Fermented Pickles in Jars for Winter

Name: Fermented Pickles: Old-Fashioned Cucumbers Canned for Winter
Prep time: 4 d
Cook time: 24 h
Total time: 5 d
Cuisine: Ukrainian cuisine
Ingredients: Cucumbers 8 kg; Pickling herb bundle 1 bunch; Garlic 3 heads; Room-temperature water 1.5–2 three-liter jars; Non-iodized rock salt 6 level tbsp (120–130 g) per three-liter jar of water

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5 days

The theory of the perfect snack, I no longer remember who came up with it (maybe even me), holds that a snack should be simple. It should be affordable and in season. It should be tasty. And its brine should cure, the next morning, what folks call a hangover.

This theory is a perfect fit for sauerkraut, the most perfect snack of all, fermented tomatoes, which I adore, and fermented pickles.

When I was a kid, at my grandmother’s in the village, every summer they salted and fermented all sorts of garden vegetables, cucumbers included. They didn’t plant many cucumbers in the village, just a couple of hundred square meters. But with constant care, weeding and pest control, the cucumber harvest was always excellent, despite all the plant diseases going around. The cucumbers were fermented in a huge oak barrel, I can’t even remember how big. I was little then, and the barrel seemed simply enormous to me! And in winter, the pickles were dug out of the barrel with a bare hand and eaten just like that, or as a snack with fiery village moonshine.

I still can’t figure out for sure what the right word is: fermenting, salting, or something else. Apparently it’s fermenting after all.

Salting is a way of preserving food with salt, either dry or as a brine. The high salt content kills microbes, so the food keeps for a long time. Cucumbers are salted by simply pouring a salt solution over them and leaving them in barrels for quite a long time. That’s how quick-salted cucumbers are made. As soon as the cucumbers are lightly salted, they get eaten right away.

Pickling in vinegar: the cucumbers are covered with a vinegar marinade and canned. Also an acquired taste.

In my opinion, the best way to preserve cucumbers is fermentation. Fermented pickles are really a combination of salting and fermenting. That’s how it was done when I was a kid. The point of fermentation is to produce lactic acid, which acts as a preservative. It’s the lactic acid that gives fermented pickles their refined flavor.

Fermented pickles can be kept in oak barrels in a cellar. But in a city apartment, it’s better to can them after fermenting. That’s what my mom still does: she seals fermented pickles in one-liter jars, and they sit on the shelf at room temperature in cloudy brine and never spoil or “explode.” An amazing process.

And in winter, as needed, the fermented pickles get eaten: just like that, as a snack, in classic vinaigrette salad, and you can even make a meat solyanka or rassolnik with pearl barley.

Fermented pickles can be kept in oak barrels in a cellar. But in a city apartment, it’s better to can them for winter after fermenting.

More with cucumbers

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Cucumber Sauce with Garlic and Soured Milk

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Salad with Salt-Cured Cucumbers

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Corn and Bean Salad with Iceberg Lettuce

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Cold Borscht

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Ingredients

8–10 jars

Cucumbers 8 kg
Pickling herb bundle 1 bunch
Garlic 3 heads
Room-temperature water 1.5–2 three-liter jars
Non-iodized rock salt 6 level tbsp (120–130 g) per three-liter jar of water

Step-by-step recipe

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Cucumbers, herbs and garlic

Home canning of fermented pickles has three stages: fermenting, canning and eating. The most enjoyable one, without a doubt, is eating. Hard to argue with that.
Choose the cucumbers. Small ones work best, a nice green color with black bumps. For some reason, people believe cucumbers with white bumps aren’t good for pickling. I admit I haven’t checked. Hollow and bitter cucumbers don’t pickle well and can ruin the whole batch. It’s important that the cucumbers are small enough to fit into a one-liter jar, and fairly snugly.
Prepare the cucumbers: be sure to sort them, removing the stems, damaged ones and any debris. Wash the cucumbers well. Very thoroughly, under running water. Be sure to soak the cucumbers in cold water for a few hours. Then rinse them once more.
Get a pickling herb bundle. What goes into it is a subject of endless debate. But experience shows that the old ladies at the local market will advise you on it like a professor. Usually the bundle includes whole stalks of mature dill (with the seeds), a blackcurrant twig with leaves, fennel, sometimes an oak twig, and almost always a cherry twig. Horseradish leaves are a must. The bundle is usually sold either fresh or dried, which makes almost no difference for pickling. Wash the bundle and cut it roughly into pieces about the width of your palm.
The garlic, of course, should be young, this year’s crop. Peel all the cloves and wash them.

