Pickles are a favorite of both children and adults, especially when they are homemade. Although this activity is easy, there are still many people that do not know how to prepare pickles according to their taste. That is why now we will reveal some secrets on how to make this happen:
- Choose the size of the pickles according to the type of preservation. Usually, for saltier pickles, which are prepared in combination with sauerkraut and carrots, larger cucumbers are used, and for jars that are filled with cucumbers alone, it is best to choose smaller vegetables. Another option is to sort the cucumbers by size after you have bought them. This way you will have jars with small pickles that you can eat directly with pleasure and jars with larger pickles, suitable for preparing salads;
- After you have purchased the cucumbers, you should soak them in cold water for a few hours. For this purpose, it is best to use a trough. During this time, you can wash the jars in which you will preserve them or, respectively, the barrels if you are making a mixed pickle;
- The next step is to wash the cucumbers and prepare all the necessary products and spices that you will need. It is mandatory to add salt and vinegar to taste. Most at home canned cucumbers also have dill, sugar, mustard seeds and black peppercorns;
- To make sure the pickles have a richer flavor, add cloves of garlic, and for color and aroma - chopped onions and carrots;
- If you want the pickles to be spicier, you can add one chili pepper to each jar in addition to the products listed. There are also quite a few pickle recipes that add horseradish;
- Regardless of what products and spices you choose to put on your pickles, the cooking time is essential for their taste and texture. To make them crunchier, you need to boil them for exactly 4 minutes, counting from the time they start to boil. This means that you need to stand by the stove and keep track of the time with a clock. After 4 minutes, the stove is turned off, the jars begin to slowly cool by gradually pouring cold water into the container in which they were placed to boil. When the water has cooled down enough, start taking out the jars and placing them with the lids facing down;
- If you want your pickles to be softer, you can follow the above steps, but extend the cooking time;
- If you have followed everything written so far, you can immediately start consuming your delicious pickles.
Check out how much vinegar is added to pickles, how much salt is added to pickles and read these rules for canning pickles.
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