Cucumber salad recipes

11 years ago

All,

I have tried a few cucumber salad recipes this morning (all of which say they can be stored for a few months in the fridge) and have a couple of questions:

1. The recipes call for almost twice as much sugar as vinegar. Really? Why?

2. The recipes don't make enough "juice" to cover the salad. Is this how it is supposed to be?

3. I made more "juice" and modified the recipe a bit. I used more vinegar and added some water. Did not change the amount of sugar. Will this affect shelf life?

All of the recipes I tried only had vinegar, sugar, and salt as the liquid. Had varying amounts of each, as well as different vegetable proportions (cucumber, onion, pepper). Biggest question is, can/did I screw this up? As long as I keep refrigerated, will any cucumber salad recipe with vinegar keep a long time? Thanks!

Hope I've provided enough information to help!

Jennie

Comments (2)

digdirt2
11 years ago
Would need to see the recipes your talking about to address any issues of safety.

There is a standard recipe for Marinated Cucumbers and Onions in vinegar, sugar and salt & pepper. But it sure can't be stored in the fridge for "months", more like a week, and no the brine doesn't need to 'cover' the sliced vegetables. All the water in the cukes quickly dilutes the vinegar so the pH rises and bacteria becomes an issue.

As to 2x the sugar to the amount of vinegar - you can't make a comparison there. It's like comparing apples to onions in terms of their purpose. :) It takes a great deal of sugar to offset the taste of the vinegar so many pickling recipes will call for more sugar. The ratio all depends on the recipe used.

Dave
jennieboyer
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks - here's a link to one of the recipes. The second is similar.

Here is a link that might be useful: one recipe