Fermenting in a bucket

It’s best to ferment cucumbers in a barrel. But if you’re going to can them in jars afterwards, an ordinary enamel bucket will do.
Pack the cucumbers into the bucket. Set the bucket in a large, deep bowl or basin. Pack the cucumbers tightly into the bucket, scattering peeled garlic cloves between them.
Leave about a palm’s width of space at the top of the bucket. Lay the chopped, washed herb bundle on top.
Make the brine. Fill an ordinary three-liter jar with plain water at room temperature. A bucket needs 1.5–2 jars. Add 6 (six) spoonfuls of non-iodized rock salt to each jar. Level spoonfuls. It’s hard for me to say how much that is in grams, see the photo. But here’s the important part: don’t oversalt, or it will be salting, not fermenting. Just today, as we were finishing the canning, a neighbor came by to “double-check” the amount of salt, since she overdid it last year. Update: it didn’t occur to me right away to just weigh it, but now I have. It turns out those 6 spoonfuls of salt weigh 120–130 g.
Stir the salt into the water until completely dissolved.
Pour the brine into the bucket with the prepared cucumbers. The brine should completely cover the cucumbers and partly cover the herbs.
Cover the cucumbers with a flat disc or an upside-down plate. And weigh them down! No, don’t put a huge kettlebell on top, you could crush the cucumbers. A three-liter jar of water is plenty.
Now push the basin with the bucket into a corner, away from the sun and light. And forget about the cucumbers for 4 days.
If the room is hot, the fermentation will go quite fast, and three days will most likely be enough. By the way, after a day the cucumbers will be lightly salted and you can already start “tasting” them. But don’t get carried away!
In the end, the cucumbers should taste still lightly salted but already starting to sour. Something in between. A cloudy white brine is a sign that the lactic acid fermentation is going well.

Canning

On day 5, we start canning.
Wash the jars well and sterilize them. I recommend one-liter jars. Very convenient. Just the right size.
Boil the brine. Throw away what’s left of the herb bundle and the garlic. Strain the brine from the bucket into a large enamel pot. Put the pot on the heat. Careful! Watch the foam. It rises quickly. Skim it off with a wooden spoon.
Meanwhile, pack the cucumbers into the jars.
As soon as the brine boils, pour it into the jars of cucumbers.
Pour the brine over the cucumbers right to the brim.
Cover the jars with a clean towel and leave them for 7–8 minutes.
Pour the brine from the jars back into the pot.
Bring the brine to a boil once more. Meanwhile, boil the canning lids and get the can sealer ready. Pour the boiling brine over the cucumbers in the jars, trying to fill them right to the brim, put on the lids and seal them immediately. Do this quickly.
Turn the sealed jars of pickles upside down and put them under a warm wool blanket. Let them stay warm until completely cool.
This canning method has never failed me yet. The jars of pickles keep all year round.
Just yesterday we opened the last jar from last year to make vinaigrette salad. And simply eating a crunchy pickle on its own is a real pleasure.
Spend a day on fermented pickles, and you’ll have pickles all winter.

Calories and macros

17 kcal

100 g

Protein0.8 g17% of kcal
Fat0.1 g5% of kcal
Carbs3.5 g77% of kcal

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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To Get It Right

How much salt per liter of water

For fermented pickles, use 2 level tablespoons of salt (36 g) per liter of water, about 40 g. For a three-liter jar of water, 6 spoonfuls; I weighed them: 120–130 g. This is the strength of the brine, not the amount of salt per cucumber: you may need any amount of brine. Whether 3 liters or 10 fit into the bucket doesn’t matter: 6 spoonfuls for every 3 liters of water. My mom makes several jars of brine, pours as much over the cucumbers as fits, and the rest goes down the drain.

Cloudy brine, film and sediment

The brine doesn’t have to be white; what matters is that the cucumbers ferment. My mom’s is always slightly cloudy, whitish, with a noticeable sour taste. In a hot year, a film of mold forms on the surface; my mom skims it off often so less of it gets into the brine. In sealed jars, a white sediment settles on the bottom over time and the brine clears: these are lactic acid bacteria. If the lids aren’t bulging and the smell is pleasant and sour, everything is fine.

Why pour boiling brine twice

Fermented pickles are “alive,” and the fermentation has to be stopped, or the lids will blow off. The first pour heats the cucumbers and jars, and the brine cools down in the process. The second time it’s brought back to a boil and the jars are sealed while it’s hot, so they keep reliably at room temperature. I always sterilize the jars first and boil the lids.

If you run short of brine

You can top up the pickles with salted water with the same amount of salt: 2 level tablespoons (about 40 g) per liter. Be sure to boil it! The risk of over-souring goes up a little, though. If the brine got poured out by accident, make a new one of the same strength, bring it to a boil and carry on with the recipe. The cucumbers have already fermented, so the flavor will stay; the brine just won’t be as cloudy.

Without canning: in a barrel or cellar

If you keep the pickles in a cold cellar, you can skip the boiling brine. Cucumbers in a barrel don’t need canning; that’s the whole point of a barrel. After fermenting, move it to a cool cellar, make sure the cucumbers always stay under the brine and the weight, and skim the film off the surface. That way they keep all winter.

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Questions and answers

How many days do cucumbers take to ferment?

4 days in the bucket, in a corner away from the sun. If the room is hot, three days are enough. The pickles are ready when they still taste lightly salted but have started to sour, and the brine has turned cloudy white.

How do you make fermented pickles crunchy?

Use small green cucumbers with black bumps and no hollows, and soak them in cold water for a few hours before fermenting.

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