The Best Recipes for Pickled Cucumbers with Chili ketchup

This year, Ukrainians appreciated how good it is when there are delicious homemade twists and preparations in the pantry. Therefore, at the time of active conservation, it’s time to talk about the best recipes for harvesting crispy homemade cucumbers for the winter. Yes, not simple (although we will share the basic version), but piquantly spicy – with Chili ketchup.

Storing Cucumbers

Before we focus on specific recipes and step-by-step instructions, here are a few tips that will save you from futile efforts:

• It is convenient to close cucumbers in liter jars, especially if you have a small family. So you have time to eat them in a short time, and the products do not go bad.
• Do not be too lazy to sort the cucumbers by size y. Firstly, they will warm up at about the same time as pouring with boiling water. And secondly, you will get several options for twists at a time: small a la pickles for a feast or a spicy accent for dinner, medium-sized cucumbers as an addition to a side dish, and large cucumbers for the vinaigrette.
• If you want the cucumbers with chili ketchup to be spicier, you can cut them into pieces. This makes the marinade absorb better.
• Preservation jars and lids should be sterilized.
• After you roll up the jar, turn it upside down on the lid, cover it with a warm blanket, and let it cool. After a day, check if the lids are swollen, and put them in a storage place.

Pickled cucumbers

There are two main approaches to preserving cucumbers:

• With sterilization. This method assumes that you temporarily put filled jars with cucumbers and marinade on fire in a saucepan in which water boils.
• No sterilization. The bottom line is that heating vegetables for natural pasteurization occurs because you pour boiling water over them several times and warm them up well.

Both methods have the right to exist, so choose the one you trust more. Below we consider a diagram of step-by-step actions for canning without sterilization. If you remove step 3 from it, it is quite suitable for the sterilization procedure.

Preservation of crispy cucumbers for the winter

If for the first time, you take on harvesting pickled cucumbers for the winter, use this simple scheme of actions. With it, you can implement almost all the best recipes, because they usually include the following steps:

Step 1: Prepare the Cucumbers to Make them More Crispy

If you have a choice, take small cucumbers – they are more crispy. If we have what we have, we can use the following life hack:

• After washing the cucumbers, soak them in water for 2-5 hours. Vegetables will absorb the necessary moisture and remain juicy.

Step 2: Prepare Herbs and Garlic

When preserving cucumbers, most recipes use garlic and herbs:

• Dill inflorescences (preferably fresh, but dried is also possible);
• Horseradish leaves (also almost always appear on the list of ingredients);
• Cherry or currant leaves.

We think it’s not worth reminding you that everything should be thoroughly washed. Because it’s nice when cucumbers crunch and do not sand your teeth.

Put the selected greens and garlic with cloves on the bottom of the jar. And then tightly, as in public transport in the morning, tamp cucumbers in a jar. If you want more accents of taste, greens can be placed not only at the bottom of the jar but also between the cucumbers.

Step 3: Warm the cucumbers with boiling water

The purpose of this step is to thoroughly warm the cucumbers with “baths” of boiling water. To do this, boil water in a large saucepan, then fill the jars with cucumbers up to the whisk and let stand. Then drain the water, bring it to a boil again, and repeat a few more times. The required time and number of repetitions depend on the selected recipe.

During the last filling, add bay leaf and peppercorns.

Step 4: Make the marinade

Drain the water again, put it on a boil, and start preparing the marinade. It usually contains vinegar at the rate of 2 tbsp per liter jar. You will find the best recipes for crispy cucumbers for the winter a little lower in the same article. Once you’ve added all the ingredients, pour over the cucumbers and move on to the last step.

Step 5: Roll up the jars

Pour the marinade to the brim so that there is no air left, and the lid fits snugly. Keep in mind that after the jar of cucumbers cools down, the water will decrease slightly in volume. This is fine.

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After pouring the marinade, immediately twist. You don’t need to wait until it cools down.

 Crispy cucumbers with Chili ketchup

The step-by-step instructions from the previous section are the basis of classic cucumbers for the winter. But we agreed to make it piquantly spicy, so we offer the best mar

and recipes for preserving cucumbers with Chili ketchup.

*All recipes are based on 1.5 liters. water for the marinade.

Spicy cucumbers with Chili ketchup

Marinade Ingredients:

• Ketchup “Chili” – 250 g;
• Vinegar 9% – 1 tbsp.;
• Sugar – 1 tbsp.;
• Salt – 2 tbsp. l.;
• Chili.

Cooking features:

Before pouring the cucumbers, boil the mixture for 10 minutes. When adding to the jar, also put chopped chili peppers for a more pronounced spiciness.

O cucumbers with Chili ketchup and ginger

This version of the marinade recipe was suggested by Yevgeny Klopotenko. To the common list of ingredients, he added an interesting zest – ginger.

Marinade Ingredients:

• Sugar – 250 g;
• Vinegar – 250 ml;
• Salt – 2 tbsp. l. salt;
• Dry ginger – 1 tsp;
• Ketchup “Chili” – 6-8 tbsp. l.;
• Cloves – 5 buds;
• Black pepper – 10 peas;
• Allspice – 5 peas.

Cooking features:

Boil water, add salt, sugar, ketchup, and ginger, and boil over low heat. Then set aside the pan, pour in the vinegar, and mix thoroughly. Before pouring the marinade into a jar, add cloves and peppercorns to it.

Sliced ​​cucumbers with Chili ketchup and carrots

This recipe for the winter is suitable for connoisseurs of the palette of flavors. In addition to cucumbers, put carrots and onions in a 3:1:1 ratio in a jar and increase the amount of garlic. Cut all vegetables into slices.

Marinade Ingredients:

• Ketchup “Chili” – 350 ml;
• Salt – 1.5 tbsp. l.;
• Sugar – 3 tbsp. l.;
• Vinegar – 4.5 tbsp. l.

Cooking features:

Marinate vegetables in a bowl with ketchup and put them in jars. From other components and water, boil the marinade and pour in vegetables.

If you are trying to close cucumbers for the winter with Chili ketchup for the first time, try a few different proportions (more/fewer herbs and spices, more/less spicy ketchup) and put appropriate stickers on the jars. When you savor crispy cucumbers on cold evenings, you can determine your favorites in the category “Best Recipe for Winter Preservation”. Maybe there are already? Share in the comments!

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