Health
Pickled cucumbers and their juice are quite impressive a set of useful properties.
Marinades have been used since ancient times, and there is even evidence that they were in Cleopatra's beauty arsenal.
There are several types of pickles: fermented in a natural way and those stored in vinegar. Both types have their beneficial features, but they are different.
Here are some proofs of the healing power of this ancient product.
Attention: Vyou should be careful if you have high pressure, or you are susceptible to salt And.
How to use brine
1. Helps avoid muscle cramps.
The brine contains a large amount sodium, which helps the body retain fluid. This is important when you exercise for a long period of time, such as more than an hour, as sweating can cause dehydration due to excessive fluid loss and cause muscle cramps.
The study found that brine was better at relieving muscle cramps than plain water.
During the experiment, participants rode a bicycle for 30-minute sessions with 5-minute breaks. When their body fluids were reduced by 3 percent, the researchers artificially induced leg cramps in them. They discovered that Pickle juice helps reduce cramps 37 percent faster than drinking plain water.
2. Facilitates digestion.
Fermented milk and fermented products contain probiotics that are beneficial for intestinal microflora. Probiotics in brine promote growth and healthy balance beneficial bacteria in the intestines, which may alleviate some digestive problems.
It is also worth noting that the same advantages have sauerkraut and other pickled vegetables.
3. Source of antioxidants.
Antioxidants help protect molecules in the body from free radicals. In addition, these vitamins are better absorbed by the body due to the acidic content of the brine.
4. Promotes weight loss.
Brine can promote weight loss thanks to acetic acid. Scientists have found that this acid prevents our body from digesting starch l. This results in less starch being broken down into calories.
Research has shown that rats fed acetic acid, were more resistant to obesity than those who did not consume it.
The benefits of brine
5. Regulates blood sugar levels.
High blood sugar leads to type 2 diabetes along with others chronic diseases. Vinegar in the marinade improves the body's response to insulin and significantly reduces blood sugar levels after meals.
One small study found that a small serving of vinegar before meals stabilized post-meal blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes.
6. Helps with hangovers.
Alcohol is a diuretic, which means that the more you drink in the evening, the worse you will feel in the morning as it dehydrates you.
Brine replenishes sodium and fluids and balances electrolyte ratios. Try drink the brine along with plenty of water, to decrease headache, nausea, thirst, fatigue and other symptoms.
If you wake up after drinking too much alcohol, try drinking it in the morning ¼ cup brine to reduce hangover.
7. Reduces cholesterol levels.
A study has shown that pickle juice not only helps reduce indigestion, stomach cramps, gas and other digestive problems, but also reduces the amount of fat in the blood.
8. Relieves hiccups.
Although there is no scientific proof for this fact, many people claim that a small glass of pickle juice can effectively get rid of hiccups.
Try this method by drinking half a teaspoon of brine every few seconds until the hiccups subside.
9. Reduces PMS symptoms.
Since brine helps reduce muscle spasms, for some women it relieves PMS symptoms. Although this method has not been extensively tested, many women claim that half a glass of brine with dill effectively cope with discomfort and menstrual pain.
10. Improves bad breath.
A small amount of brine can make your breath smell better.
Bacteria in the mouth can cause bad smell from mouth. Dill and vinegar in the marinade have antibacterial properties. This combination helps freshen your breath after drinking the pickle juice.
For pickling, cucumbers with green skin of various shades are selected.
The cucumber pulp should be elastic and dense, the seed chamber should be small, and the seeds should be underdeveloped. Overripe (yellowed) cucumbers are not allowed for processing. Good quality products are produced by cucumbers of the Nezhinskie, Vyaznikovskie, Berlizovskie, and Dolzhik varieties.
The size and sugar content of raw materials have a great influence on the quality of products. Small cucumbers have a higher percentage of sugars and less fiber than large cucumbers, so small fruits produce a more High Quality. In addition, the loss in weight when storing small pickled cucumbers is lower than when storing large cucumbers.
Cucumbers used for pickling must contain at least 2% sugar. Sugar is the starting material for the formation of lactic acid. In this regard, if there is a lack of sugar, the product turns out to be of low quality and unstable during storage.
