Why do cucumbers become cloudy (ferment) after being sealed in jars: what to do if the brine becomes cloudy, how to save it

Content

1 List of reasons why jars of cucumbers become cloudy
2 What to do if the brine in pickled and pickled cucumbers becomes cloudy
3 Is it possible to eat cloudy canned cucumbers?
4 A few tips on how to salt and pickle cucumbers so they don’t turn cloudy
5 Conclusion

After seaming, cucumbers become cloudy in jars - this is a problem that home-cooking lovers often encounter. To prevent cloudiness or save the brine, you need to know why it loses its transparency.

List of reasons why jars of cucumbers become cloudy

The general reason why cucumbers become cloudy when seaming is always the same - fermentation processes begin in the brine. Due to the activity of microorganisms, not only do jars of cucumbers become cloudy when pickling, but the fruits themselves change their taste and deteriorate, and the lids on the jars with preparations swell.

If properly pickled and canned, cucumbers in jars should not ferment.If they become cloudy, this usually indicates several mistakes have been made.

If the blanks become cloudy, then the fermentation process is underway in the jar.

Why did the cucumbers in the jar turn cloudy immediately after closing?

Not only those cucumbers that have been in the jar for many months in a row and begin to deteriorate become cloudy. Sometimes the solution becomes opaque almost immediately after the fruits are rolled.

This means only one thing: dirt and a large number of microorganisms have entered the jar. Most often, the preparations become cloudy due to poorly washed cucumbers before canning and poorly sterilized jars. It is likely that there are remnants of detergent or pieces of food on the walls of the container; unnoticed dirt often accumulates on the neck of the jar or under the lid.

Why do pickled cucumbers in a jar become cloudy?

When pickling, fruits also often become cloudy, and this can happen for many reasons. In addition to poorly washed and incompletely sterilized jars, the following points stand out:

violation of the marinating recipe - incorrect proportions or missed steps in the process of preparing vegetables;
using low-quality or unsuitable ingredients, for example, using expired vinegar or citric acid instead of vinegar;
unnoticed damage to the jar or lid - chips or cracks in the neck, loose fit of the lid.

Important! In order to properly pickle the fruits and not face the fact that the cucumbers in the jar have become cloudy, you need to strictly adhere to the chosen recipe.

It is important to take only fresh ingredients, not to disturb their proportions and not to replace them with other components that seem similar in action.

Violation of the selected recipe leads to cloudiness of the solution in the jars

Why do cucumbers turn cloudy in jars when pickling?

Pickling seems like a very simple procedure, but even after it, jars of cucumbers often become cloudy and explode. This happens for the following reasons:

using the wrong cucumbers - not all varieties can be salted, pickled and canned; salad types are not suitable for pickling and quickly become cloudy;
use of unsuitable salt - for preparations you can use only universal table salt; iodized and sea salt are not suitable in this case.

As in other cases, when pickling, vegetables also become cloudy due to dirt getting into the workpiece or poorly sterilized containers.

Why does the brine in jars of cucumbers become cloudy?

Sometimes it happens that when all the canning conditions are met, the vegetables remain strong and crisp, but when pickling the cucumbers, the brine becomes cloudy. This can be explained by the following reasons:

low-quality water used for pickling or canning; if it contains excess impurities, the solution will naturally become cloudy;
the presence of nitrates in purchased fruits - after a long stay in liquid, chemicals leave the pulp of vegetables, but the brine deteriorates;
unsuitable salt used for pickling or canning, or spoiled vinegar, it almost immediately becomes clear that the brine in a jar of cucumbers has become cloudy, although the fruits themselves may retain their color and dense structure for some time.

Advice! For canning, it is recommended to use your own vegetables or products from trusted farmers, and not store-bought fruits, the naturalness of which remains in question.

What to do if the brine in pickled and pickled cucumbers becomes cloudy

Eating spoiled preparations is very dangerous, but if cucumbers in jars that were completely fresh yesterday become cloudy, then in many cases they can be saved. The main thing is to first inspect the cloudy preparation and make sure that the vegetables have not really lost their quality and deserve resuscitation.

A cloudy workpiece can be redone

How to save cloudy canned cucumbers

If canned cucumbers become cloudy, there is no need to throw them away. A workpiece that has recently lost transparency can be saved as follows:

open the rolled up jars and pour the cloudy solution into the pan;
pour boiling water up to the neck into the jars of vegetables and herbs;
leave the vegetables in hot water, and at this time put the cloudy saline solution on the fire and boil;
Boil for 5-8 minutes, then add a couple more tablespoons of vinegar to the liquid.

