Quick vinegar pickles
The beliefPickles are assumed to need weeks of waiting before they can be eaten.
The truthA fermented pickle needs weeks; a vinegar pickle is ready in a day. They are different products: one makes its own acid, the other is given it.
How to make it
What you need
- 500 g small cucumbers (or carrots, peppers, cabbage)
- 250 ml white or grape vinegar, labelled at least 4% acidity
- 250 ml water
- 15 g salt
- 10 g sugar
- 2 cloves of garlic, a few sprigs of dill, 1 teaspoon of mustard seed
How the engine read this list (8 lines)
| 500 g | Small cucumbers | cucumber |
| 253 g | White or grape vinegar | vinegar |
| 250 g | Water | water |
| 15 g | Salt | salt |
| 10 g | Sugar | sugar |
| 10 g | Garlic | garlic |
| — | Dill | dill |
| 3 g | Mustard seed | mustard-seed |
An empty weight means that line could not be turned into grams — either the amount is open ("to taste") or the ingredient has no record here. Neither enters the sum as zero; they do not enter it at all.
Wash the cucumbers and trim 2 mm off each end. Quarter any large ones lengthways.
Put the garlic, dill and mustard seed in the bottom of a clean jar and pack the vegetables in tightly.
Bring the vinegar, water, salt and sugar to the boil in a pan, stirring until they dissolve.
Pour the boiling brine over the vegetables to 1 cm above them and close the lid.
Let it cool at room temperature, then put it in the fridge. Eat it no sooner than 24 hours later.
The others that work the same way
Strawberry jam
The truthIt is a balance of three things: pectin, acid and sugar. Get the balance and it takes forty minutes.
Tomato paste
The truthThe only job is taking the water out. Three hours in the oven or two days in the sun — the work is identical either way.
Pomegranate molasses
The truthYou boil pomegranate juice down to a fifth. The only decision is when to stop.
In the time this takes, so would these
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Acidified & Low-Acid Canned Foods Guidance Documents & Regulatory Information