Why did the brine in cucumbers darken. How to understand why cucumbers in jars become cloudy and what to do so that a white precipitate does not form

After labors during the spring and summer in the country, the reward is beautiful jars With canned vegetables and fruits. In any basement, a special place is occupied by jars with pickled or pickled cucumbers. But it happens like this: once again going down to the basement, you see that the pickle in cucumbers has become cloudy, what to do in this case?

Of course, this is an unpleasant phenomenon when most of the jars become cloudy, and some of them even lack lids. And all the efforts at first to grow, collect, and then labor-intensive spin went to no good.

Possible causes of cloudy brine.

Each hostess periodically asks this question, and in most cases does not find an answer. Therefore, the turbidity of the brine can be repeated repeatedly during spins. Consider the reasons why the brine in cucumbers becomes cloudy:

Contamination of cucumber fruits, or non-sterility of cans.
Insufficient sealing or sterilization.
Violation of the components of conservation.
Wrong variety selected.

So, it is important to consider all these alleged causes in more detail. After conducting a proper analysis, you can answer the question: why did the brine in the cucumbers become cloudy, what to do so that this does not happen in the future.

The most common mistake made by housewives is insufficient sterilization of jars. It is not enough just to wash them with water with the addition of detergent or soda. It is also necessary to carry out either hot steam sterilization using a special stand, or place them in boiling water for a while. In addition, due attention should be paid to cleaning the cucumber fruits themselves from dirt and dust, as well as those components that will be added during the preservation process. Everything should be thoroughly rinsed under running water.

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Sterilization of already laid jars can be carried out in two ways:

Place full jars in boiling water and keep in it for some time under covered lids. This method must be able to perform efficiently and in full, otherwise there is a possibility that not all the microbes contained inside will die, and after spinning, fermentation and clouding of the brine will occur.

Pour jars of cucumbers with boiling water several times. This method is the most reliable if the filling ratio is increased up to 3-4 times. In this case, there is a high probability that all fruits will warm up, and all microbes will die.

Also, the twisting of the cans can be performed poorly, or as a result of a breakdown of the machine, there will be air in the cans. In this case, the brine will also definitely become cloudy.

When laying cucumbers, you need to put exactly the ingredients that apply to cucumbers. Some extra foods, such as onions, bell peppers, carrots, or garlic in huge quantities can cause fermentation. And when preparing the brine, all its components must be poured exactly according to the recipe, otherwise the recipe will be violated and the risk of clouding of the brine will increase.

Also when choosing seeds, or already ready cucumbers on the market, it is necessary to correctly determine the variety that is exactly suitable for conservation. Some varieties of hybrids do not go for conservation, and when used in jars they become soft or hollow, and the brine is cloudy.

Another common mistake is the spinning process itself. After all the jars are filled and sealed, many mistakenly leave the jars indoors for several days. This is considered the worst mistake. Immediately after cooling, the jars should be placed in a cool place, then the color of the brine will not change.

Probably every family has its own signature recipe pickled or pickled cucumbers. And every housewife is sure that it is according to her recipe that they turn out to be the most delicious and crispy. But even for the most experienced and skillful pickle in a jar can lose transparency. What to do if the cucumbers become cloudy, should they be sent to the bin?

Is it possible to eat cucumbers from cloudy brine?

If all the stages of harvesting are completed correctly and the lids are not swollen, and the brine is cloudy, this only means that fermentation has begun, during which lactic acid is formed. This often happens with salted vegetables, and not pickled, that is, with those for which vinegar is not added.

Lactic acid is a natural preservative, and is also very useful for human body. It improves blood circulation, lowers blood pressure and controls blood fat levels. Thus, if a precipitate appears, but the lid is intact and there are no air bubbles in the liquid, the product can be eaten.

If the water is cloudy and the lid is swollen, such vegetables, unfortunately, cannot be saved. A swollen or already torn off lid can be a sign of the presence of botulism bacteria. Of course, this cannot be determined without laboratory tests. But is it worth the risk if there is a chance of contracting such a dangerous disease?

