I have a HUGE amount of apple cider vinegar and i have never pickled before

Hello, i have like 7 liters of apple cider vinegar that is doing nothing in my cupboard and i am simply tired of looking at them, and i would like to know what i can do with them.

I gave it some thought and i remembered a while ago i ate what i think was some ready to eat pickled vegetables at this Ukrainian store not to far away from my house,

i remember that this ready to eat pickled vegetable meal had eggplant in it and it needed to be refrigerated,

i have never ever in my life liked pickled vegetables except this one meal that i ate, i asked them for the recipe and they said it was a secret,

I'm going to go back to the Ukrainian store and get another one of these ready meals but before i did i wanted to ask the community here a few questions

1: is it a good idea to pickle eggplant with apple cider vinegar?

2: does anyone have any idea what this yummy pickled eggplant recipe could be?

thank you

in picklingby How_To_Recipes

88%

1.4y

View all comments

donotlearntocode

1.4y

1: is it a good idea to pickle eggplant with apple cider vinegar?

My intuition says yes. Why not try it with a small batch?

2: does anyone have any idea what this yummy pickled eggplant recipe could be?

a quick search for "ukranian quick pickle eggplant" and i found this, not sure if that's what you're looking for though and there's not a lot of detail.

I'm not sure why there's not a generic recipe for pickling pinned or in a wiki or something in this sub, but if I were going to try to pickle raw eggplant with cider vinegar, here's what I'd do:

mix up a 3%-acid vinegar-brine with 1% salt. A lot of people here say 50/50 vinegar+water, which gets you 2.5%, but I've seen some sources that recommend 3%, and I always like to play it safe. So, for a simple example, add 300mL vinegar + 200mL water to a pot, (or some multiple of this if you need more) then add 1% of that in salt, which in this 500mL case would be 5g. Heat until the salt dissolves, then cool. With quick/vinegar/fridge/unfermented pickles it's not absolutely crucial that you let it cool before using it, but I still would. Add seasonings, if you want, to the brine before heating, such as peppercorns, garlic, or dried herbs. Mustard seeds (added now) and grape leaves (added when you add the vegetables) are known to improve the texture of pickles.
slice, shred, or dice the eggplant. The thicker you make the pieces, the longer it will take for the vinegar and whatnot to penetrate the fruit. Shreds will be ready in an hour, tops; 1cm slices might want several days or a week. It's up to you, by taste. Spread the pieces out in a wide bowl or on a plate or cutting board
weigh the sliced pieces, however much you're going to pickle, then sprinkle 1% of that weight in salt over the pieces. Leave them sit for 15-20 minutes and watch for the pieces to "sweat" -- the salt causes moisture to be drawn out from the inside.
put the veggie pieces in a jar and sort of push down on them to compress a bit, then pour the brine over.
put it in the fridge.

How_To_Recipes

1.4y

acid vinegar-brine

what is a "brine"?

donotlearntocode

1.4y

brine is a salt-water solution.