Recipe for pickled cucumbers by grandma
Cold-pickled gherkins!
An easy way to make a classic for lunch or dinner.
I have (as usual) rummaged through the archives and found grandma’s recipe for these delicacies.
Gherkins are somewhat old-fashioned, and I wonder how many people actually know what a gherkin looks like? It resembles an overgrown squash but also a bit like an overgrown cucumber. Gherkins can grow very large, but like squash, they taste best when they are not too old and oversized. Taste your raw gherkin to make sure it is not bitter. Once bitter, always bitter, especially for a gherkin. You cannot pickle away that taste.
Pickled gherkins are a classic Danish side dish and pair well with many classic Danish dishes, such as meatballs, liver pâté, and roast pork. Gherkins are a sour accompaniment that should also be crispy. A soft gherkin is a dead gherkin. A well-pickled gherkin has more flavor, but its color is white and unappealing. Serve it with a bit of chopped dill to make it look more appetizing.
Gherkins should be pickled with dill flower heads, but dill flower heads can be difficult to find. As an alternative, you can use celery seeds or dill seeds. If you find the brine too sweet with 500 grams of sugar, you can reduce it a bit. The vinegar preserves your gherkins, so the sugar is used for flavoring.
Gherkins take up quite a bit of space, so use 500 ml pickling jars.
Pickled Cucumbers by Grandma
Equipment
- Kitchen Scale
- Canning Jar
- Vegetable Peeler
Ingredients
- 4 pcs. Pickled Cucumber can be up to 5 if they are small
- 500 gram Sugar
- 100 gram Salt
- 0.5 l Vinegar
- Spices e.g. black pepper and dill heads
Instructions
- Peel the cucumbers and cut them in half.
- Scoop out the insides.
- It is important to get out all the loose bits, because if anything is left, the cucumbers will become soft.
- After you've scooped out the insides, dry them with a kitchen towel until completely dry.
- Then cut them into suitable pieces.
- Put all the pieces in a cleaned jar.
- Fill the jar completely.
- Mix vinegar, salt, and sugar in a bowl and pour it over the cucumbers.
- Finally, add a dill head or other spices you prefer.
- Let the jar sit for about a week until the cucumbers have softened and float to the top as you can see in the picture.