Fresh Is the Way to Go

• There are two ways to pickle cucumbers: in a vinegar-based brine or by the process of lacto-fermentation. In both methods, the cucumbers are immersed in a liquid that imparts flavor to the pickles as well as safely preserving them. Neither method can restore crispness to a cucumber. Ingredients such as alum sometimes are added to pickles to preserve the crunchy texture of the fresh cucumbers, but these cannot create crunchiness where it is lacking.

Vinegar-based Pickles

• In refrigerator pickle recipes, there often is very little vinegar in the brine, hence the need to store them at cold temperatures. Using partially spoiled cucumbers could result in a moldy product. With canned pickles, the brine usually contains enough acidity to prevent mold but the heat of the canning process increases the mushiness of past-prime cucumbers.

Lacto-fermented Pickles

• Lacto-fermenting cucumbers begins by immersing them in an alkaline (salty) brine. The salt kills off harmful bacteria, but salt-tolerant, beneficial probiotic bacteria survive and begin transforming the food from alkaline to acidic. However, if there is a high concentration of mold spores, which is likely with cucumbers going bad, the fermentation may not be successful. Also, as with vinegar-based pickles, lacto-fermentation cannot restore crispness to cucumbers that have begun to soften.

Optimum Pickling

• Use cucumbers that are completely firm and show no signs of yellowing or mold. They should be young and therefore contain few, if any, seeds. Some cultivars are specifically bred to be good for pickling: Kirby is one of the most widely available pickling cucumbers. It is a good practice to slice off the flowering end of cucumbers before you pickle them. There are enzymes there that could cause softening even in pickles made with firm cucumbers.