What’s a Pickle?
A pickled cucumber is a cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or other solution and left to ferment for a period of time, by either immersing the cucumbers in an acidic solution or through souring by lacto-fermentation. As you’ll see in this article, your pickle is not JUST a pickle. It’s also a probiotic (or prebiotic? I can never figure out the difference).
Why do We Care?
So that’s why I’m mentioning to you the subject of pickling your own pickles. Since it’s such a special way to get your vitamins absorbed in your body, why miss out on the fun of putting cucumbers in a jar, and then eating them?
Fermented pickles are full of good bacteria – probiotics!, which are important for gut health (that’s the famous microbiota). Also, it fights diseases which is always a good thing, especially during Corona Time. Finally, cucumbers are high in an antioxidant called beta-carotene (which your body turns into vitamin A) + Vitamins C, B and K. We wrote a serie of articles on the Vitamin B Complex. We also have a nice article on Vitamin C.
Here are some basic advantages of lacto-fermented products, such as home-made pickles:
- boost heart and brain health
- anti-inflammatory
- cancer-fighting
- immune-boosting
- anti-diabetic
- anti-obesity
How to Make Your Own Pickles?
You can use whichever kind of cucumbers you want: Small pickling cucumbers, regular cucumbers or English cucumbers (the ones that come in shrink-wrapped). … If you want the softest skins and fewest seeds possible, go for the small pickling cucumbers. This also recipe works equally well for making whole pickles.
To make refrigerator dill pickles, mix sliced cucumbers with vinegar, salt, sugar, dill, garlic and onion. Put them in a jar with a tight lid. Shake the jar a couple of times a day for five days. The pickles will be ready to eat in five days to one week.
Also:
- Fill a large pot with hot water.
- Submerge canning jars in the hot water and bring to a boil.
- Gather and trim the cucumbers.
- Make the pickle brine.
- Remove jars from hot water.
- Fill jars with pickle ingredients.
- Add extra spices (if you’d like)
- Prep jars for sealing.
Happy pickling!
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