What to do with a cloudy jar of cucumbers?

Even if the hostess knows that it is quite acceptable to eat the workpiece, she may wonder what to do if the pickle in the cucumbers has become cloudy. Is it possible to somehow return them to their previous state or interfere with unwanted processes? Experienced housewives it is advised to rearrange the jars from a cool place so that all the dregs settle to the bottom. Such cucumbers, most likely, will no longer crunch pleasantly, but they will not cause any harm to the body either.

Read also:

In vegetables preserved in vinegar, the likelihood of milk fungus formation is much less. But, it may also happen that pickled cucumbers become cloudy. What to do in this case? There are several options.

Roll out, cover nylon cover and leave for a couple of days in a cool place. Thus you get salted cucumbers ready to eat.
Open and roll up again. The water must be drained and boiled, vegetables and spices should be washed and put into re-sterilized jars.

Most reliable way to save the product is to cook new marinade by increasing the amount of vinegar. In this case, cucumbers should be washed and poured with boiling water 2-3 times. It is desirable to replace greens and spices with fresh ones.

If the cloudy fruits have already salted enough, but turned out to be soft, tasteless or too sour, this is not at all a reason to throw them away. You can significantly improve their taste if you pour tomato juice and leave for three days room temperature. This method corrects even the most hopeless specimens, the cucumbers will become crispy and very tasty.

Why blanks lose transparency?

Why did the cucumbers become cloudy and what should be done to avoid similar situations in the future? In the process of conservation, there are many nuances and rules, the violation of which can lead to such unpleasant consequences as damage to the product. In most cases, this happens precisely because of a violation of technology. Here are the most common canning mistakes.

Vegetables, herbs, spices or jars were not washed well. Particles of dirt and dust can contribute to the development of the rotting process in an already rolled product.
presence of nitrates. Of course, ideally, for seaming, you should take cucumbers grown by caring summer residents, but in the realities of a big city this is not always possible. When choosing vegetables, try to at least buy them during the high season, that is, at the end of June and July. Take fruits of medium size, dark green color, dense, crispy.

Before starting the pickling process, be sure to leave the cucumbers in cold water for a few hours, or better - at night. Such a simple process will not only remove nitrates, but also make vegetables more crispy.

For preservation, sea or iodized salt was used. It is certainly more useful than ordinary cooking, but it is completely unsuitable for salting. First, sodium chloride pure form is an ideal preservative, and various additives degrade the preservative properties. Secondly, iodine can give vegetables an unpleasant aftertaste, and also disrupts the fermentation process, which can cause the lid to swell and become cloudy. In addition, vegetables marinated in iodine-fortified salt will not be crispy and may taste bitter.
Jars and lids were sterilized incorrectly or not at all. Now, in many preservation recipes, it is advised not to subject the container to such processing - supposedly it is enough to thoroughly rinse it and fill it with hot brine. However, this only makes sense if you are confident in the quality of the products and make the marinade with large quantity vinegar. For seaming vegetables without adding it, sterilization is required.
The seal was broken. Containers for seaming should be chosen without chips and cracks, the lids should be new. It should also be taken into account that a crack could form during sterilization or pasteurization. To avoid this, follow temperature regime i.e. do not fill with hot brine cold dishes and do not place hot jars on cool surfaces.

How to prevent the appearance of "suspicious" sediment?

A large amount of spices and herbs can provoke the appearance of a cloudy sediment in seamings.
Do not fill jars too tightly. During conservation, the fermentation process will occur, and if there is not enough space for this, the water may become cloudy and even rip off the lids.
To keep the brine transparent, you can use one trick. After the fruits and spices are packed into jars, they need to be poured twice with boiling water and only then with marinade. This process will take longer, but the chances are significantly increased that lactic acid will not begin to form.
Cucumbers rolled up with bell pepper, do not become cloudy and have a piquant taste.
After spinning, the jars must be turned upside down and left to cool completely in heat. Better yet, wrap them in a blanket. Firstly, the method will allow you to immediately notice the lack of tightness. And secondly, due to the fact that the jar will cool slowly, it will undergo additional heat treatment.

