Sweet-Sour Gherkins

We harvested a lot of fresh gherkins from our garden & needed to can them!

This is a delicious sweet-sour gherkin marinade. You need to let them sit in the cans for at least 6 weeks!

Yumm!

Step 1: Gather Your Gherkins for Salting the 1st Night.

For the 1st night:

Ingredients:

about 500 gr of fresh gherkins, ( I had 538 gr) washed under a running tap of water, pad dry, left whole

1500 ml of water + 37,5 gr of salt

Method:

Day 1, the evening before you go to bed. Place fresh clean gherkins into a pot, all besides each other. Take a cooking pot & add 1500 ml water & salt. Bring to the boil & pour this over the gherkins in the other pot. The gherkins must be covered with all the salted water. They may float a bit on the water. Place fitted lid on & place into the fridge for the night being. This way, the gherkins will be softer, the way through.The salt will remove any dirt etc. And also the gherkins will absorb better the flavors of the next day, this is the sweet-sour marinade, of course!

Step 2: Take Gherkins Out of Slated Water, Rinse, Dip Them Dry, Slice Them.

For the 2nd day, the next morning:

What do you need?

400 ml white wine vinegar

300 ml water

300 ml white wine, a cheap one, I used Cabernet Sauvignon that only cost me 3 Euro

100 gr white sugar

4 whole green chili peppers, cleaned, dept dry, left whole

40 black peppercorns

1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds

What else do you need?

2 cooking pots a canning funnel, sterilized, for day

2-3 canning pots & lids, all sterilized for day 2

a small soup ladle to help you

clean towels

a sterilized big funnel

Method:

Day 2: Remove excess of salted water & slice them the way you like it. Pour salted not so clean water of the gherkins. Rinse them under clean running water & dep them dry. You can really feel that the gherkins are softer now. Now, you can easily remove the black tornes from the outside peel of the gherkins. This is qiuckly done with a clean towel rubbed on the outside of the gherkins. Then, slice them, like you want.

Step 3: Can Your Jars, Lids, a Big Funnel Too.

I can them boiled for 10 minutes into a big cooking pot with boiling water. See that all of the jars & lids are well submerged. Then bring to the boil & boil for 10 whole minutes. Leave them into he hot water just before filling them!

Step 4: Boil All of Your Ingredients for the Sweet-sour Marinade for 10 Minutes.

Now, with oven gloves, take one of the canning pot with fitted lid out of the boiled water & place it onto a clean towel on your kitchen counter. Do not touch the inside of the canning jar!!! Place your sliced or cut up gherkins into the fitted pot. See that there isn’t a slice that is too big to fit the pot. Otherwise, slice it agin into 2. Really stuff your sliced gherkins neatly besides each other & see that there is room to pour the liquid with added ingredients into your canning pot. Take the sterilized funnel & place it into your canning pot. With your smaller ladle, ladle & pour your marinade into the funnel. See that all the ingredients are neatly divided into the 3 canning jars. Really fill them up, so that all of your liquid & ingredients have been used up. Now, screw the lid really well on & place the filled jar upside down for the day & night. Do the same with the other 2 jars. The next day, label them & place them into a dark clean cupboard for at least 6 weeks! MMMM!

You can also find this tasty recipe her eon my blog: http://sophiesfoodiefiles.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/i-have-got-some-news-recent-harvests-from-our-allotment-a-sweet-sour-gherkin-canning-recipe/