To intensify the flavour of the cucumbers, they should now be left to marinate in the pantry for 4 weeks.
The preserves can be stored in a dark and cool place for several months. During storage, always check that the vacuum is still present and that the contents of the jars can still be kept.