Preserving vegetables for the winter is a common gardening practice. This is especially true for pickling cucumbers, where, in addition to the product itself, brine is valued, which effectively quenches thirst, and is also in demand among home confectioners.

Salt water and cucumbers turn white, causing some prepared jars to swell and become unusable. Efforts and work will not be in vain if you regularly monitor that the jars where the cucumbers will be preserved do not swell.

The main causes of cloudy brine

Turbidity of salt water is preceded by several biochemical processes:

violation of the sealing of the jar, accompanied by the ingress of oxygen and the appearance of oxide on iron lids and (or) the formation of harmful microorganisms;
the technology of processing raw materials and containers (washing and steaming) is not sufficiently sustained, as a result of which dirt gets into the cans;
mass salting was carried out using iodized salt, instead of the cookery set for this purpose;
for salting, an unsuitable variety was used, for example, dessert or large salad;
lactic fermentation of brine indicates a lack of acetic or citric acid according to the recipe.

It's important to know: storage of blanks at temperatures above 5 0 heat will inevitably lead to swelling of the lid of the jar, and at more high temperature they just pop up like champagne corks. The norm for storing canned salted vegetables, cucumbers in particular, can be considered a cellar room or a chamber in a refrigeration unit with zero temperature.

Turbidity of cucumbers does not mean their unsuitability at all.

If, nevertheless, the cucumbers become cloudy and the lid is torn off the jars, then first examine their contents. AT general case only soft and completely white cucumbers are unsuitable for food, capable of causing food poisoning.

The rest have a chance to save, and do it in several ways:

1. Whole cucumbers with white coating can be rerolled again, the main thing is that they retain their elastic shape.
2. If the cucumbers barely fermented and began to turn white, they are taken out and the old brine is poured out, and then, after boiling the jar with steam, a new brine is poured.

Banks open, more or less hard cucumbers scroll in a meat grinder, thereby obtaining a mini blank for cans of a smaller capacity. Such preservation is used for the current preparation of pickles.

Your seamings will be the better, the more carefully you approach the choice of source materials. This refers to the cucumbers themselves, the main properties of which should be hardness, small size, desired grade and oblong shape.

Grandmother's recipe has long been known, where a 70% solution is used vinegar essence or mustard. Since jars of 3 liters are mainly used for salting, the proportion of vinegar will be 1 teaspoon. In the case with mustard seasoning a large tablespoon is sufficient.

However, in the best possible way many harvesters choose more natural natural preservatives. We are talking about tomatoes. In the company of cucumbers, it is customary to see them together as a snack on the table, so why not do it in advance. But most effective method preservation is dressing with horseradish or hot pepper.

The biggest hassle is still the rework. If the cucumbers are sour, you can not do without vinegar. However, injections into the jar should be done after filling it with brine. In this case, you will definitely avoid a second explosion.

It's important to know: when re-preserving, it is necessary to reduce the proportions of vinegar, salt and sugar. Otherwise, cucumbers that have absorbed the initial dose of ingredients will be oversaturated. By the way, do not forget to put a couple of tomatoes - these friends will reliably protect the jar from an explosion.

A few easy-to-follow tips in this article will help bring your workpieces back to life.

From this video you will learn why cans of cucumbers explode:

From this video you will learn what to do if a jar of cucumbers has become cloudy:

Cloudy brine with pickles is a nuisance that every housewife had to face when preparing stocks for the winter. It seems that the conservation was carried out in accordance with all the rules, ready-made cans were sent for storage in a dark place. But something went wrong - as time passed, the brine changed. We will help you figure out why cucumbers in jars become cloudy and what to do in this case?

Did you find that the jars were swollen and the brine was cloudy? This means that a mistake was made at one of the stages of preparing the preservation.

