Pickled Gherkins Recipe -Quick and Easy

[St Allie]

Basic pickling recipe for gherkins.. no soaking required. My family likes our pickles to have a bit of kick so we add basic pickling spice to the vinegar because it already has dried chili in it.. however you can use any combination of celery seed, fennel, black pepper etc. These are not crisp pickles.. they take the flavour well, hold their green colour and you can make a small trial batch with these quantities to see if you like them or not. Because I pick the gherkins from my garden daily, I just pack the gherkins into my jars before I started so I could estimate how much vinegar would be required for the finished product. This recipe is so quick you can just pick from the garden and pickle the same day. You can eat them straight away ( keep opened jars in fridge)



Ingredients
25 gherkins
100 g salt (use canning salt with no freeflow additives)
1 litre water (brine)
600 ml white vinegar
1 tablespoon pickling spices (storebought )


ingredients.
small dill cucumbers.
brine, using 225 g salt to each 2 litres water.
spiced vinegar.
method.
Place the gherkins in a saucepan, and cover with the brine.
Bring nearly to boiling point. Do not actually boil, but simmer for 10 minutes.
Drain, then pack into (clean ,dry warmed jars) jars, and cover with hot spiced vinegar, preferably aromatic.
Spiced vinegar.
Place the vinegar and Pickling Spice in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, boil a minute or so and remove from the heat.
You can pack and pour the vinegar when it cools if you prefer and use vinegar covers. I pour the vinegar on while still hot and seal straight away,( using mason jars, warm the jars first !).


Allie

 

[surlees]

Allie,
These look delicious and easier than making wine! Only problem is it's winter here so there won't be any cucumbers available for about 6 months.

How would you make them crisp?

Fred

 

[St Allie]

Fred,
For crisp pickles you generally put them in salted ice for a few hours, wash .. then jar them, pour hot spiced vinegar over and seal.

these are firm gherkins without being crisp.. great in sandwiches or for a platter.

I have a habit of planting a lot of courgettes and gherkins in particular, because they are easy to pickle and always get eaten..

Allie

 

[John_Kelvin]

Tasty Tasty Tasty

 

[BernardSmith]

Just found this section (had not been looking for it, I guess)... but to make pickles firm I add a horse radish leaf or you could add grape leaves: the secret is the addition of tannin. I have added a half teaspoon of tannin powder and that works just as well ...

The pickling method I use is simply to add brine (no vinegar). A salt solution of between 3 and 5 % is all that is needed (5% is about 50gms of iodine free salt in about 1 liter of non chlorinated water (or about 1 cup of salt in 1 gallon of water). Vinegar , I think, kills the bacteria that ferment the cucumbers (lactobacteria). Salt provides the environment that kills their competitors.
To improve flavor I add a whole head of peeled garlic with each clove cut in half. You might add some peppercorns and a bunch of dill (or a teaspoon of dried dill)... Make sure all the cucumbers are fully submerged and let the brined cucs sit out on your kitchen counter a week or two... No heat, no "canning", no problem. When the cucumbers are as sour as you prefer simply refrigerate them.