A simple recipe for pickling cucumbers in grape leaves for the winter

The tradition of canning cucumbers exists in every family. Aesthetically beautiful is a variation of a familiar snack like cucumbers in grape leaves for the winter, the recipe for which is simple and accessible. In winter, such jars are opened and their contents are used to prepare salads or as an independent snack. Every housewife tries to add her own twist to traditional recipes.

The advantages of this particular preparation are that the grape leaf helps preserve the rich color of the main component and a truly fresh taste.The dissection of the grape material and the unusual shape guarantee that the entire surface of the vegetable will be covered.

This wonderful appetizer should be on every table. You can preserve cucumbers and grapes in a variety of ways, adding citric acid, vodka, apple juice, and vinegar to basic recipes without vinegar. The leaves themselves, after eating the cucumbers, can be used to prepare dolma.

Ingredients for canning cucumbers

You can make your collection of preserves more diverse with the help of cucumbers wrapped in grapes during the canning process. This snack is made from small and crunchy vegetables. The leaves in which they are to be wrapped must be whole and healthy. Their number should be equal to the number of cucumbers that are intended for rolling.

When preparing, you will need the following ingredients:

• dill - in the form of umbrellas;
• cucumbers - medium-sized, small, neat, identical in size;
• vinegar - 9%;
• black pepper;
• leaves - grape, currant, cherry, in some cases it is even possible to add oak leaves to obtain a characteristic crunch;
• red currants - optional;
• pepper - allspice and black, in the form of peas;
• sugar.

Some housewives know how to pickle cucumbers with apple juice. You can add cloves, bay leaves and other spices. Salting options depend on the individual preferences and experience of the housewife.

Cooking instructions

Before you start directly canning vegetables in leaves and marinade, you need to carefully prepare the jars by rinsing them with the addition of baking soda. After this, the container should be well sterilized. The lids are prepared in a similar way.

After everything you need has been prepared, you can begin the process of preserving cucumbers in grape leaves according to the recipe. The sequence of actions should be as follows:

1. Preparation of currant, grape and cherry leaves. They must be perfectly clean and carefully sorted.
2. Soak. Cucumbers should be soaked in cold water for a while to remove all the accumulated bitterness, which can subsequently spoil the taste of the product. After this, the vegetables are washed. The thorns are removed from them and the ends are cut off.
3. Start of installation. At the bottom of the jar you need to put dill umbrellas, several cherry and currant leaves, peppercorns, garlic cloves with cut ends.
4. Sealing cucumbers. Each leaf must correspond to a certain cucumber in size. The cucumber should be carefully “swaddled”, and then all the resulting bundles should be placed in a jar. If there are red currants, then its berries should be placed on top.
5. Canning. The cucumbers are poured with boiling water, covered with a lid and infused in this form for 10 minutes. After the time has passed, the water must be poured into a saucepan, boiled and the contents of the jar refilled. Before refilling the water, you must add 30 grams of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 30 ml of vinegar per liter of water.
6. Re-twist. After the marinade has boiled for several minutes, it is poured into a jar with cucumbers.
7. Rolling up. The pickled cucumbers in grape leaves should be closed with lids when the marinade fills the entire jar to the very top. After rolling, the jars are turned over and wrapped well.After cooling, the pickled cucumbers with grape leaves are transferred to a cool, dark place for storage.

It is important that the success of canning largely depends on the quality of the starting material, in this case, cucumber. It must be pre-soaked for two hours, and after the first hour the water must be replaced with fresh water.

Recipe for cucumbers with apple juice

In addition to the traditional recipe, in which the preservative effect is achieved through the usual 9% vinegar, there is an alternative option in which pickles in grape leaves are pickled in apple cider vinegar. This gives them a pleasant sweet and sour taste.

Pickles are prepared from 2.5 kg of vegetables and large leaves in the appropriate amount. The marinade must be prepared from 50 grams of salt, a similar amount of granulated sugar, 1 liter of water and 300 grams of apple juice. If there is not enough marinade, you can prepare more, but the amount of all ingredients should be increased in proportion to the volume of water.

All ingredients should be placed in a two- or three-liter jar, washed with soda. Preservation is sterilized within 7 minutes.

Inventive housewives do not stop there, but conduct a lot of experiments, adding variety to the recipe for cucumbers in grape leaves. So, instead of apple juice, you can add grape juice to the cucumbers. The order of the salting procedure remains unchanged.