How to store cucumbers for the winter

The cucumbers are those vegetables of bright green color, which as children we associate with beauty masks and continue to be confused with the zucchini, even when we are no longer so young. Cucumbers are typically summer vegetables, usually enjoyed in fresh salads along with other seasonal vegetables. But what if we want to enjoy cucumbers in the middle of winter?

We could certainly resort to the purchase of frozen ones, but we would not be able to satisfy our palate, since with defrosting one inevitably goes towards the loss of that sense of crunchiness typical of cucumber. So how to solve the problem? In the following guide, we will see together how to store cucumbers for the winter, using the vacuum packing technique: fast, cheap, and above all tasty.

Necessary

• 1 kg of cucumbers
• 500 ml of water
• 500 ml of white wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar
• 2 cloves of garlic
• A hot pepper
• Black pepper in grains to taste
• 2 tablespoons of coarse salt
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar

Wash and cut the cucumbers

First, wash the cucumbers thoroughly, to remove any traces of soil or to avoid the presence of insects or other germs. You can also put the cucumbers in a large pot full of water and let them soak for a few minutes, before rinsing them quickly. At this point, dry the cucumbers well with a cloth, and cut them into slices about 0.5 cm thick without peeling them. In this way, each washer will have the entire edge made up of the peel, which in addition to giving crunchiness, will also allow maintaining the compactness of the vegetable during cooking. Place the washers in a colander submerged in coarse salt, so that the latter absorbs the vegetation water. After at least ten minutes, take the cucumber slices and dry them further,

Prepare the sweet and sour emulsion

Now is the time to go to the stove. First, pour the water and vinegar (white wine or apple, of your choice), two tablespoons of brown sugar, and two tablespoons of coarse salt into a large pot, thus creating a bittersweet emulsion.

Place the pot on a high flame stove to speed up the time. Don’t worry: as the compound is very liquid, there is no danger of it burning. When the sweet and sour mixture begins to boil, make sure that the salt and sugar are perfectly dissolved, perhaps using a wooden spoon. As soon as you feel that the emulsion is perfectly homogeneous, you can let it cook for about ten minutes until it has thickened a little and then turn off the heat. In the meantime, it cools down,

 

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