Polish pickled courgette for winter: sweet-and-sour, with carrot and pepper, like pickled cucumbers
A rescue for the allotment glut: courgette in thick slices with carrot, pepper, onion and dill, in a vinegar brine with sugar, pasteurised for only a quarter of an hour. In winter it tastes like a pickled cucumber, only gentler. The one secret to firmness: courgette softens faster than cucumber, so you pasteurise briefly and never cook it in the brine.
Your own work in that: 40 min.
- Cutting 20 min
- Packing and brine 20 min
- Pasteurising 30 min
- Cooling 45 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneCut the courgette thickly
Wash the courgettes, trim the ends, don't peel. Cut into slices 1 cm thick or into batons; halve a large seedy one lengthways and scoop out the core with a spoon. Thin slices collapse into mush after pasteurising; thick ones stay firm.
Ingredients: 2000 g courgettes · 2 pcs carrots · 1 pcs red pepper · 2 pcs onions · 6 cloves garlic · 6 pcs flowering dill heads · 3 tsp mustard seeds · 12 pcs allspice berries · 6 pcs bay leaves · 12 pcs black peppercorns
TipYoung courgettes up to 20 cm are best: thin skin and tiny seeds. Old, huge, hard-skinned ones are fit for fritters at most.
A centimetre thick, skin onPrepare the aromatics and jars
Peel and slice the carrots, cut the pepper into strips, the onions into rings, peel the garlic. Scald six 720 ml jars and their lids with boiling water and stand them upside down on a cloth.
Carrot, pepper, onion, garlic, spicesBoil the brine
Bring the water, vinegar, sugar and salt to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. The brine must be boiling when it goes in, so the jars spend no longer in the pot than necessary.
Ingredients: 1500 ml water · 380 ml spirit vinegar, 10 % · 300 g sugar · 3 tbsp salt
TipThe brine ratio: 4 parts water, 1 vinegar, sugar by volume equal to the vinegar, plus 2 tablespoons of salt per litre of water. The same as for pickled cucumbers, so it is easy to remember.
Water, vinegar, sugar, salt, to the boilPack the jars
In the bottom of each jar: a dill head, a garlic clove, 2 allspice, 2 peppercorns, a bay leaf, half a teaspoon of mustard seed. Pack the courgette tightly, in layers, with carrot, pepper and onion between them, to 2 cm below the rim. The colour between the slices is not only decoration: carrot and pepper add sweetness and crunch.
Spices at the bottom, courgette in colourful layersPour and seal
Pour the boiling brine over to cover the vegetables, 1 cm from the rim. Wipe the threads, screw the lids on tightly.
Boiling brine, a centimetre from the rimPasteurise briefly
Stand the jars in a pot lined with a cloth, add hot water to three-quarters of their height, bring to the boil and pasteurise 15 minutes from the boil over low heat. Lift out, stand upside down 10 minutes, turn upright and leave to cool. The lids pull down.
TipA quarter of an hour and not a minute more. Courgette is 95 % water and softens faster than cucumber; half an hour of pasteurising leaves it limp.
Fifteen minutes from the boil, no moreWait three weeks
The courgette needs 3 weeks to take on the brine. It keeps a year in a cool, dark pantry. For sandwiches, with meats, in vegetable salad instead of cucumber. Keep an opened jar in the fridge for up to 10 days.
After three weeks: sweet-and-sour and firm
Before you start
With curry
A teaspoon of curry powder in the brine: the courgette turns yellow and gently spiced, great with burgers and barbecues.
Less sugar
Cut the sugar to 120 g and add 3 tablespoons of honey to the brine: less sweet, drier, for cold cuts.
Soft courgette
Slices too thin, courgette too old, or pasteurised too long. Thick, young, a quarter of an hour.