The ultimate recipe for Pickled cucumbers -traditional polish way!

This is an easy recipe for delicious pickles from cucumbers! They are crunchy, sour and make a perfect addition to unlimited dishes!

I prepare pickled cucumbers every year. Either I have my homegrown or I buy them in the local polish shop. They are like strawberry jam .. there are never too many of them 🙂 I could eat pickled cucumbers every day. Especially homemade ones that are tiny, perfectly firm, and crispy. I add them to a traditional dinner with potatoes, to sandwiches. I don’t know if your homes used to eat grated pickles with sour cream, but in my home, we often served them with mashed potatoes and chicken cutlets.

The process is relatively easy. When you see how simple this recipe is, you won’t want to stop pickling! There are just a few staple ingredients you would need to create a traditional polish pickle flavor.

Ingredients for pickles from cucumbers:

Cucumber – the hero

You need good quality cucumbers! Make sure does not produce large seed chambers – this is important especially when pickling cucumbers for longer storage. You want them small and firm – you need to fit them in the jar! For those reasons, you want to be using pickling cucumber type.

9 of the Best Pickling Cucumbers for Your Garden

• Boston Pickling
• Boothby’s Blond
• Double Yield
• Fresh Pickles
• Homemade Pickles
• Honey Plus
• Miniature White
• Rhinish Pickle
• Wisconsin FMR 58

A very important activity, if not one of the most important, is washing and soaking cucumbers. The action of washing and rinsing the cucumbers allows you to avoid many problems in the pickling process, related to bacterial and mold infections that cause defects in pickled cucumbers.

If you don’t grow your own and have doubts as to the origin of the cucumbers, it is good to sterilize them after washing. You can do that by pouring boiling water or immersing them in a sieve in boiling water, and then placing them in ice water. In addition to sterilization, this treatment also improves the hardness of cucumbers and is called hardening.

Preparation of the brine for pickles from cucumbers

Salt

I recommend rock or Himalayan salt due to the presence of valuable minerals and trace elements. If you only have refined white salt on hand, and you really want to cook something right now, let’s go! Luckily enough pickles will work with any salt. The salt for pickled cucumbers cannot be iodized!

water

Tap water is perfectly fine for making a pickle, provided that it is left for a few hours at room temperature to the chlorine. The best water is hard water, hard water prevents the cucumbers from softening. Therefore I do not recommend boiling water (if it is not necessary) or pouring hot, boiled brine over the cucumbers due to lowering the hardness of the water during cooking. The best solution is to use cold tap water that has been previously set aside!

NOTE: Do not vigorously pour water on the cucumber or do not vigorously stir the water to dissolve the salt. It adds oxygen to the water. It might contribute to your cucumbers being slumpy or the formation of empty seed chambers!

Spices

Spices added to cucumbers perform the following functions:

• the most obvious one – adds the flavour
• have bactericidal and bacteriostatic properties – useful in the first stage of ensiling
• contain tannins and polyphenolic compounds that inhibit the processes of slackening cucumbers

Dill – contains terpene oils,
Horseradish – both the root and the leaves are used – bactericidal and fungicidal properties. However, do not overdo it, because it is responsible for the so-called grassy taste of cucumbers.
Garlic – contains a significant amount of essential oils with anti-bacterial properties.

Leaves of grapes, currants, cherry oak, raspberry– contain tannins and inhibitors of enzymes that help cucumbers stay crunchy.

Important TIPS for perfect pickles from cucumbers

1. Arrange cucumbers in jars tightly, very tightly, and as tightly as possible. But do not stuff the dill, horseradish, and garlic in between.
2. The jars must be clean, scalded, undamaged, as well as the caps.
3. Garlic does not need to be peeled – the flavour is a husk!

You can slice them and use them in a sandwich. Freshly baked yeast bread or rye bread with hummus, and pickles are perfect combinations of flavours in my books! 😁