Soft pickles

What is causing it

In rough order of how much difference each makes.

• The blossom end was left on. The end opposite the stalk carries enzymes that break down pectin in the cucumber. Cutting a few millimetres off it is the most effective single step there is.
• Salad cucumbers were used. Large thin-skinned cucumbers are bred for water content and go soft whatever you do. Small ridge or pickling cucumbers hold up.
• The brine was poured on boiling. It part-cooks the cucumber. Hot but not boiling is right for a vinegar pickle.
• The cucumbers were not fresh. They deteriorate quickly; pickle them the day you get them.
• Not enough salt, in a ferment. Softening bacteria establish where the salt is too low. Salt levels are a safety number — follow Food Standards Agency guidance rather than guessing.
• Too warm during fermentation, which favours the wrong organisms.
• Hollow centres, which happen in the field before the cucumber ever reaches you. Not something the pickling caused.

Getting a crisp pickle

1. Buy small, firm, ridge or pickling cucumbers, as fresh as you can.
2. Cut a few millimetres off the blossom end of each one — the end without the stalk scar.
3. Soak them in iced water for a few hours. They firm up noticeably.
4. Pack them into clean jars with your aromatics.
5. Add a tannin leaf if you have one — grape, oak, blackcurrant, horseradish or bay. Long-standing practice and widely believed to help firmness.
6. Pour the brine over hot but not boiling.
7. For a ferment, keep everything below the brine, weighted, and follow a recipe from a food safety authority for the salt.

Soft is a fault. These are different findings.

The distinction that decides what to do with the jar.

Soft but smelling right

A texture fault. The pickle is disappointing rather than anything else.

Slimy, ropey or stringy brine

Something else is growing. Discard it.

Fuzzy or coloured growth on the surface

Mould. Discard the batch — do not scrape it off and carry on.

A flat white film

Usually kahm yeast on a ferment. Harmless, skim it off, and it often means the jar was too warm.

Smells putrid, cheesy or rotten

Discard it. Sour is right; rotten is not.

Any doubt at all

FoodHQ does not publish salt percentages, pH figures, acidity thresholds or keeping times for home preserving. Those are safety numbers set by a food safety authority; in the UK the Food Standards Agency is the authority. Use a recipe from it or from a body with the same standing.

Why the blossom end matters so much

The flower end of a cucumber carries enzymes that break down pectin — the substance holding the cell walls rigid. In the growing fruit they have a job to do; in a jar of brine they carry on working and the cucumber goes limp from that end inwards.

Cutting a few millimetres off removes almost all of them, and it is the difference between a crisp pickle and a soft one more often than any other single factor. It takes about ten seconds for a whole jar.

The stalk end can be left alone. If you cannot tell which is which, the stalk end has a small scar or a stub; the blossom end is smooth and often slightly paler.

Common questions