When jars of cucumbers begin to become cloudy. How to properly prepare canned cucumbers and avoid marinade cloudiness

Cloudiness of the brine in pickled cucumbers is common. The appearance of turbidity in jars of pickled vegetables indicates a violation of the technology. Such cucumbers quickly lose their crunchy properties and spoil. It is not safe to eat them. Why does the brine in cucumbers become cloudy?

A little about marinating

Pickling is a way of preserving food. Mainly vegetables, fruits and mushrooms. Food is preserved due to the action of acid in conditions of high salt concentration. Many microorganisms are unable to develop in an acidic environment. Often, sugar and sunflower oil are also used to prepare the marinade.

Air does not enter the sealed jar. That is, putrefactive bacteria cannot penetrate from the outside. And the vital activity of dishes and ingredients present on the surface is suppressed by heat treatment and an acidic environment.

When considering the pickling process, it already becomes clear why jars of cucumbers become cloudy. This means that the technology is broken somewhere. At what stages are errors possible?

Reasons for the formation of turbidity

The dregs in a jar of cucumbers are microorganisms. But how they managed to survive there needs to be figured out. Why does the brine in pickled cucumbers become cloudy?

1) Insufficient amount of vinegar.

Vinegar is an organic acid that should inhibit the vital activity of microorganisms. To prepare pickled cucumbers, vinegar is required. Thanks to him, dregs should not appear in the jar.

For pickled cucumbers, cloudiness is acceptable. Moreover, dregs are always present in dishes with canned vegetables. This means that the pickled product does not become cloudy.

The appearance of turbidity is caused by a lack of vinegar, an incorrect ratio of the basic proportions (salt plus sugar plus vinegar) or low-quality vinegar.

2) Insufficient heating of the cans.

Heat treatment helps to inhibit putrefactive bacteria. Therefore, pickled cucumbers are poured with boiling marinade, pasteurized, the boiling water is changed several times and the closed jar is wrapped in a warm blanket. The recipes use one of the methods. For example, pouring boiling water twice or three times and wrapping it up. Or pouring boiling marinade, pasteurization and wrapping.

3) The jar is not sealed tightly enough.

No outside air should enter the jar of pickled vegetables. Otherwise, bacteria will come along with it, which will start the clouding process.

Why does air enter a closed jar?

Firstly, there are chips and cracks on the neck. They do not allow the lid to press tightly against the jar.

Secondly, the problem is in the seaming machine. Somewhere it “slips”, somewhere it doesn’t clamp completely.

Thirdly, the problem is in the tin lids themselves. Defective batch. Or using lids with worn rubber bands. There are also failures with screw caps.

4) Food and utensils are not properly processed.

Jars need to be washed and sterilized well. You can pour boiling water over it several times.

The lids are immersed in boiling water for a couple of minutes.

Cucumbers are soaked in water for two to three hours, after which they are thoroughly rubbed. Do not wipe with hands. Namely tinder. Some housewives use brushes and then pour boiling water over the fruits.

Currant leaves, cherries, horseradish root, onions, garlic and other tasty and aromatic additives should be carefully washed.

If any product is poorly prepared, dirt remains on it, the process of rotting will begin in the pickled cucumbers.

What to do with cloudy sunsets?

At the initial stage of the harvesting process, it is still possible to save. To do this, open the jar, pour out the brine, pour boiling water over all the ingredients, wash the jar again and fill it with fresh marinade.

There is another way. The existing brine is poured into a pan, boiled and poured over the cucumbers again.

Some housewives simply put cucumbers in the refrigerator. The process of turbidity formation stops.

In any case, further fermentation inside the pickled cucumbers should not be allowed. Cucumbers turn sour and spoil. Their consumption is dangerous to health. You can get poisoned.

Preparing homemade preserves requires certain skills and dexterity, not to mention following the recipe. Therefore, the disappointment of any housewife who has encountered a similar problem at least once is great. You can find out why cucumbers in jars become cloudy and what can be done if this happens by reading our material.

There may be several explanations for such strange behavior of salted or pickled vegetables, and each one is fraught with a separate reason. It happens that the solution, along with the cucumbers, simply turns white and nothing else happens. It is believed that nothing happens by itself, which means we need to look for the root causes of such strange phenomena.

They are most often the following:

1. The cucumbers were not washed well enough; small particles of debris and soil remained on them, which, being in a confined space, led to fermentation. This also includes contamination that gets in with spices for preservation.
2. The problem is with the jars: they were dirty or synthetic products were used to wash them (usually it is recommended to use chemically neutral and harmless baking soda).
3. Instead of ordinary table salt, sea or iodized salt was used - they contain components that cause gradual clouding of the brine.
4. Poor sterilization of jars and lids, not only empty ones, but also at the final stage, when processing is performed before sealing.
5. Low-quality lids, chips or cracks in the neck - all this leads to air getting inside and inevitable fermentation.

