The Secret to the Crunchiest Cucumber Salads (2024)

FAQs

How to make cucumbers extra crunchy? ›

Just place the slices or chunks in a colander over a bowl or sink. Sprinkle them with a couple of pinches of salt, toss to coat, and let them rest for about 30 minutes. Pat them dry with a paper towel and proceed with the recipe.

"It's best to place them in a breathable bag or wrap them loosely in a paper towel to absorb any excess moisture," says Carla L. Schwan, Ph. D., assistant professor and extension food safety specialist director at the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Kirby Cucumbers

You'll recognize Kirby cukes by their bumpy skin and short stature. And you'll know them once you bite into 'em by their unmistakable crunch. Their thick skin and snappy crunch make them a favorite choice for pickling; sometimes they're marketed as pickling cucumbers.

No matter how you dress them, salting and draining sliced cucumbers maximizes crunchy texture. The challenge: More often than not, by the time you eat a cucumber salad the cucumbers have gone soft and watery, losing their appealing crunch and diluting the dressing to near tastelessness.

Calcium chloride (CaCl2), sometimes known as “pickle crisp”, is a type of salt that helps preserve the crunchiness of food. It is used in the food industry to help preserve the texture of canned fruit and vegetables. Sea salt is sodium chloride.

Salt: The secret to the best cucumber salad is to salt your cucumbers. The salt makes the cucumbers taste better and removes excess water, diluting the dressing. I use sea salt, but any salt will do. Vinegar: I love apple cider vinegar in this dressing, but distilled or white wine vinegar also works nicely.

About this method: To keep cucumbers extra crunchy, Epicurious touts this method: Wash them, thoroughly dry them, wrap them in a dish towel or paper towel, place them in an unsealed plastic bag to allow some airflow, and place them in the crisper drawer. (I used a thin, green grocery store produce bag for my tests.)

This salt treatment draws water out of the cucumbers and flavors them, so it's critically important. After layering or mixing in plenty of sea salt, I cover the salted cukes with ice cubes and a tea towel and forget about them for a few hours.

co*cktail Cucumbers are perfect for wraps, salads, and great for dunking in your favorite dip.

To begin, choose the right cucumbers. Most varieties will work, but the small, firm ones are best. Kirby pickles are ideal — they have a thick skin that stands up to pickling liquid and naturally have a great crunch.

What are number 1 cucumbers? ›

1 consists of cucumbers which are fairly well colored, fairly well formed, not overgrown, and which are fresh, firm, and free from decay, sunscald and from damage caused by scars, yellowing, sunburn, dirt or other foreign materials, freezing, mosaic or other disease, insects, cuts, bruises, mechanical or other means.

But if not stored properly, the watery fruits will become soft, squidgy, and limp (and nobody likes a limp cucumber). Here's the good news: Cucumbers can stay perfectly crunchy in the fridge for at least a week if you store them properly.

For a quick and easy way to help ensure crisp pickles: soak cucumbers in ice water for 4 to 5 hours before pickling. This is a safer method for making crisp pickles. Using lime, or calcium hydroxide, in solution for soaking cucumbers changes the amount of acid in the cucumber tissue.

Crispness can also be lost if cucumbers are stored longer than 24 hours in the refrigerator from harvest to pickling. Thoroughly wash each cucumber, especially around the stem area, where soil can be trapped. Any remaining soil may be a source of bacteria and can cause a soft pickle.