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From year to year, the summer season pampers us with various fresh vegetables and fruits. Fresh and crispy cucumbers, just picked from the garden, are especially good. When the first rush wears off, you begin to crave something special, spicy and salty. And here many people remember lightly salted cucumbers - an excellent appetizer for many dishes. There are quite a few ways and recipes for preparing lightly salted cucumbers. Below we will talk about the easiest and fastest of them - the cold method.
Benefits of cold salting
Cold pickling is an easy and quick way to prepare a variety of pickles using cold brine. This method has many advantages over the classic method of preparing lightly salted cucumbers using hot brine. Let's look at them:
- The taste of cucumbers prepared in this way is more intense;
- the natural crunch of vegetables is preserved;
- when using cold brine, cucumbers do not lose beneficial vitamins and minerals;
- no need to cook the brine for a long time;
- simple cooking technology that does not take much time.
Having listed all the advantages of the cold method of preparing lightly salted cucumbers, one cannot help but mention the only disadvantage - you can store the finished snack only in the refrigerator and for no more than 1 week. But given the taste of ready-made lightly salted cucumbers, you don’t have to worry about them going bad.
But you still have to store them in a cool place.
Criteria influencing the final result
cucumbers
Before you prepare lightly salted cucumbers at home using cold brine, you need to select the appropriate fruits. The final result of salting will depend on this. Cucumbers for a future snack must have the following criteria:
- To be of the pickling variety. These cucumbers are small in size, and their skin has small tubercles. Smooth and large fruits are completely unsuitable for these purposes. Many gardeners speak well of the Nezhinsky variety of pickling cucumbers.
- Have the same dimensions. It is important to remember that the smaller the cucumbers, the faster they will be salted.
- Be fresh and crispy. For preparing lightly salted cucumbers, fresh cucumbers taken from the garden are ideal, but store-bought ones can also be used. The main thing is that they are not lying down and soft.
Salt
Despite the fact that we will prepare lightly salted cucumbers, salt is a very important ingredient. When preparing any pickles, be it lightly salted cucumbers or other snacks, you should choose only coarse rock salt.
Finely ground salt and iodized salt are not suitable for these purposes. When using them, the cucumbers will lose their crunch and become soft.
Dishes
An important condition for obtaining delicious lightly salted cucumbers is the cooking utensils. Of course, those who have an enamel pan at home have no need to think about it - they should take it. But for those who don’t have such a pan lying around at home, choosing dishes for pickling can become a problem.
In addition to an enamel pan, you can use any glass or ceramic container. The main thing is that it is deep enough. An ordinary glass jar is perfect for these purposes. But you should categorically refrain from using plastic or metal utensils.
It will be enough just to rinse it thoroughly. But for twisting lightly salted cucumbers without sterilization jars not enough. The video will tell you more about sterilization methods:
Best Recipes
These recipes have long been considered classics for preparing this lightly salted snack using cold brine. It won’t take much time to prepare, and the result will not be long in coming.
This will allow them to retain their crunch and density.
The most popular and versatile recipe
To prepare it we will need:
- cucumbers - how many will fit into the selected container;
- dill;
- garlic;
- horseradish, cherry and currant leaves;
- pepper pods - can be replaced with peppercorns;
- water;
- salt - 70 grams for each liter.
This is a complete list of ingredients, but if you don’t have something on hand, don’t put off cooking. Even if there are only cucumbers, water, salt and pepper in the kitchen.
Before cooking, the cucumbers must be washed and soaked for 2 hours in cold water.
While the cucumbers are soaking, let's do the rest of the preparations. To do this, you need to wash all the available greens and peel the garlic. Then all the ingredients must be divided into two parts, and one of them should be placed in a clean container for pickling. After this, the cucumbers are placed in the container, and only then the rest of the ingredients.
Now you can prepare the brine. There is probably nothing simpler than this. All you need to do is dissolve salt in cold water. To speed up the process, you can stir it vigorously.
Pour the prepared brine over all the fruits. It is very important that the cucumbers are completely covered with brine. Now the container with cucumbers can be left alone at room temperature for a day or a little longer, depending on the degree of readiness.
Determining the readiness of lightly salted cucumbers is very simple.
Also, a characteristic lightly salted smell is a criterion for readiness. Ready cucumbers should only be stored in the refrigerator, otherwise they will turn into ordinary pickles.
Spicy pickled cucumbers
This recipe is perfect for spicy lovers. To prepare it you need:
- kilogram of cucumbers;
- juice of half a lemon;
- a tablespoon of mustard;
- 2 teaspoons sugar;
- half a teaspoon of salt.
As in the previous recipe, the cucumbers must be washed and left in water for 1–2 hours. After this, they need to be cut into circles. Don't cut it very thin. The approximate thickness of the slices should be from 0.5 to 1 centimeter.
Now we need to prepare the brine.There is no water in this recipe, so you need to stir the salt and sugar in the juice of half a lemon. Mustard should also be added there.
After this, you can add the brine to the cucumbers. But it is worth considering that the prepared brine will not be able to completely cover all the cucumbers. Therefore, the container with them must be covered with a lid and shaken thoroughly so that the brine is evenly distributed between the slices. All that remains is to put the container in the refrigerator.
Lightly salted and spicy cucumbers prepared according to this recipe can be served within 24 hours. If you need a ready-made snack earlier, you can leave the fruits to pickle at room temperature for a period of 1 hour to 6 hours. It is important to ensure that they do not become too salty.
Conclusion
Lightly salted cucumbers prepared according to these recipes will not leave anyone indifferent. In such a short time they turn out very tasty and crispy. But in order for them to remain as tasty longer, they must be stored only in the refrigerator.
