The cucumbers were purchased from a really cool Greek neighborhood grocery and butcher. A boutique. Nearly like Whole Foods except a lot less expensive. I bought half the bin, a full plastic grocery bag. Cost: $17.something. They were perfect. And they taste good as raw cucumbers. I kept telling myself, what if I'm filling the jars and I'm short just 1, 2, 3 cucumbers? Stop eating them, they have purpose.
10 Cups sugar
6 Cups vinegar
1 teaspoon Britany sea salt
2 big fat honking hands of ginger, thinly sliced to paper thinness on the mandolin. That was fun.
1/2 jar allspice berries.
1 bay leaf for each jar
I was supposed to add onion slices but I forgot.
Tasted the syrup and was satisfied. It will do very nicely.
Cucumbers soaked and rinsed. They weren't so nearly dirty as they look in the first photograph. Nothing came off of them.
Quartered lengthwise and generously salted and left to weep their liquid for, oh, say an hour or so.
Rinsed again.
Soaked in packed ice water in the sink. A full 10 LB bag of ice. For several hours, I'm guessing four, possibly five.
Ate a few more cucumber quarters.
Syrup brought to a boil again, cucumbers added and boiled until they changed color to translucent. Then jarred. The jars filled to just 1/2 inch below the rim. At this moment they're cooling down. They'll go directly into the refrigerator.
There is nothing here to guarantee shelf life. They must be consumed fairly quickly and I have no doubt I can do that.
No comments:
Post a Comment