Then the hot water is drained from the jar with the fruit, and the treated brine with increased volumes of vinegar is poured back. The jars are rolled up tightly again, and care must be taken to ensure that the workpiece is completely sealed.

What to do if pickles have fermented

Most often, cucumber fruits become cloudy in a jar during the pickling process, since preservation occurs without the use of additional ingredients. However, even in this case, it is quite possible to save the pickles and stop fermentation in the early stages.

If the cucumbers have fermented in a jar, but the lid does not swell, then resuscitate the pickled vegetables as follows:

open the jar and pour out the spoiled brine;
the fruits are removed and scalded with boiling water in a separate container, and then left in it for 10 minutes;
a new brine is prepared for vegetables, but this time a little vinegar is added to it, which will serve as a natural preservative;
the vegetables are put back into the jar and filled with fresh salty solution, after which they are tightly closed.

You can save only those workpieces on which the lids are not swollen

Important! After repeated rolling, the fruits may change their taste and become less pleasant. But if they do not ferment in the new brine, and the lid on the container does not swell, then you can eat them, although it is better to put such vegetables in soup rather than eat them as a snack.

How to remake cloudy pickled cucumbers

If the pickled cucumbers in the jar become cloudy, this usually indicates serious violations in the creation of the product. Vinegar in the marinade acts as a good preservative, and if the brine becomes cloudy, despite its presence, it means that quite a lot of microorganisms have entered the jar.

To remake pickled vegetables, you need:

pour the entire cloudy solution from the jar into the pan and pour the vegetables into a separate container;
treat the fruits with fresh boiling water, which will help kill possible bacteria;
leave the vegetables in hot water, and meanwhile boil the solution in a clean saucepan for at least 5 minutes;
Thoroughly sterilize the jar and lid again.

After this, the fruits are put back into the container and filled with brine, not forgetting to add a little more fresh vinegar to it. You need to roll up the jar the second time especially carefully so that the workpiece is completely sealed.

Is it possible to eat cloudy canned cucumbers?

If fruits prepared for the winter become cloudy, this does not always mean that they have deteriorated irrevocably.Therefore, many people have a question: is it necessary to pickle and salt vegetables again, or can they be eaten even if they are cloudy?

You should not eat cloudy vegetables - it is dangerous for your health.

If the brine in pickled cucumbers has become cloudy, eating such fruits without processing is strictly not recommended. The jar may contain botulism bacteria, and they pose a huge danger to humans. At best, the preparation will cause an upset stomach, and at worst, it will lead to a serious illness with a potential fatal outcome.

It must be remembered that when cucumbers become cloudy, they must be carefully inspected before re-pickling or salting. It is allowed to remake the preparation only if the vegetables have not softened, have not acquired an unpleasant color or aroma, and the lid on the jar with cloudy brine has not yet swelled. If the vegetables are fermenting, and the lid swells and an unpleasant odor emanates from the product, then the fruits definitely need to be thrown away. Reanimating them is pointless and dangerous - they are no longer suitable for consumption.

Attention! If the preparations become cloudy a couple of days after preservation, you can simply keep them in the refrigerator for a week and observe the condition of the brine. In some cases, the cloudy sediment sinks to the bottom, and the lid never swells, but this does not always happen.

A few tips on how to salt and pickle cucumbers so they don’t turn cloudy

A few simple recommendations will help you preserve vegetables safely:

It is better to take distilled or spring water for salting and pickling. Tap water may contain excess impurities even after boiling, and fruits in it become cloudy more often.
It is better to salt and preserve foods grown on your own plot without the use of chemicals. You only need to pickle special varieties that are distinguished by their small size, crunchy, dense pulp and small hard spines on the peel.
Before canning, vegetables should be soaked in cold water for several hours. At the same time, not only likely harmful substances will come out of them, but also air from the internal voids, and dirt will also be washed away efficiently - soaked vegetables ferment less often.

When canning, many housewives add several small tomatoes to the cucumbers. Usually the brine does not ferment after this - the tomatoes prevent unwanted processes.

Tomatoes in pickles help prevent cloudiness

Conclusion

After seaming, cucumbers become cloudy in jars if the canning technology was violated, or if unsuitable ingredients were used for the brine. If there is no swelling on the lids, you can try to save the workpieces, then you won’t have to throw away the vegetables.