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I'm overwhelmed with cucumbers - does anyone know a way to preserve them apart from pickling? Don't want to use salt for health reasons, as in pickles, though a bit of salt is OK. I can't make as good dill pickles as in the store anyway.
I know they can't be frozen like beans, but anything else? I'm swamped with cukes!!!
Pickling is the prime way to preserve pickles.
You can store them at 45-50 degrees for a short period of time. Check for softness from time to time. Storing them along with fruits will cause them to go soft quickly, so be sure if you want to store them that they are separated from fruits that produce ethelene.
A friend of mine told me once how her mother used to grate and freeze them. Some were used in salad during the winter and some were used to make bread, I guess like you might use zucchini. I had never heard of either before. Maybe this is a Dutch thing or Canadian..... she is Dutch, but moved to Canada as a little girl. If you are interested, I will try to find out exact directions.
A friend of mine told me once how her mother used to grate and freeze them. Some were used in salad during the winter and some were used to make bread, I guess like you might use zucchini. I had never heard of either before. Maybe this is a Dutch thing or Canadian..... she is Dutch, but moved to Canada as a little girl. If you are interested, I will try to find out exact directions.
If it's possible to freeze them and use in winter salads (ohhh the smell of fresh cukes in winter) then it would be perfect! I was under impression that cucumbers lose their "face" if you freeze them - meaning, when you un-freeze them, what will they be like? As opposite to peas/beans/carrots -they can be cooked fresh and they can be cooked thawed. Though I can see them added to breads. It would be great if you found out directions.
You aren't really swamped until they start to rot...
Cukes are 95% water, so putting a huge amount of effort and energy into preserving them doesn't make much sense. Supposedly, if you remove the peel, which can turn bitter, and slice them, you can dehydrate them into little coasters. I guess those could be substituted for something like rice crackers or used for dipping chips. I don't think they would re-hydrate very well.
I've heard of people using the peels as ant repellant, but IME, the ants just walked around them.
I have made sweet relish, sweet relish w/onions
dill relish, dill relish w/onions, and dill relish with hot
peppers. All these are great for potato salad, egg,
ham, and chicken salad, deviled eggs. Put in half pints
and pint jars so as to use as much as need for your recipes and no waste.
You can pickle them using vinegar without brine. Add a little sugar for taste.
that is what I was going to suggest, maybe a very little salt. Most of the recipes we now use have almost no salt or you brine them for a day and then rinse all the salt off, maybe rinsing 2 or 3 times.
We make sweet or dill relish with ours or with our zuchinni. Again, we use very little salt. Oh, and don't say you can't make your pickles as good as those you buy. Practice makes perfect. We started doing pickles about 25 years ago and used hundreds of different recipes plus trying all kinds of ways. We now have them down perfect. We know what is in them, know how fresh everything is and yes, they are as good as we can buy, actually they are much better. The secret is using the cukes within no more than 48 hours from picking, preferable 24. No, just keeping them in the fridge until you are ready to use, will not be the same. One more secret, when bathing them, do not bring the water to a boil, but bath them at about 180 to 185 degrees.
I really don't think there is another way. Of course you can try grating and freezing, you have nothing to lose.
Nita
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cucumber abundance