In order to ensure good quality finished products, cucumbers are processed within 24 hours from the moment they arrive at the plant. Store raw materials in boxes in cool, well-ventilated warehouses.
Cucumbers received for processing are sorted by quality and size using a cable calibrator.
Sorted cucumbers are washed in a fan washing machine and then salted.
Salting of cucumbers is carried out mainly in barrels, which are pre-treated in the same way as for sauerkraut. It is advisable to wax the barrels before use.
For pickling cucumbers, barrels with a capacity of 50-150 liters are used. As the size of the container increases, the pressure experienced by the cucumbers placed in this container increases. High blood pressure adversely affects the consistency of cucumbers and also leads to a decrease in their volume and weight. These changes have a particularly strong effect on large specimens.
Salting cucumbers in barrels, as well as in glass bottles, although it ensures high quality products, but due to labor intensity, prevents a significant expansion of production volume. Therefore, salting and storing cucumbers in containers of 200-300 kg in large-capacity tanks - cement pits, wooden boards - deserves attention.
Salting cucumbers in barrels is done as follows. Prepared cucumbers are placed together with spices in barrels. The barrels are sealed and filled with brine through the tongue hole.
Dill, horseradish root, bitter Bell pepper(fresh or dried), as well as garlic. These substances give cucumbers a certain taste, and in addition, they enrich the product with vitamin C. Garlic, in addition, has bactericidal properties. The spices sometimes also include oak, blackcurrant or cherry leaves, tarragon, parsley and celery leaves, as well as a mixture of marjoram, savory, basil, coriander and other spicy plants. Total spices per 100 kg of cucumbers - from 4 to 7 kg.
The concentration of the table salt solution used to pour cucumbers during salting ranges from 6 to 9%. The larger the cucumbers, the higher the brine concentration should be.
The ratio of cucumbers and brine, and, consequently, the content of table salt in the finished product depends on the density of the cucumbers in the barrels. Since the difference in the mass of cucumbers at in different ways filling of barrels can reach up to 15%, you should ensure careful placement of raw materials or compact cucumbers during the process of filling barrels.
The processes of lactic acid fermentation that occur during pickling cucumbers, as during sauerkraut, can be divided into three stages.
The first stage is characterized by the penetration of salt into plant tissue. At the same time, substances dissolved in the cell juice of cucumbers pass into the brine. Thanks to this, sugars accumulate in the brine and conditions are created favorable for the development of lactic acid microorganisms - B. ciicumeris fermcntati, B. lactis acidi, etc. At the same time, yeast acts, causing some accumulation of alcohol. At the same time, undesirable microflora may begin to develop - putrefactive and butyric acid bacteria, etc.
In order to stimulate the rapid development of lactic acid bacteria and suppress the activity of extraneous microflora, after adding brine, barrels with cucumbers are kept for 1-2 days at relatively high temperature(15-20° C). During this period, the quality of the barrels is also checked and, if necessary, leaks are repaired and brine is added.
In the second stage, lactic acid and partly alcoholic fermentation takes place actively. High quality products are obtained when lactic acid fermentation proceeds slowly. Therefore, after the concentration of lactic acid in the product has reached 0.3-0.4%, barrels of cucumbers are sent for further fermentation in glaciers or cellars. The fermentation process, depending on the temperature, lasts from 1 to 2 months.
The third stage occurs when all the sugar in the cucumbers has been fermented and no further accumulation of lactic acid can occur. Finished products contain from 3 to 5% table salt with a brine content of 35-45 and no more than 47%. The amount of lactic acid ranges from 0.6-1.4%.
Cucumbers and spices are loaded into doshniks in containers and brine is served. After 2-3 days, when the concentration of lactic acid reaches 0.5%, the brine is cooled to 0 ° C. To do this, it is sucked out with a pump from the lower layers of the bottom, driven through a refrigeration unit and returned to the bottom, spraying from above.
To prevent products from spoiling, they should be stored at low temperatures (from -1 to + 1°C). For successful storage, it is important that the cucumbers are covered with brine. You can store pickles in glaciers, ice riots, trenches with ice, in basements and in reservoirs.
Reservoirs are suitable with clean running water and a sandy bottom, having a depth of at least 2 m. Barrels with products are loaded into reservoirs in cages or packs. Sometimes individual sections of the reservoir are fenced with piles and barrels are laid in rows in several tiers.
