The use of simple recipes focused on salting watermelons using barrels allows you to enjoy a delicious piquant snack in winter.
Preparatory stage
They use medium-sized watermelons of medium size (weighing up to 2 kg) of high quality with a dense pulp (weighing up to 2 kg) of late ripening without traces of rot and damage to the skin. They don't have to be overripe.
Fruits with a thin skin are selected and thoroughly washed. Wipe with a cloth, make 10-15 symmetrical punctures with a wooden skewer.
For salting watermelons, a wooden barrel is considered the best capacity. It is washed, and then the inner planes are scalded with boiling water.
The new barrel is rinsed several times, washing out the sawdust and removing the characteristic woody odor. Then fill it to the top with slightly warmed water for a month. This will ensure reliable tightness of the surfaces. The fluid is changed every 3 days.
Prepared watermelons are spread evenly over ⅔ of the total volume of the barrel. The brine is poured in such an amount that its level is 4-5 cm higher than the fruit. Salt is taken without additives. The filtered water is pre-boiled and then cooled to 20-25 ° C.
Place a wooden circle washed with boiling water on top and set the oppression. Its weight should help immerse the watermelons completely in the liquid, but not crush them. Keep for 1-2 days at room conditions. If the amount of brine decreases, then its volume is replenished.
Lay double gauze and move the barrel to the cellar, where the salting process will continue. Usually, the snack can already be served after 21-30 days.
A simple salting recipe
Prepared watermelons are placed evenly in the barrel. Separately dissolve with active stirring 0.8 kg of salt in 10 l of cool water. It remains to fill the container with fruits and put a wooden lid.
"Grandma's" recipe
For brine, a 10-liter saucepan of cool boiled water will require 400-700 g of salt, supplemented with 500 g of sugar. After pouring the fruits, the barrel is covered with a thin cotton cloth on top and oppression is placed.
Whole Soaked Watermelon
Brine in a 10-liter container with cooled boiled water is prepared with the addition of table salt of the middle fraction and sugar - 0.5 kg each. Fruits filled with liquid are kept at home under oppression for 24 hours. After that, they are stored in the basement. You can taste watermelons after 20 days.
With spices
To enhance the aroma of the finished snack, when placing watermelon fruits in a barrel, sprinkle them with currant leaves (you can take a cherry), peeled garlic cloves. Add sprigs of your favorite spicy herbs, hot pepper pods, chopped celery root, black peppercorns, nutmeg. Then the brine is prepared, focusing on any of the proposed recipes.
Recipe "Spicy"
When placed in a container, watermelons are supplemented with garlic cloves, horseradish rhizome, cut into small pieces. Add cinnamon, allspice, cherry leaves, black currant, mint.
For the brine, 0.5 kg of sugar is required, which, together with 0.4 kg of medium-fraction salt, is stirred in 10 liters of cool pre-boiled water. The workpiece can be kept warm under oppression for 24 hours. In the cellar, it will be ready in 30 days.
Dessert recipe
Prepared watermelon berries, when placed in a barrel, are sprinkled with pieces of ginger root and horseradish. For the brine, you will need 0.5 kg of medium fractional edible salt with the addition of the same amount of granulated sugar. Dissolve them with vigorous stirring in 10 l of filtered water.
The dishes are placed on the stove and heated until boiling, adding hot red pepper, laurel leaves, nutmeg, coriander. Cool the brine before pouring. The barrel is left under oppression in the room for a day. In the basement or cellar, the snack is ready to use by the end of 3 weeks.
Salted cabbage
You will need dense cabbage forks, which are chopped and sprinkled with salt - 60 g / 1 kg. Rub the mass with your hands until the juice appears. When placing watermelons in barrels, the first and last layer should be cabbage. Apples with green tomatoes are placed between the watermelon fruits so that they do not touch each other and lie away from the walls of the container.
For brine, sugar and salt are diluted in cool water until the crystals completely disappear, using them 0.5 kg each. The barrel is lowered into the cellar after 48 hours. In a month, the original delicacy will be ready.
With mustard powder
Mustard is used in different varieties. For example, when preparing a spicy brine for 10 liters of cooled boiling water, you will need 0.4 kg of medium fractional salt, which is supplemented with 50 g of powdered mustard.
You can fill a barrel with small thin-walled watermelons with 10 liters of spicy brine, for which 0.8 kg of salt, 50 g of dry mustard and 0.4 kg of sugar were taken.
Watermelons fermented in their own juice
You will need watermelon pulp without seeds and skin, which is mashed using a blender. Carefully dissolve 60 g of fine salt in a fragrant mass.
Whole watermelon fruits are first placed on the bottom, placing puree made from the pulp on top. They alternate up to the top. It is important that the last layer is chopped pulp. The barrel is kept under a clean linen napkin without lighting in the cold. After a week, check and add brine, if necessary, remove traces of mold. Store in a cellar for no longer than 5-6 months.
With apples
List of ingredients:
- high-quality medium watermelons - 10 pcs.;
- dense small sweet-sour apples - 5 kg;
- rye straw;
- cooled boiled water - 10 l;
- blackcurrant and cherry leaves - 15 pieces each;
- salt - 750 g.
Algorithm:
When placed in a barrel, watermelons are layered with apples, sprinkled with currant and cherry leaves with the addition of rye straw, which must be scalded with boiling water. Pour in the prepared brine. The oppression is installed on a wooden circle. Immediately move the container into the cold. The snack will be ready in 14-20 days.
Recipes for salting watermelons do not take a lot of time. If you follow the recommendations, you can get an original appetizer that will delight you with its unusual piquancy.
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