In addition to those mentioned, there are reasons that have nothing to do with the conservation process. These are cucumbers that contain a large amount of chemicals (nitrates), are too old, or varieties that are not intended for long-term storage.

Important. Experience in the home matters more than the smartest advice. If you don’t know how to solve the problem of why the lids are swollen, or you’re not sure of a successful outcome, it’s better to throw away the spoiled canned food and try to do everything right.

Health is more valuable than experiments in the kitchen, especially with questionable results.

Are cucumbers with cloudy brine edible?

It is impossible to answer this question unequivocally, since there is always, albeit tiny, the possibility that botulism bacilli accidentally got into a jar of pickled or pickled cucumbers, lovingly prepared for long-term storage.

At a minimum, those who consume the “playing” product are at risk of indigestion, or even serious poisoning. Therefore, a simple method of recognizing the severity of the problem is usually used, so that you can then decide whether the game is worth the candle.

Example 1. When catastrophic changes in the color of the brine or marinade are detected within 2-3 days after seaming, sometimes it is advisable to try to correct the situation. As practice shows, the solution becomes cloudy if lactic acid fermentation occurs in it (which in itself is not so scary), but the process cannot be stabilized due to the lack (complete absence) of an important component - vinegar.

If, moreover, the lid is not swollen, then we can safely recommend a simple solution: open the jar and pour the brine out of it.

Then there are 2 ways - use the “old” brine or prepare fresh one. In any case, without removing them from the container, rinse the cucumbers with boiling water, leave for 5 minutes, then proceed to the solution. The new (remaining) brine is brought to a boil, the vegetables are poured into the jar, vinegar is added according to the dosage, after which it is sterilized and rolled up.

Example 2. If the solution becomes cloudy without deformation of the lid, such cucumbers, in most cases, are quite edible. You just have to transfer the jars with them to the refrigerator and observe for 7-10 days. Most often, after the specified time, all the sediment will be at the bottom, and the contents will again become transparent. Sometimes such “incorrectly pickled” cucumbers are successfully used for pickle or vinaigrette, where their taste will not harm other ingredients.

Example 3. Both signs of fermentation are present - cloudy brine and a swollen lid. In this case, eating cucumbers is strictly not recommended, since there is a high risk of pathogenic bacteria entering the brine. You can, of course, take a risk, but the result will be unpredictable. And the human life of the owner and her loved ones is at stake.

How to revive cloudy preserves

There is no universal solution to the problem; sometimes it is easier to prepare something anew than to fix it. Simply put, throw away spoiled products and then carefully follow the technology. To begin with, time is important: the sooner signs of fermentation are detected, the better. Then they notice whether the shape of the lids has changed (whether swelling has appeared).

If not, then the chances of success increase: you can try to pour out the solution, rinse or sterilize the cucumbers, and then fill them with fresh solution. Most often this works: pour boiling water over the vegetables directly in the jar, let them sit for a few minutes, pour out the liquid, then fill the container with freshly prepared solution.

Be sure to add vinegar, after which it is preserved as usual: sterilization, seaming, keeping it upside down for 24 hours. This is how you can redo unsuccessful salting.

You should be prepared for the fact that the taste of such cucumbers will be slightly different from the classic one, so experienced housewives use “spoiled” jars for preparing soups or stewing vegetables.

Manipulations with fermented cucumbers should be undertaken if there are no signs of rapid development of bacteria (blowing of the lid). In any case, there is a small chance of food poisoning from consuming improperly processed canned goods.

Ways to prevent the appearance of “suspicious” sediment

There are not many of them, but they exist. Firstly, it is a thorough processing of vegetables before preservation: removing tails, damaged areas, cleaning from dirt (many experienced housewives soak cucumbers for several hours before pickling, then rinse thoroughly again).

Secondly, these are clean jars washed with soda without traces of food, debris, detergents, as well as new (not reused!) sealing lids without damage, deformation, with rubber bands in good condition. This category also includes the absence of visible and tangible damage to the neck of the glass container, cracks, chips, and casting defects.

Thirdly, scrupulous adherence to the recipe: if the compiler recommends boiling the solution for 10 minutes and adding vinegar, then that’s what you need to do. You should only use proven recipes that are guaranteed not to cause food poisoning or worse.

Fourthly, pickling, as a method of preservation, is more effective than simply pickling cucumbers: if the technology is strictly followed, even an inexperienced housewife has a better chance of avoiding mistakes in this case.

And fifthly, do not skimp on your health: use only fresh vegetables, quality ingredients, follow advice from trusted sources. Then you are definitely not in danger, and among your winter supplies there will always be crispy, tasty, strong pickles.

