Yummy twist: Delicious Vatican cucumbers with a sweet surprise

Every year, we enjoy pickled, preserved, and lightly salted cucumbers. However, if we want to try something new and unusual, let's add a sweet ingredient to the cucumbers. It will enhance their taste.

Americans are famous for creating delicious preserves. Some of the most popular ones, which have also won the hearts of people abroad, are cucumbers. Although the best-known types are pickled, gherkins, and lightly salted, there are also other versions of how we can process cucumbers. By adding a mysterious, sweet ingredient, we will create Vatican cucumbers.

Cucumbers are an absolute culinary hit. We crunch them on their own and add them to salads, meats, and other dinner dishes. If we are tired of the most popular varieties, we can diversify our meals with Vatican cucumbers, which have a sweet-sour taste.

Vatican cucumbers differ slightly from classic lightly salted or pickled cucumbers. Their mysterious ingredient is raisins combined with garlic, which initially may seem quite unusual. However, there is nothing to fear!

How to make them? Here are the ingredients:        

• 3.3 lbs of cucumbers
• 5 ¼ cups of water
• 1 cup of 10% spirit vinegar
• 7.8 oz of sugar
• a tablespoon of salt

Additions per jar:        

• a bay leaf
• 15 raisins
• a clove of garlic
• 8 black peppercorns
• 2 allspice berries

Preparing Vatican cucumbers is very simple, and indeed everyone can manage it. Thoroughly washed cucumbers are soaked in cold water for an hour, making them firmer. After this time, we put them in sterilized jars. Depending on preference, the cucumbers can be whole or sliced. We add a bay leaf, raisins, garlic, allspice, and peppercorns to each jar. In a pot, we boil water with sugar, vinegar, and salt. We pour it into the jars, then seal them and pasteurize them.

Important! Vatican cucumbers should sit for about three weeks before opening.