The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Food & crafts => Food processing => Topic started by: xillent on September 14, 2013, 11:53:37 am
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Anyone any ideas what to do with Cucumber glut? Not really into pickles or cold soup.
If someone has a hot soup recipe? (will probably make one up if not)
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I'm sure we've had that question before this year... Can't find it now, of course.
The only thing apart from salad/pickles/chutney that I know to use cucumber for it stuffed (meat or veggie version). Although I always preferred courgettes for cooking.
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Well you can have sweet pickled plain slices of cucumber that are not so acidic or salty , I think I have recently seen a jam recipe as well as well as a " Cucumber Butter " ( An American thing no doubt ) .
Watch out for the American methods though .
I followed several to the letter , got them off the internet via goggle.
I say this because I think most have just been copied and pasted all over the internet without actually any one making , using and eating the product .
For sweet pickled cucumbers almost all the internet recipes say for each pint of vinegar use six table spoons of salt in the mixture.
Our first batch of this years crystal lemon apple cucumbers using one of several similar internet originated recipes was absolutely evil .... far to salty and belly burning even on just one 14 day old made slice out the jar and dried on kitchen towel ..
They say nothing about layering the 1/4 "2 thick slices in /with some of the salt in the recipe till it is all used , leave it for 12 to 24 hrs. So that most of the natural fluids are drawn out then , drain off the salt liquid formed , rinse off the cucumber slices , leave to drain whilst you boil the spiced sweetened vinegar again then pack in jars & add the cooling boiled spiced vinegars and sugar then hot water bath preserve them . or If not doing this bung them in the fridge and use within 28 days but leave for 10 days in a lidded container to develop flavour & quality .
Luckily I went on the internet and managed to locate several British 1960's and 1970's books on various preserving methods in which every recipe is tried and tested