Why do home-made pickles float in the jar, but commercial pickles don't?
I make a lot of home-made pickles; mostly pickled onions/shallots/cucumbers. I use a cold process and I don't pre-brine.
I notice all of my pickles always end up floating to the top of the jars, even after months of pickling. This is very annoying because it means the top pickles don't get evenly saturated.
Commercial, store-bought pickles never have this problem. They always sink to the bottom of the jar. Even if there's only a single pickle left in the jar, it sinks.
What can I do to get my pickles to sink?
Best Answer
Most likely commercial pickles are preserved by an accurate pasteurisation and ascorbic acid or other chemical preservatives so that the "brine" contains much less salt as compared to your homemade ones. It is mattert of the liquid density, yours is heavier.
(Though the density of the vegetables might likely vary a bit - and though surface/volume ratio could have an effect on how much water flow throughout the skin of the preserved vegetables - I would expect it to tend to the same value upon preparation and storage).
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Quick Answer about "Why do home-made pickles float in the jar, but commercial pickles don't?"
Most likely commercial pickles are preserved by an accurate pasteurisation and ascorbic acid or other chemical preservatives so that the "brine" contains much less salt as compared to your homemade ones. It is mattert of the liquid density, yours is heavier.Why do my homemade pickles float?
digdirt2. Foods float because of the air trapped in the food itself. The fresher the food before processing the less air it contains. Proper handling before canning and during the process can also reduce floating.Are pickles supposed to float in the jar?
You'd have to heat the cucumber slices thoroughly before packing to prevent it, but in the case of pickles, sometimes floating is preferable to the loss of crispness. Other possibilities are packing the slices too loosely and/or air left in the jar.Do pickles need to be completely submerged?
Yes, the brine does need to cover the cucumbers in a refrigerator pickle. With other forms of canning where the jars are processed, you have a vacuumed sealed environment after processing.How do you know if homemade pickles are safe?
Check the pickles for signs of off-odors and mushiness of the pickles. If these signs are absent, the pickles are safe to eat. Sometimes the fillers (anti-caking agents) in regular table salt may cause slight cloudiness, so always use pickling salt. Hard water might also cause cloudiness.Fermenting Pickles! || Canning Pickles for Long Term Storage || Preserving Cucumbers
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Answer 2
Switch your pickling method to the old fashioned crock method.
In it prepare your brine nice and salty, and pour over your crock of cukes which is no more than 3/4 full, so that the brine is at least 2" above it.
Then place your stone weight on top to hold the pickles below fluid level. After reaching the desired pickling, you can can as you did or just keep them in crock maintaining submerged status.
This forces the pickling solution more thoroughly thru each pickle making them "heavier" than the pickling solution you wish to can them in.
Bonus: since it is a "cold-pack" method pickles are more crisp.
The method can be used with almost any pickled vegetable.
Answer 3
the jars are not filled tightly, I've had this problem and have learned if I really press the cucumbers in the jar there is less floating
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