A Canning Attempt

Inspired by my aunt Marina's marinated cucumbers and tomatoes I decided to make some of my own. I asked my aunt for a recipe, but I had to diverge from it a bit. A few ingredients were hard to obtain even in a prosperous country of excess such as the United States unless you grow your own--e.g. currant leaves. Otherwise, the process was easy and fun--here is what I did

• Lay out dill at the bottom of the jars
• Put washed cucumbers and tomatoes into the jars
• Add garlic
• In a pot boil water with salt, sugar, bay leaves and pepper corns (for 1L of water, 1 tsp sugar, 1.5 tbs salt (course grained), 3-4 bay leaves, 10 pepper corns
• Pour the above brine into the jars and let them stand for 2-3 minutes
• Return the brine into the pot, and bring to boil
• Pour into the jars, and put on the lids (previously boiled for 5 minutes in water)
• Invert the jars, cover them with towels, and let them stand for 24 hours

Now the jars can be stored. According to my aunt, the tomatoes and cucumbers will be ready in about a month. She says that cucumbers can be opened earlier--they will taste less salty, "малосольные."

I made 4 small jars--2 with tomatoes and 2 with cucumbers. Once I open any, I will let you know how they turned out.