Recipe for pickled cucumbers
A good and easy recipe for pickled cucumbers.
Homemade cucumber salad is the easiest thing in the world, and the taste is light-years away from what you buy in jars at the supermarket. The shelf life is at least 1 week in the fridge, so you can make a good batch and use the cucumbers throughout the week.
I got the recipe from Jesper Græm, who has pickled thousands of cucumbers for his grill bar Rasses Skovpølser. Before I met him, I always made my pickles based on the principle of 1/3 vinegar, 1/3 water, and 1/3 sugar. He taught me to skip the water, so it is 50% vinegar and 50% sugar instead. There is plenty of liquid in the vegetables to omit water in the brine.
The recipe can be easily scaled, it’s just a matter of making sure the cucumbers are always covered in brine in the jar.
Pickled Cucumbers
Equipment
- Glass Bowl
- Deciliter Measure
- Mandoline Slicer (option 1)
- Knife (option 2)
- Cutting Board
- Pot
- Hob
Ingredients
- 1 pcs. Cucumber
- Salt
- 200 gram Vinegar
- 170 gram Sugar
- Spices e.g. peppercorns, allspice, and bay leaves
Instructions
- Cut the cucumber into thin slices (preferably with a mandolin, which gives thin, uniform slices).
- Place them on a cutting board/plate in a single layer.
- Sprinkle salt over them and let them sit for about 20 minutes – this pulls some of the liquid out of them, making them firmer.
- Boil vinegar and sugar to make a brine – boil until the sugar has dissolved. Add spices to taste, e.g. peppercorns, allspice, and bay leaves.
- Let the brine cool down to at least room temperature before using it.
- Find a pickling jar and scald the inside with boiling water and possibly some preservative, ensuring it’s free from bacteria.
- Pour the brine into the jar.
- Take a handful of cucumbers in your hand and squeeze them together to let excess liquid drain out. There’s more than you might think since cucumbers are primarily made of water.
- Put them in the jar with the brine and repeat with the rest of the cucumbers.
- Stir them well and let them sit to marinate for at least 20 minutes, after which they’re ready to serve. However, they get even better the next day.