Preparing cucumbers with aromatic garlic for the winter is a worthy use of your own culinary abilities. Pickles and preserves are great in the cold season, when the body lacks vitamins. There are quite a lot of options for creating “masterpieces in a jar” from cucumbers. Interesting? Then we begin to study the intricacies of homemade preparation.
Cooking features
There are plenty of options for canning cucumbers. First of all, you will need the vegetables themselves; this should not be forgotten.Moreover, in the quantity regulated by the recipe. In addition, you will need jars for preservation. Their capacity is determined by the needs of the harvester. Typically, containers with a capacity of 0.5-1 liter are selected.
Large jars are not recommended as they are difficult to store once opened. Vegetables, as well as all components, must be whole, clean, washed in running water. The use of cucumbers with signs of damage or spoilage is not allowed. The quality of the final product directly depends on the preparation of ingredients.
List of ingredients
In addition to the cucumbers themselves, you will need additional components. It is traditional to flavor vegetables with spices. For example, dill. In addition, any recipe is supplied with specific ingredients in certain quantities. If you prepare currant leaves, garlic, peppercorns, and cloves in advance, there will be no problems with the preparation. In our case we will need:
- fresh cucumbers;
- greens (according to recipe);
- salt;
- sugar;
- garlic;
- vegetable oil
These are the main components. Others are added separately.
Food preparation
First, cucumbers, regardless of whether they are bought in a store, at the market or grown on your own plot, need to be collected, sorted, washed, and trimmed on both sides. Do the same with other components. Be sure to follow the recommendations specified in the recipe. The final result depends on this.
Of course, sterilization will help to cope with some mistakes of novice housewives. But not with everyone. If you ignore the main rule - the preparation of fresh, healthy vegetables, free from defects - then in the future this will inevitably affect the canned product.
How to preserve cucumbers with garlic for the winter
To make a truly original preparation with herbs, a healthy preserve, you must follow the proportions indicated in the recipe. In general, it looks like this:
- fresh cucumbers – 1 kilogram;
- greens (dill) – 50 grams;
- fresh garlic – up to 6 cloves;
- granulated sugar – 1 tablespoon;
- table salt - half a tablespoon;
- Sunflower oil – 4 tablespoons.
The preparation begins, as always, with washing the vegetables. Of course, you can prepare the cucumbers in your own way, but this does not guarantee the success of the operation. Regardless of how you plan to preserve vegetables, evenly cut into identical pieces, the preservation conditions remain the same.
In parallel with processing the cucumbers, we prepare the jars: wash them with soda, select the lids. It is not advisable to use synthetic products; traces of them may end up in the final product. Clean vegetables are cut into 2 halves, then each of them is cut into 4 more slices.
Finely chop the dill, squeeze the garlic in a crush, grate (any option will do). Cucumbers in a saucepan are mixed with herbs and spices, sugar, salt, and butter are added to them. The product is almost ready. All that remains is to mix everything and put it in a cool place. After 15 minutes, lightly salted cucumbers, without sterilization, can be served. Or put it in a container and close it for the winter. According to another recipe, the appetizer is prepared slightly differently. For it you will need:
- Fresh cucumbers – 3 kilograms.
- Onions – 0.5 kilograms.
- Garlic – 2-3 heads.
- Granulated sugar – 180 grams.
- Table salt – 100 grams.
- Vegetable oil – 200 grams.
- Vinegar essence (9%) – 100 milliliters.
First, wash and cut the cucumbers into slices. The onion is cut into rings, then into 4 more pieces.Peeled garlic should be chopped (finely chopped or squeezed with a crush). We put the semi-finished products into a container of a convenient size, add salt and sugar, oil, vinegar. Mix well.
Finally, another original recipe for cucumbers in the snow. For it you will need:
- cucumbers (how many will fit in a 3-liter jar);
- garlic (2 tablespoons chopped for this amount of vegetables);
- salt (up to 2 tablespoons);
- sugar (half a tablespoon);
- vinegar (1 teaspoon);
- and water (1.5 liters) for the marinade.
Wash the cucumbers and place them upright in a clean, sterilized container. Then the vegetables are poured with boiled (but slightly cooled) water and steamed for about 10 minutes. While the cucumbers are standing, prepare the marinade. The entire recipe is based on 3 liters of preserved food. Vinegar is added at the very end, when sugar and salt have already entered the boiling water.
Snow is made from garlic and used to cover cucumbers. All that remains is to fill the filled contents of the jar with marinade and roll it up. The cucumbers are ready.
Best before date
The finished product can be stored in a cool place for up to a year. Do not forget that cucumbers do not boil, so keeping them open for too long, outside the refrigerator, is undesirable.
Storage rules
Preservation is usually stored in a pantry, refrigerator, cellar, or any place protected from direct sunlight. If the jars are swollen, their contents become cloudy, the product is unsuitable for further use.
