The Hot-filled, Chilli, Sweet and Sour Cucumber Puccini

I got some cucumber puccini. I restrained myself from consuming it all in order to do what I wanted next, the hot-filled chilli sweet and sour cucumber puccini.

The chili, sweet and sour pickling solution. The following measurements were result of adding and tasting, a trial and error. First, I poured 150 ml vinegar to mixing container. Added water gradually until the sourness was mild enough. Then added refined sugar until I achieved the sweetness that suited my taste buds.

— 150 ml vinegar
— 200 ml water
— 20 tablespoons sugar

I determined how many puccini I can fit in a wide short jar. Cut both puccini ends to match the jar height. Those cut ends will also allow faster penetration of pickling solution to cucumbers.

Dropped  chili peppers to jar. This will add chilli flavor to cucumbers after curing or storage. This is the first time I have done this with cucumber so I was not sure about the expected outcome. I am hoping for a chili cucumber.

Heated the pickling solution to almost boiling. Add it to jar and covered immediately.

The next things to do are store it and wait patiently.

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Update as of January 28, 2013.

I guess  I am being punished for staying out the norm. First, the cold sugar/syrup preservation method for balimbing did not worked well. Second, this direct hot-fill method for puccini pickles is not working well too. All cucumbers shrunk in size as a result of syrup vinegar mixture rapidly taking out the cucumber water reserved.

I gonna do the proper proven procedure next time, or may try another odd method. Let us allow it this way for the mean time so we can evaluate the flavor.

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Update as of February 10 , 2013.

After 17 days of storage, I think it is about time to see the result. Would the chilli pepper in a sweet and sour pickling solution make the cucumber taste  better? Or it would be worse? Let’s see!

I opened the tightly sealed jar. The bubbles started coming out of the shriveled cucumbers. It is unexpected.

Here is the short explanation for bubbling cucumbers. Remember that I did hot-fill the pickling solution and cucumbers in the jar. The hot steaming solution drove away some air. After sealing, it created a partial vacuum that grabbed the air space inside cucumber making it shriveled even more. Opening the jar returned the air pressure back to normal, resulting to expansion in cucumber size. It then created air spaces that slowly being replaced by liquid. This last step is where bubbling occurs.

Going back to organoleptic properties. It is chewy, crunchy, slight sweet, slightly sour and a bit hot. It is perfect for my taste buds.