This can happen for the following reasons:

Cucumbers were poorly washed. If there is even a little dirt left on the surface of the vegetables that has got inside the jar, this causes the development of rot.
Preservation jars were dishonestly washed or ordinary detergents. Remember that jars should only be washed with water and soda. Soap remaining on the walls after washing can cause the solution to become cloudy.
It is necessary to wash not only the container and cucumbers, but also the herbs used. Pay no less attention to them.
If you have used sea or iodized salt instead of regular table salt, this may cause the color of the brine to change later on. In such salt there are special components that affect this factor.
You have not properly sterilized jars and lids. This applies to both empty containers and those already filled with cucumbers and brine.
You rolled up the cans poorly, or you made a breach of tightness. This could be due to existing chips or cheap and poorly made covers.
Do not ignore the process of soaking vegetables before pickling. This will help to replace the air contained in the cucumbers with water, which will negate the process of turbidity of the brine.
Sometimes the brine turns white from external circumstances that do not depend on you. For example, it can be cucumbers stuffed with chemicals, which, even after soaking, have not lost all harmful substances.
Cans are stored at very high temperatures. Ideally, it should not exceed 5-7 degrees. It is best to keep pickles in a cellar, refrigerator, or any other cold place.

Are pickles with cloudy brine edible?

It is definitely very difficult to answer this question, since even in the freshest preservation there is a possibility of getting botulism bacilli. This can cause serious indigestion, and in the saddest cases, poisoning. First of all, you must determine how badly the pickled cucumbers are spoiled.

If you see a characteristic cloudy solution a couple of days after seaming, you can try to correct the situation. If the lid of the jar is not swollen, you can simply open it and drain the spoiled solution.

Now you can choose two ways to save cucumbers - prepare a new solution or reanimate the old one.

First do the following:

pour vegetables with boiling water;
leave them for 5-7 minutes;
drain the water and add the brine.

Bring the solution to a boil, add to jars and dilute with the indicated dose of vinegar, then carefully roll up. You can do it the other way. If the lids are not swollen, then the pickled vegetables are good to eat. Put the cucumbers in the refrigerator for a week. During this time, all the unpleasant sediment will be at the bottom, and you will notice a clean, transparent brine. Cucumbers can be used for vinaigrette and other dishes where their slightly modified taste will not be felt.

When you notice jars with swollen lids, it's not worth the risk. It is better to immediately get rid of such conservation, since pathogenic bacteria have most likely developed there.

How to revive a cloudy preservation

Of course, it's easier to make new pickled cucumbers than trying to fix the ones that didn't work out. Analyze your mistakes and avoid them in the future.

It is important how early you detect the first signs of conservation fermentation. If this happened shortly after the twist and the lids have not swelled yet, then you can try to redo it. Pour out the solution, rinse the cucumbers and fill them with fresh ones - cooked according to all technologies. In most cases this way helps. You can do this without removing the vegetables from the jar. Just fill them with boiling water and wait a few minutes, and after that pour in the finished solution. Remember to add the vinegar and keep the jars upside down for 24 hours.

Important: Be prepared that the taste of "reworked" cucumbers will differ from the usual preservation. Therefore, you can use salvaged pickled foods to make salads, soups, and more.

And again, we repeat that the described manipulations are done only in the absence of a swollen lid. Otherwise, you risk harming your health and loved ones.

Ways to prevent the appearance of "suspicious" sediment

When the brine becomes cloudy, most housewives decide to get rid of conservation, as they believe that it can cause indigestion, and the vegetables themselves will significantly change the taste.

To prevent an unpleasant outcome of the conservation process, you need to follow the basic recommendations:

Handle vegetables carefully. Clean off dirt, remove ponytails and damaged areas. Soak them for a few hours, then rinse again.
Wash out cans of soda, do not allow food or other dirt to remain on the surface. Do not use detergents - their chemical components will remain on the walls. Inspect the container for deformation and damage. Walk your fingers along the neck, if there are any chips and cracks.
Follow the recipes, and do not add ingredients to your taste. If the recipe states that you need to boil the solution for ten minutes, do this for the allotted time, no more and no less. If it is advised to add vinegar and salt, be sure to pour it in. Use only proven recipes that your relatives or friends have advised you - then you will get crispy and tasty cucumbers.

