Stekovics – Salted Cucumbers in a Large Jar

Stekovics Salted Cucumbers are cucumbers as they should be – wonderfully savory, with a good bite, and incredibly delicious. Unlike gherkins, salted cucumbers are not pickled in vinegar; instead, they are brined and then develop their own acidity, a milder lactic acid, through fermentation. But let's start from the beginning!

Salted Cucumbers – Fermented Cucumbers

Erich Stekovics loves tomatoes, bell peppers and chilies, garlic, apricots and Mieze Schindler strawberries, but also good cucumbers. So, on his farm in Burgenland, Austria, he cultivates an old French field cucumber variety that was already grown around 1800 and is allowed to have contact with the soil instead of ripening on plastic sheeting. In the markets and manufactures of the French capital, these small pickling cucumbers were used for making cornichons, but the variety remains crunchy even when the Parisian cucumber is a little larger.

The not-so-small, spiky cucumbers are first washed to remove soil, then destemmed, and then submerged for a good two weeks in saltwater flavored with garlic. During this time, something magnificent happens – fermentation. Covered in brine in a sealed jar, the cucumbers remain externally intact, but inside, lactic acid bacteria, which are unaffected by salt or lack of oxygen, feed on the carbohydrates in the cucumbers, i.e., fruit sugar, and excrete acid. The jar slowly becomes more acidic, and even the microorganisms that defied the salt now succumb to the acid. This acid makes the sour salted cucumbers wonderfully savory and long-lasting. Fermented salted cucumbers from Erich Stekovics are a true delicacy.