Pickles from cucumbers for winter

An excellent preparation borrowed from traditional American cuisine, pickles from cucumbers for winter will be useful for making all sorts of sandwiches and burgers. These are unusual cucumbers – they have a pronounced sweet and sour taste with spicy notes, which is precisely what is used for making various American sandwiches. After brining, the sliced cucumbers are boiled for a couple of minutes in a sweet and vinegary marinade and then sealed in jars.

Yield: 2 jars with a volume of 0.5 liters.

Time for preparation: 2 hours.

Caloric content: 80 kcal per 100 grams of the dish

Ingredients

• cucumbers – 750 g;
• white onion – 180 g;
• coarse salt – 70 g.

Marinade:

• white sugar – 210 g;
• allspice – 5-6 peas;
• turmeric – 1 tsp;
• Dijon (French) mustard – 1 tbsp;
• 9% vinegar – 180 ml.

Preparation

1. Prepare the ingredients. The cucumbers should be firm and bumpy. They need to be thoroughly washed.

2. Gather all components for the marinade. Turmeric will give the sliced cucumbers a beautiful hue and a special flavor, but do not add more than indicated in the recipe, as it can lead to an unpleasant bitterness.

3. Remove the ends from the cucumbers and then slice them into rounds of 0.5 centimeters.

4. Transfer the slices to a convenient bowl for mixing.

5. Cut the onion into quarter rings.

6. Add the onions to the cucumbers along with the salt.

7. Now, the entire mixture needs to be stirred so that the salt is evenly distributed throughout. It's best to do this with your hands. Then leave the cucumbers to stand on the table for exactly 2 hours. Every half hour, they should be stirred; this will help release the juice better.

8. During this time, sterilize the jars by any convenient method. For example, in the microwave – wash the glass container, leave a little (20-30 milliliters) water at the bottom, and place it in the microwave for 3-4 minutes at maximum power. Boil the lids for 5 minutes. For convenience, it is advisable to purchase a wide funnel that should be scalded with boiling water.

9. After the specified time, the cucumbers will release a lot of juice.

10. This juice should be drained – it won't be needed. Some housewives rinse the slices in water, but it is better not to do this, otherwise the pickles will turn out completely unsalted and too sweet.

11. In a pot that can comfortably hold the prepared cucumbers, pour in the sugar for the marinade. Add the allspice and turmeric.

12. Add the Dijon mustard.

13. Pour in the vinegar. Mix the entire composition.

14. Place the pot with the marinade on the stove and bring to a boil.

15. Transfer the cucumber preparation into it.

16. Now wait for the beginning of the boil and time it. Carefully lift the lower layers of cucumbers to the top so that all of them are covered with the solution.

17. Boil the mixture for exactly 2 minutes. During this time, the cucumber rounds will change color to dark green. Turn off the heat.

18. Distribute the pickles into the jars, and it is more convenient to distribute one type of cucumber first.

19. Then add the hot marinade to them.

20. Seal the jars with lids and turn them upside down. Leave them to cool like this.

Place the pickles from cucumbers for winter in a regular kitchen cabinet – even under such conditions, the jars will store perfectly. There is no need to worry that the marinade contains a lot of vinegar – the finished pickles will acquire a wonderful sweet and sour taste; moreover, these cucumbers are not eaten separately but added as a filling to sandwiches and other composite dishes. They can also diversify the flavor of vegetable or meat salads.