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Many housewives are faced with the fact that pickles are empty inside, soft, not crispy enough. This happens for many reasons, which you should be aware of in order to no longer make mistakes when preserving.
Why pickles become empty and soft inside
Most often, there are only two reasons why cucumbers become empty inside after pickling: a poor-quality product and errors during preservation. However, there are other cases as well.
Improper storage
One of the reasons why cucumbers become soft and empty inside after pickling is improper storage of the crop before processing. For capping, you need to use only fresh greens. Every day they lose their nutritional value and nutritional qualities, such as elasticity.
You can store cucumbers before pickling for a maximum of a day after picking. In this case, the fruits are placed in a cool room, preferably in the refrigerator. However, you can not put them in plastic bags.
If the fruits are stored for a long time and incorrectly, they will be empty inside.
Wrong salting technology
Cooking pickles is not so easy, the whole process is divided into several stages. Violations in technology lead to bad taste, the fruits become empty inside and soft. In order for the salting to take place as needed, jars of cucumbers are kept in suitable conditions.
Fermentation and the formation of lactic acid should begin as soon as possible. For this, prepared jars are kept at room temperature for about 1-2 days. At the same time, the indicator in the room should not fall below +15 … + 25 ° С. Otherwise, instead of lactic acid, when pickling cucumbers, harmful microbes are formed that lead to poisoning.
Further, it is very important not to overexpose the blanks and put them in the cold in time. The main fermentation should take place slowly under special conditions – at a temperature not higher than +5°C. This is how a product for long-term storage is obtained, crispy and not empty inside. The salting process in the cellar lasts about 1-2 months.
If the fermentation process of cucumbers is disrupted and it ends quickly, gas is formed in the jars, which leads to the appearance of emptiness in the greens. Most often, thin-skinned fruits become empty inside.
Incorrectly prepared marinade
Not only a violation of the salting technology, but also an improperly prepared marinade leads to the formation of a large amount of gas in jars. When harvesting pickles, you must strictly adhere to the recipe, otherwise the greens will become empty inside. The main reason is the lack of salt, which disrupts the fermentation process. Its optimal indicator in brine is 6-8%. If the marinade is not strong enough, then air and emptiness will form inside the seed chamber.
In addition, to prepare the marinade, you need to take into account the hardness of the salt. In extra varieties, it is low, and the highest is in the coarse grinding product. Do not use iodized salt for pickling cucumbers. It prevents the formation of lactic acid bacteria.
Also, the use of too soft water leads to the formation of voids. Hardness up to 45° is suitable for salting.
Poor quality cucumbers
It happens that the storage conditions of the greens are met, the brine for pickling is properly prepared, but the cucumbers still turn out to be empty inside. This is due to a poor quality product.
For salting, you need to pick up fruits, based on the basic rules:
- use small or medium-sized greens with a small seed chamber;
- you need to harvest for salting early in the morning, and not in the heat when it loses moisture;
- salt the culture of suitable varieties, and not salad destination.
If you take large or overripe cucumbers, they will inevitably become empty inside. In such fruits, a large seed chamber, which is filled with air during salting. But even small greens can become empty if they are collected at noon. When there is no other option, they are soaked in water for 6-8 hours before cooking. So they are saturated with the necessary moisture.
So that the cucumbers are not empty after pickling, they are tightly packed into jars, small and strong specimens are chosen
Wrong variety
Another reason why pickled cucumbers become empty is an unsuitable variety for this. There are salad fruits. They have a thin and smooth peel, white pimples. They cannot be used for salting. It is preferable to choose fruits with dark tubercles. Experienced gardeners praise several hybrids of suitable quality:
- Marina Grove;
- Hit season;
- Petrel;
- Masha.
These fruits always remain elastic and tasty, do not lose color in salting.
Growing mistakes
It often happens that cucumbers become empty inside due to a violation of growing technology. There are several reasons for this, and the most common of them is insufficient watering. If the earth is constantly dry, then Zelentsy actively lose moisture, because they are 80% water. From the moment of formation of the ovary until the harvest, the culture is demanding on watering. It should be regular and plentiful. To prevent the formation of a soil crust, the ground in the beds is mulched.
Another growing mistake is unsuitable soil composition. The soil must be fertile and loose. Humus, peat and mineral fertilizers are added to it. Sandy soil is no good. Don’t expect a big harvest.
Pickled cucumbers become empty inside due to the fact that during cultivation they lacked nitrogen. It is difficult to overfeed the culture, its root system is superficial and will take as much as necessary. However, in addition to organics, bushes need mineral components: potassium, phosphorus, calcium. The lack of these substances leads to the formation of voids inside the fetus. So, at the beginning of the growing season, plants need nitrogen supplementation, and already during the formation of the ovary and fruiting – in phosphorus-potassium. It is this scheme that must be followed when growing cucumbers.
How to pickle cucumbers correctly so that there are no voids inside
To get elastic and strong pickles, you need to follow the rules:
- Select small greens, sort them, soak in salted cold water for about 6 hours.
Soak cucumbers before pickling
- Use cans up to 10 liters, otherwise it will be more difficult to get a quality product. Wash them with baking soda first.
Sterilize jars before laying cucumbers
- It is necessary to lay the fruits for salting tightly, put spices and herbs on top of the jar and put spices on top.
Divide spices and herbs into equal parts, lay in jars along with cucumbers
Most often taken:
- dill umbrellas;
- garlic;
- bell pepper;
- leaves of horseradish, currant and cherry;
- oak bark.
Marinade for salting is made hot or cold. In the first method, jars are poured with boiling brine and left for seven days. After that, the fruits are washed, the liquid is boiled again and the container is poured. Corked with capron lids.
The cold method is somewhat different. The brine is boiled, after which it is allowed to cool and poured into a jar of cucumbers. After 4-5 days, a portion of fresh brine is added to the top of the jar and lowered into the cellar.
Recommendations from experienced chefs
Experienced housewives use some tricks to freshen up fruits before salting. Even hollow greens will become elastic if they are soaked in salt water, then rinsed and immediately salted. Each fruit must be pierced with a fork before cooking, so the risk of voids will be less.
For successful fermentation, pure well water is used. Tap water is preliminarily defended, but not filtered. Salt take stone.
And finally, I would like to note that the most delicious and crispy pickles are obtained in oak barrels, not jars. This type of wood does not absorb brine, vegetables remain dense and acquire a unique aroma.
Conclusion
Pickled cucumbers are empty inside if they were stored incorrectly or they are pickled with errors. You can avoid this by listening to the advice of experienced housewives. They also choose suitable varieties, adhere to the rules of agricultural technology and the preparation of marinade.