We advise you to purchase stainless steel preservation lids or white lacquered tin options. They are considered the most reliable and will help protect the product from fermentation. Use firm cucumbers and never take overripe cucumbers. They are empty inside and accumulate air, which means they activate the fermentation process. Add hot peppers or horseradish root to protect cucumbers from spoilage.

Such a nuisance at least once happened to every hostess. It would seem that the conservation was carried out correctly, and the cucumbers lovingly placed in jars were sent for storage. But some time passed, and the brine in the jars became cloudy. The hostess is upset, does not know what to do with cucumbers ...

Why did the brine in the jars of cucumbers turn cloudy?

First, nothing just happens. It means that something was done wrong.

The brine can become cloudy for several reasons:

Cucumbers were poorly washed. The smallest particles of dirt from the surface of vegetables got inside the jar and caused the development of a putrefactive process.
The jars were not washed well, or detergents were used to wash them. The soap that was not noticed by the eye remained inside the jar, so the brine became cloudy over time.
Not only cucumbers, but also herbs were badly washed.
Was used iodized or sea salt. Such salt contains components, some of which can cause the brine to become cloudy.
Cans and lids were not properly sterilized, both empty and filled with products.
The tightness of the container was broken, that is, the cans were poorly rolled up. This could be due to poor quality lids or chips on the neck of the jar.
Sometimes the brine becomes cloudy for reasons beyond the control of the hostess. For example, cucumbers were stuffed with chemicals. And even soaking didn't destroy the part harmful substances which caused the brine to become cloudy.

What to do if the brine is cloudy

Cloudy brine is already bad. Most often, such cucumbers have to be thrown away. Because it is low-quality products that become the culprit of such dangerous disease like botulism. And if you still manage to avoid this disease, then an upset stomach can occur.

Situation one. In some cases, cucumbers with cloudy brine can be saved. For example, if the cloudiness of the brine occurred literally after 2–3 days, then this may be due to the development of lactic acid fermentation. And this, as you know, necessary step when pickling cucumbers. Most often, the brine becomes cloudy if vinegar is not added to it.

Conclusion. If the lid of the jar is not swollen, then the jar with cloudy brine should be opened, the brine should be poured into a saucepan and boiled. Then rinse the cucumbers with boiling water right in the jar, pour boiling water and wait five minutes. Pour out the water, and pour the cucumbers with boiling marinade, add a portion of vinegar.

Instead of the old brine, you can make a new one, boil it, adding a portion of vinegar essence. Then close the jar with a sterile lid, seal tightly. Cool upside down, wrapped in a warm blanket.

Situation two. As mentioned above, the brine in jars of cucumbers becomes cloudy due to lactic acid fermentation. Some housewives, knowing such a feature of it, put the jar in the refrigerator and observe the further development of events. Very often, after about 7-10 days, the turbidity settles to the bottom, and the brine becomes transparent again.

Conclusion. If the lid remains flat and does not swell, then such cucumbers can be safely eaten. True, their taste will be different than in other banks.

If the brine is not clarified, then this jar should be opened and the cucumbers should be used for making pickle or other dishes where the cucumbers are subjected to prolonged heat treatment.

Situation three. If the brine in the jar of cucumbers is cloudy and the lid is swollen, then it is risky to eat such cucumbers. This means that microbes and bacteria have entered the jar, which are harmful not only for vegetables, but also for humans. Although ... in this case, some housewives open a jar and use cucumbers in a pickle.

Note to the owner

Some housewives, after reading the advice, decide that cucumbers with cloudy brine can be safely eaten. But each case is individual, so you need to think a hundred times before eating such a cucumber.

Still, it’s better not to risk your health, and if there is even the slightest suspicion that a jar of cucumbers is damaged, you should, without hesitation, throw its contents into the trash! You can't buy health.