My favorite recipe for pickled Cucumbers, which are stored for a long time and the jars do not grow cloudy over time

Each housewife prepares cucumbers for the winter in different ways. Vegetables can be pickled whole or in parts, add garlic, lemon and a variety of spices.

How to choose and prepare vegetables

The key to a high-quality finished product is correctly selected and prepared cucumbers. For pickling, I prepare identical fruits up to 10 cm long. all cucumbers must be the same.

It is also very important to ensure that the cucumbers are not overripe. Such fruits have too thick skin and large, hard seeds. It is also believed that vegetables from open ground, which are covered with black thorns, are more suitable for harvesting for the winter.

If there are white thorns on the pimples, then this is a greenhouse product. These cucumbers will not be firm or crunchy. Also, the peel on the fruit should be dense and difficult to pierce with a fingernail.

Before you start putting cucumbers in jars, they should be rinsed, cut and filled with ice water for a couple of hours. You can add ice cubes to the water. This technique avoids the appearance of wrinkles on the fruit.

The composition of the marinade for 1 liter jar

500 ml of boiling water (if the cucumbers are very tight, then you will need a little less);

2 hours l salt;

4 hours l granulated sugar;

4 hours l vinegar.

If you take 1 heaping teaspoon of dry citric acid and dissolve in 14 tablespoons of water, you get a full-fledged substitute for 9% vinegar.

I take as many cucumbers as I can fit in a jar.

Also, this recipe is complemented by the following spices:

1 medium onion, cut into half rings;

5 peas of allspice;

1 peeled clove of garlic;

· Bay leaf.

Put garlic, onion and spices in sterile jars. Tamp the cucumbers tightly. Pour with boiling marinade, place in a container with hot water and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Roll up containers and wrap with a blanket for a day.

Other cooking secrets

Marinade can be supplemented with such spices as dry mustard seeds, cloves, cumin seeds, coriander.

I also add cherry or currant leaves. Horseradish greens and oak twigs with leaves make the finished product firmer and crisper.

For lovers of spicy snacks, you can put part of a hot pepper pod in the marinade.

It is better to add horseradish root when salting - this will avoid the formation of mold on the surface of the brine.

It is very important to sterilize not only the jars but also the lids. Glassware can be held over a stream of hot air, put in the oven for 15 minutes (the jars must be dry), or simply doused with boiling water.