Probably every family has its own signature recipe for pickled or pickled cucumbers. And every housewife is sure that it is her recipe that makes them the most delicious and crunchy. But even the most experienced and skillful brine in a jar can lose transparency. What should I do if the cucumbers become cloudy? Should I throw them in the trash?

Is it possible to eat cucumbers from cloudy brine?

If all stages of the preparation have been completed correctly and the lids have not swelled and the brine has become cloudy, this only means that ripening has begun, during which lactic acid is formed. This often happens with salted vegetables rather than pickled ones, that is, with those for which vinegar is not added.

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

If the water becomes cloudy and the lid swells, such vegetables, unfortunately, cannot be saved. A swollen or already torn lid may 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 possibility of contracting such a dangerous disease?

What to do with a cloudy jar of cucumbers?

Even if the housewife knows that it is quite acceptable to eat the preparation, she may wonder what to do if the brine in the cucumbers becomes cloudy. Is it possible to somehow return them to their previous state or prevent unwanted processes? Experienced housewives advise moving the jars to a cool place so that all the dregs settle to the bottom. Such cucumbers, most likely, will no longer have a pleasant crunch, but they will not cause any harm to the body.

Read also:

Vegetables preserved in vinegar are much less likely to form milk fungus. But it may also happen that the pickled cucumbers become cloudy. What to do in this case? There are several options.

• Roll out, cover with a nylon lid and leave for a couple of days in a cool place. This way you will get lightly salted cucumbers, ready to eat.
• Open and re-roll. The water must be drained and boiled, vegetables and spices must be washed and placed in newly sterilized jars.

The most reliable way to save the product is to prepare a new marinade, increasing the amount of vinegar. In this case, the cucumbers should be washed and poured with boiling water 2-3 times. It is advisable to replace herbs and spices with fresh ones.

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

Why do blanks lose transparency?

Why did the cucumbers become cloudy and what to do to avoid similar situations in the future? There are many nuances and rules in the preservation process, the violation of which can lead to such unpleasant consequences as spoilage of the product. In most cases, this happens precisely because of technology violations. 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 rotting 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 at the height of the season, that is, at the end of June and July. Take fruits of medium size, dark green, dense, crispy.

Before you begin the pickling process, be sure to leave the cucumbers in cold water for several hours, or better yet, overnight. This simple process will not only remove nitrates, but also make the vegetables crispier.

• Sea or iodized salt was used for preservation. It is certainly healthier than regular cooking, but it is absolutely not suitable for pickling. Firstly, sodium chloride in its pure form is an ideal preservative, and various additives worsen the preservative properties. Secondly, iodine can give vegetables an unpleasant taste and also disrupts the fermentation process, which can cause the lid to swell and become cloudy. In addition, vegetables pickled in iodine-enriched salt will not be crispy and may taste bitter.
• The jars and lids were sterilized incorrectly or not at all. Nowadays, many preservation recipes advise not to subject the container to such treatment - supposedly it is enough to rinse it thoroughly 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 a lot of vinegar. To seam vegetables without adding it, sterilization is required.
• The seal was broken. Sealing containers should be selected without chips or cracks, and the lids should be new. It should also be taken into account that a crack could have formed during sterilization or pasteurization. To avoid this, observe the temperature regime, that is, do not pour hot brine into 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 cause a cloudy sediment to appear in the seams.
• Don't fill the 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 the lids will break off.
• To keep the brine transparent, you can use one trick. After the fruits and spices are compacted into jars, they need to be poured with boiling water twice and only then with marinade. This process will take longer, but it significantly increases the chances that lactic acid will not begin to form.
• Cucumbers rolled together with bell peppers do not become cloudy and have a spicy taste.
• After twisting the jars, you need to turn them upside down and leave them in a warm place until they cool completely. Better yet, wrap them in an additional 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.

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

Salt water and cucumbers turn white, as a result of which some prepared jars swell and may become unusable. Efforts and labor will not be in vain if you regularly ensure that the jars in which the cucumbers will be preserved do not swell.

The main causes of brine cloudiness

The turbidity of salt water is preceded by several biochemical processes:

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

This is important to know: Storing blanks at temperatures above 5 0 heat will inevitably lead to swelling of the jar lid, and at higher temperatures they simply fly off, like champagne corks. The norm for storing canned pickled vegetables, cucumbers in particular, can be considered a cellar room or a chamber in a refrigeration unit with zero temperature.

Cloudiness of cucumbers does not mean they are unsuitable

If the cucumbers become cloudy and the lids of the jars come off, then first examine their contents. In general, only soft and completely white cucumbers are unsuitable for food and can cause food poisoning.