The fermentation process can also be carried out in reservoirs at a water temperature of 17-18° C. Products are stored in reservoirs until the spring melting of ice and floods.
The main defects sometimes observed in finished products include: darkening of cucumbers, the appearance of bloated, hollow specimens with softened, flabby flesh, wrinkling of cucumbers, and the appearance of an unpleasant odor and taste.
Darkening of cucumbers can be caused by the action of foreign microflora. In particular, this phenomenon is caused by the development of B. nigrificans, which is one of the varieties of potato sticks. Darkening is sometimes caused by the chemical interaction of tannins transferred from the container with iron contained in the water or table salt used to make the brine.
The appearance of bloated, hollow cucumbers is associated with the activity of gas-forming microorganisms (Aerobacter, yeast). Their development is observed when fermentation is too intense and when the brine concentration is low. In this case, the released gases cause bloating, which is especially noticeable in cucumbers with thin skin.
To combat the formation of voids in cucumbers, sorbic acid in an amount of 0.01-0.1% can be added to the brine with which they are poured. At such concentrations, sorbic acid inhibits the development of yeast, but does not have a noticeable effect on the activity of L. plantarum, L. brevis and other lactic acid bacteria. Instead of sorbic acid, sodium benzoate can also be used. To avoid the appearance of hollow cucumbers, they are sometimes pricked before salting.
Shrinking of cucumbers is associated with the use of very high concentrations of sodium chloride solutions, which cause rapid plasmolysis of plant cells.
The softening of pickled cucumbers during storage is associated with the activity of pectolytic enzymes, which convert protopectin into pectic acid. These enzymes can be introduced into the product by molds. To combat enzyme activity and softening of cucumbers, you can drain the brine during fermentation and replace it with fresh or drained brine that has been boiled and cooled.
Softening of cucumbers can also be caused by using a large container for salting. In this case, cucumbers, especially those in the lower layers, experience significant pressure and become deformed.
An undesirable change in the taste of pickled cucumbers is associated with the action of foreign microflora. Molds, yeasts Mycoderma, Debaryomyces, Hanzenula, Pichia and others reduce the acidity of the product, which negatively affects its taste.
A film sometimes appears on the surface of the brine with which the cucumbers are poured. This film is formed by yeast, but may also contain molds. Microorganisms developing in the film give cucumbers a specific unpleasant odor, so the film must be removed in a timely manner.
Sometimes the brine with which cucumbers are poured becomes slimy. This phenomenon is caused by foreign microflora, which develops well when reduced content table salt and at a relatively high temperature.
Pickles are also available in glass jars or bottles. Cucumbers are separated from the brine, calibrated into five grades by size, inspected, washed, pricked and packaged in containers.
The drained brine is filtered, freeing it from suspended particles - pieces of cucumber and spice tissue, precipitated protein and pectin substances, as well as dead microorganisms contained in the brine, and then heated.
The cucumbers are placed tightly in a container, spices are added (salted - dill, tarragon, horseradish leaves, capsicum, and fresh garlic) and filled with brine, rolled up, sterilized at 100 ° C and cooled.
If the cucumbers were packaged before the fermentation process was completed and were not sterilized, then fermentation continues after the product is packaged in jars. During the fermentation process, gas formation is possible, as a result of which the lids of the jars may be torn off. In order to avoid breaking the tightness of the container, it should be sealed with G. E. Moldavsky’s system caps, which differ from conventional SKO caps in that they have thin slits in those places where the elastic band adjoins the lid. At high blood pressure in the jar, gases escape freely through the slots. After the pressure in the jar has dropped, the rubber band closes the hole, preventing suction atmospheric air inside the container. Thus, these caps act as valves, providing a one-way seal.
After packaging, cucumbers must be kept for ripening for 5-10 days. During this period, diffusion occurs, as a result of which the concentration of salt and lactic acid in the brine and cucumbers is equalized. In addition, cucumbers become richer when aged essential oils added spices. With increasing storage temperature, the duration of the ripening process decreases.
Pickled cucumbers in an airtight container can be stored up to half naked at a temperature of 0-2 ° C or up to 1 month at room temperature.
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