"Polish Cucumbers"

General Cooking tips

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Monika
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2.5kg cucumber (weighed after preparation, that is, peeled and seeds removed), 125g salt, 150g silverskin onions, 2 small cloves garlic, 1 small bunch each of tarragon and dill, 4 seeds pickling spice, 3 bay leaves, 30g chopped horseradish, 3 - 4 cloves, 2 - 3 dried chilli peppers, 8 - 10 black and white peppercorns, 20g mustard seed, 0.5 l white wine vinegar, 0.75 l water, 200 - 250g sugar, 1/2 sachet "Dr Oetker preserving aid" [which, as far as I can tell, is salycic acid]

The prepared cucumbers are cut into 1cm thick slices, layered with the salt into a bowl, covered with a cloth and left overnight. The next day the cucumbers are strained through a sieve and dried with a cloth. They are then layered with the sliced onions and spices in a pottery jar or glass. The vinegar, water and sugar are boiled and poured hot over the cucumber. After a week, the liquid is drained off, reboiled, mixed with the "preserving aid" and again poured over the cucumber when still hot. When cool, the pot or glass is covered with parchment or cellophane.
Westi
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That sounds like it could be lovely & spicy. The horseradish , cloves, chillies etc all should give several layers of different types of heat. Very opportunistic as my cucumbers are getting their second wind following a feed & some TLC.

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Primrose
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Can,t find the earlier thread on "kosher" dill pickled gherkins. We opened the first jar of dill pickled gherkins we made about 3 weeks ago and they were nice and crunchy but sadly lacking in the authentic commercial dill flavoured gherkins we were trying to achieve. We used mainly dill seeds as we had hardly any dill leaf.
I'm wondering if I add the dill leaf/weed at at later stage if I can get hold of any whether it will be too late to try and change the flavour in the remaining jars. Any suggestions?
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retropants
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I'd chuck some in, can't hurt, can it?
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