The rest have a chance to be saved, and they do it in several ways:

1. 1. Whole cucumbers with a white coating can be re-rolled again, the main thing is that they retain their elastic shape.
   2. If the cucumbers have barely fermented and started to turn white, take them out and pour out the old brine, and then, after boiling the jar with steam, pour in a new brine.

1. The jars are opened, more or less hard cucumbers are scrolled in a meat grinder, thereby obtaining a mini blank for jars of smaller capacity. Similar preservation is used for the current preparation of pickles.

Your seams will be of better quality the more carefully you approach the selection of source materials. Here we mean the cucumbers themselves, the main properties of which should be hardness, small size, the desired variety and oblong shape.

Grandma’s recipe has long been known, using a 70% solution of vinegar essence or mustard. Since 3-liter jars are mainly used for pickling, the proportion of vinegar will be 1 teaspoon. In the case of mustard seasoning, a large tablespoon is enough.

It is the repeated preparations that cause the most trouble. If the cucumbers have turned sour, you cannot do without vinegar. However, injections should be made into the jar after filling it with brine. In this case, you will definitely avoid a second explosion.

This is important to know: When re-canning, it is necessary to reduce the proportions of vinegar, salt and sugar. Otherwise, the cucumbers, which have absorbed the initial dose of ingredients, will be oversaturated. By the way, don’t forget to put a couple of tomatoes - these friends will reliably protect the jar from explosion.

The few easy-to-follow tips in this article will help you revive your workpieces.

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

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

Canning vegetables is a great way to preserve food, but sometimes the brine becomes cloudy after a while. We will tell you below how to avoid this and what measures to take to correct the situation.

Reasons for cloudiness of workpieces

Even if you use the most proven recipes for preparing cucumbers and tomatoes, you cannot exclude the possibility that the liquid in the jar will lose its transparency, the vegetables will lose their elasticity and taste, and the lids may even swell. This can be caused by non-compliance with the technology for preparing canned foods. The main reasons for damage to winter preparations are:

• Poorly washed or damaged vegetables;
• Insufficient sterilization of lids and jars;
• Cans that are not rolled tightly enough;
• Failure to comply with the proportions specified in the recipe or substitution of ingredients;
• Failure to comply with temperature storage standards.

Even one of the listed reasons may be critical when preparing pickled cucumbers or tomatoes. To prevent such detrimental consequences for products, it is important to clearly know how to prevent it.

How to avoid clouding of the blockage?

Always begin by carefully inspecting all ingredients being prepared for canning. Tomatoes and cucumbers should not have any damage. They and other components should be rinsed very well. Canning containers must be sterilized over steam and dried in the oven. The entire work area must be absolutely clean.

After you have rolled up the lids tightly, you need to make sure that they will maintain maximum tightness. To do this, they need to be placed upside down for a day and covered tightly with a blanket. After this, let the jars sit for about ten days in a cool place. If during this time you do not see any negative changes, then they can be stored.

Don't ignore pre-soaking cucumbers in water before pickling. This procedure will result in the air that may be contained in the vegetables being replaced by water, thereby reducing the risk of swelling and cloudiness of the brine. Carefully monitor the proportions of vegetables, salt and vinegar. Not enough acid will cause fermentation.

How to save cloudy workpieces?

If you don’t want to throw cucumbers out of the cloudy brine, then you can try to correct the situation. The following method will be appropriate only if the vegetables were in the cloudy brine for a short time, did not lose their taste and crispness, and the integrity of the lid was preserved:

• Remove the cap and drain the liquid. Rinse the cucumbers with heated water directly in the jar and pour boiling water for five minutes;
• Drain the liquid into the pan and bring to a boil, then pour back into the jar with the vegetables and the newly added spices and salt. Roll up the jars.

You can do this with tomatoes in the following way:

• Rinse vegetables thoroughly in salted water;
• Boil the existing brine or make a new one (which is preferable);
• Sterilize the jars and lids and carry out the entire preservation process again.

If the brine becomes cloudy again, it is better to get rid of this preparation and not eat it.

Why should you be careful?

If enough vinegar was not used when preparing canned cucumbers for the winter, this will lead to the formation of lactic acid in the jars. In this case, the cloudy jar should be placed in the walking chamber for about a week. During this time, the sediment will sink to the bottom, and the vegetables can be used to prepare various dishes.

If, in addition to cloudiness, you notice that the lid is swollen, this means that the pickles cannot be used for food. The container has already undergone the process of reproduction of harmful microorganisms that can be dangerous to your health.

In order not to be faced with the choice of throwing away food or preserving again, you need to approach this process with special preparation and care. Add hot peppers and horseradish leaves to the marinade, which will help prevent the growth of bacteria.