1,549 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

Pickled gherkins

Name: Pickled gherkins
Prep time: 4 h 36 min
Total time: 4 h 36 min
Yield: 500 g
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 500 g fresh gherkins; 300 g coarse salt; 1 sprig tarragon; pepper; 300 ml white (spirit) vinegar

Preparing your own gherkins in vinegar is quite straightforward, if you know how to avoid a few pitfalls. Here's a recipe which works every time.

797 K 7× 3.5/5 (259 reviews)

4 hours 40 min. difficulté

Easy

3.40 €

500 g

5 Ingredients

Last modified on: August 21^th 2013

For 500 g, you will need:

1 500 g fresh gherkins
2 300 g coarse salt
3 1 sprig tarragon
4 pepper
5 300 ml white (spirit) vinegar
Total weight: 1,100 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 40 min.

Resting: 4 hours

All in all: 4 hours 40 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 5 min.

Wash the 500 g fresh gherkins thoroughly.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 10 min.

Brush each gherkin under running water to remove all the little "bristles" and give it a smooth surface.

Stage 3

If you don't have a suitable brush, or if you prefer, you can use my grandmother Jeanne's method: rub them with the corner of a tea-towel.

Stage 4 - ⌛ 5 min.

Cut off any remaining stalks from the gherkins.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 5 min.

Rinse again, then dry with a tea-towel.

Stage 6 - ⌛ 3 hours

Put the gherkins in a bowl with 300 g coarse salt for 3 hours to draw off some of the juice.

Note: contarary to popular belief, there is no need to soak them any longer than this, as they will start to dry out.

Stage 7 - ⌛ 5 min.

After this time, discard the salty water and rinse the gherkins...

Stage 8 - ⌛ 1 hour

...and soak them for 1 hour in a bowl of cold water. We do this so that the gherkins will not be too salty.

After one hour, drain the gherkins and dry them on a tea-towel.

Stage 9 - ⌛ 1 min.

Pour 1 sprig tarragon and a few peppercorns into the bottom of the jar you are going to use.

Stage 10 - ⌛ 5 min.

Fill the jar with gherkins and cover with cold white vinegar (there's no need to boil or even heat it).

Seal the lid and leave to mature for a month before eating.

Remarks

You can use a different vinegar if you prefer, but if you do not use white vinegar, your gherkins may take on an unusual colour.

Keeping: Several months.

Source: According to the lady on the market who sold me gherkins.

Nutritional information

	Proteins (gr)	Carbohydrates (gr)	Fats (gr)	Energy value (in k-calories)	Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe	5 RDI=2 %	10 RDI=1 %	0	70 RDI=3 %	290 RDI: 3 %
Per 100 g	0	1 RDI=0 %	0	6 RDI=0 %	30 RDI: 0 %

Possible allergens in this recipe: Sulfites

How much will it cost?

For 500 g : 3.40 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

This recipe uses (among others)

Other recipes you may also like

How to beat egg whites

Beat egg whites is very common in cooking and pastry, here are some tips to get there easily.

February 21^th 2011576 K5 5 min.

Pork chops in the oven

To cook a pork chop well, without it drying out, one of the best methods is to cook it in two stages: start by pan-frying, then finish in the oven. This recipe adds flavour with mustard and thyme, with the cooking juices deglazed and reduced before serving.

August 16^th 2015317 K3.5 25 min.

Spring Bread

Spring bread is flavoured with little pieces of preserved tomatoes, Parmesan and chive flowers (hence the name, as the flowers only appear for a brief period in spring). Shaped into long loaves or thin sticks, slices of this bread make a delicious aperitif snack.

October 24^th 201781 K4.3 4 hours 2 min.

Red mixed pickle

This mixed pickle is made with a variety of vegetables left to mature for 2 weeks in diluted vinegar. The result is similar to gherkins and can be added to lots of recipes, or eaten with a snack or sandwich. This red version gets its name from beetroot and red cabbage, which eventually colour everything else in the jar.

April 29^th 202061 K 1 hour 30 min.

Clarified butter

This is a way of melting butter to eliminate all the impurities. The clarified butter can then be heated without spoiling, and is more digestible. It is ideal for cooking at high temperatures where small black specks would spoil the appearance, or for emulsified sauces like béarnaise or mousseline.

June 21^th 2017483 K4.2 2 hours 15 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.

The 7 comments already posted on this recipe

As you read it in the recipe: At your choice, white vinegar => classical gherkins, other vinegars (red wine vinegar for example) gherkins with unusual colour, but still goods.
Posted by jh august 4^th 2017 at 18:28 n° 7
Your instructions specifically say to use white vinegar, but then right below it u say you can use a different vinegar if we'd like, but don't use white vinegar because it leaves and unusual color....? Which one is it?? White or not white?
Posted by Julie august 4^th 2017 at 16:50 n° 6
I had been looking for an uncomplicated recipe for pickled gherkins. Great thing here is that it seems the most sensible and gets straight to the point without having to read lots of twaddle!
Posted by Frederick july 3^rd 2015 at 18:48 n° 5
Sorry, I don't know how to.
My skill in garden work is close to zero :-(
Posted by jh january 14^th 2015 at 09:19 n° 4
Thank you for the instructions. I have just bought gherkin seeds for this year's summer, but did not know how to pickle them.
I am looking forward to harvesting and pickling my own gherkins!
Posted by Fumiko from Japan january 14^th 2015 at 08:37 n° 3
I always leave them whole, because they are small and don't need to be cut.
But if you use big one, I think (but not totally sure) that you can cut them in pieces.
Posted by jh october 20^th 2014 at 10:25 n° 2
Can the gherkins be sliced before putting them into the jar or would you recommend leaving them whole?
Posted by Kirstie-G october 19^th 2014 at 12:48 n° 1

Follow this recipe (as 40 people already do)

If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.