Content
From year to year, the summer season pampers us with various fresh vegetables and fruits. Fresh and crispy cucumbers, only picked from the garden, are especially good. When the first excitement passes on them, you begin to want something special, spicy and salty. And here many people remember about 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 various pickles using cold brine. This method has many advantages over the classic method of preparing lightly salted cucumbers using hot brine. Consider 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 useful 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 cooking lightly salted cucumbers, one cannot but mention the only drawback - you can store a ready-made snack only in the refrigerator and no more than 1 week. But given the taste of ready-made lightly salted cucumbers, you don't have to worry that they will deteriorate.
But you still have to store them in a cool place.
Criteria influencing the final result
Cucumbers
Before you cook lightly salted cucumbers at home with cold brine, you need to choose suitable fruits. The final result of salting will depend on this. Cucumbers for a future snack must have the following criteria:
- Be a pickling variety... Such cucumbers are small in size, and there are small bumps on their skin. Smooth and large fruits will not work at all for these purposes. Many gardeners speak well of the Nezhinsky variety of pickled cucumbers.
- Be the same size... It is important to remember that the smaller the size of the cucumbers, the faster they will be salted.
- Be fresh and crispy... For the preparation of lightly salted cucumbers, fresh cucumbers are ideal, only removed from the garden, but purchased ones can also be used. The main thing is that they are not lying down and soft.
Salt
Despite the fact that we will cook lightly salted cucumbers, salt is a very important ingredient. When preparing any pickling, be it lightly salted cucumbers or other snacks, you should choose only coarse rock salt.
Finely ground salt, as well as iodized salt, are not suitable for these purposes. When used, 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 saucepan at home and have nothing to think about - they must take it. But for those who do not have such a pan at home, the choice of salting dishes can be a problem.
In addition to the enamel pot, 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 sterilizing jars not enough. The video will tell you more about the methods of sterilization:
The best recipes
These recipes have long been considered classics for preparing this lightly salted snack with cold brine. It will not take much time to cook, and the result will not be long in coming.
This will allow them to maintain their crunch and density.
The most popular and versatile recipe
To prepare it, we need:
- cucumbers - how much 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, you shouldn't delay 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 must be put in a clean salting container. After that, cucumbers are placed in the container, and only then the rest of the ingredients.
The brine can now be prepared. There is, perhaps, nothing simpler than this. All that is needed for this is to dissolve the salt in cold water. To speed up the process, you can stir it vigorously.
Pour all the fruits with the prepared brine. 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, the criterion for readiness is the characteristic light-salted smell. Ready-made cucumbers should only be stored in the refrigerator, otherwise they will turn into ordinary salted ones.
Spicy salted cucumbers
This recipe is perfect for lovers of "spicy". To prepare it you need:
- a kilogram of cucumbers;
- juice of half a lemon;
- a tablespoon of mustard;
- 2 teaspoons of 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 that, they must be cut into circles. Do not cut very thinly. The approximate thickness of the slices should be from 0.5 to 1 centimeter.
Now you need to prepare the brine. There is no water in this recipe, so stir salt and sugar in the juice of half a lemon. Mustard should also be added there.
After that, you can add the brine to the cucumbers. But it should be borne in mind that the prepared pickle will not be able to completely cover all the cucumbers. Therefore, the container with them must be covered with a lid and shaken well so that the brine is evenly distributed between the slices. It remains only to put the container in the refrigerator.
Lightly salted and spicy cucumbers prepared according to this recipe can be served for a day already. If you need a ready-made snack earlier, then you can leave the fruits to pickle at room temperature for a period of 1 hour to 6 hours. However, 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 to be very tasty and crispy. But in order for them to remain as tasty for longer, they should only be stored in the refrigerator.
