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Recipe for the perfect leavened cucumber
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If you like pickled vegetables, the Hungarian leavened cucumber is a must-try. It accompanies meats and sandwiches perfectly, and it has a bunch of health benefits too. Here is a fool-proof recipe.
Just like with any other traditional food, every household has their own way of making leavened cucumber (kovászos uborka). Veol.hu shares a rather unusual recipe received from one of their readers, and they claim that with this recipe, the cucumbers remain crunchy for up to two months. And who wants soggy cucumbers? Let’s see the secret.
Ingredients:
- 2 kg cucumber
- 2 l water
- 10 dkg sugar
- 2 tbs salt
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 small onion
- 1 tbs vinegar (10%)
- 1 thick slice of bread wrapped in a cheesecloth
- horseradish and dill to taste
Instructions:
- Wash the cucumbers carefully. Cut their ends off, then cut into them lengthwise.
- Put some of the dills to the bottom of the jar and stand the cucumbers on top of it vertically.
- In a separate bowl, dissolve the sugar and salt in lukewarm water then pour it into the jars.
- Put the garlic, onion, horseradish, and the remaining dill into the jar as well.
- At last, pour the vinegar on top and place the slice of bread wrapped in cheesecloth on top. It is important that the liquid covers all the cucumbers and the bread too.
The word leaven means a raising agent, typically yeast, in the context of dough and bread making. Methinks the author meant to use the word ‘fermented’ – leavened does not make sense in english in this context since the recipe does not use a raising agent.
What is wrapping in cheesecloth?
Markus: Cheesecloth is also known as muslin. Easy to buy cheap packs of it (I get mine from Amazon).
I have a recipe kinda like this. Except no onion and no garlic, no sugar. Just salted water, cucumbers, dill and bread. Simple. But my God so good.