8 foods that should be salted and sour

Pickling vegetables and fruits are all food protection measures that are sought after by many people in the summer. However, you need to process pickled foods properly to ensure health. So are pickled foods good and what are pickled foods?

Pickling (pickling) is a method of preserving food in an acidic environment. No matter what kind of food, from meat, fish, vegetables to fruit or hard-boiled eggs, this method can be done.
This method helps lactic acid bacteria grow under anaerobic conditions with a salt concentration of 1.2 - 2.5% (for vegetables) and 3-5% (for cucumbers, tomatoes). . Part of the sugar is converted into lactic acid by lactic acid bacteria and will usually reach a concentration of 0.6-1.2%. Under these conditions, microorganisms that cause decay in vegetables cannot function. Thanks to the pickling method, vegetables can keep their crispiness, deliciousness, long spoilage, and the shelf life can be up to several months!
With the main ingredient being pickled brine, this is a moderately strong acid that inhibits the growth of bacteria. High salt and sugar content will often increase this effect. For certain foods with a high water content, when pickling you need to use methods to make sure the brine is strong enough to work properly. Not only is it a delicious side dish, pickled foods also give you the following unexpected benefits:
Pickled vegetables and fruits contain natural antioxidants that are abundant. This antioxidant helps prevent the formation of free radicals in your body that cause cancer and heart disease. For followers of the Keto diet - who always need a lot of sodium to balance electrolytes, fermented foods will be a great choice. Recently, drinking water from pickled foods is also a trend because this drink helps prevent muscle cramps, weight loss, diabetes, ...

Sours should be made from vegetables and fruits combined with spices and fresh herbs. Excellent pickling products are the result of quality ingredients, proper proportions and carefully followed recipes.
You can pickle most vegetables and fruits, including cucumbers, green beans, peppers, okra, radishes, carrots, and asparagus. Here are 8 types of pickle products:
2.1. Pears You can eat them alone as an appetizer, mix them in salads, or combine them with roasts or braised meats. Cut them in half before soaking and add sugar, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and all the spice nuts to your brine. Slightly overripe pears will retain their shape best.

2.2. Peaches You can make your pickled peaches sweeter and more syrupy than other pickled fruits and mix them with a spoon with ice cream or with cookies for a delicious dessert. You can add cinnamon, cloves, ginger, citric acid, and sugar to the vinegar and water mixture.
2.3. Sweet Green Tomatoes Add onions to your green tomato pickle jar for a delicious treat to eat with toast, mix in potato salad, or slide into a sandwich. Make a seasoning bag with mustard seeds, locust seeds, celery seeds, and cloves to put in the brine before submerging in a pot of boiling water.
2.4. Hot Chili The key to this incredible dish is "bulging" or crushing the peppers before soaking. Keep the small pepper whole and half or a quarter of the larger one. Once cooked, peel off the skins of each chili. Try it with Hungarian, banana, chili or jalapeno peppers, and pickles with sugar and garlic.
2.5. Radishes Pickled radishes are great for seasoning salads or coleslaw. Put the cinnamon stick and whole cloves in a cheesecloth bag and put them in a jar with sliced ​​onions to soak the beets. Trim off the tops, but leave an inch at the stem and base to keep the color from bleeding.
2.6. Brussels sprouts You can spice up your salads by topping them with pickled Brussels sprouts with hot chili peppers, mustard seeds, celery seeds, and turmeric. Put some diced onion and diced red pepper in the jar before soaking.
2.7. Watermelon rind Yes, you can eat watermelon rind! You'll need whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, and thinly sliced ​​lemons for the brine, along with just the right amount of sugar. You use pickled watermelon rinds just like cucumbers: For sandwiches, salad dressings or simply combine with your favorite cheese and enjoy as a snack.
2.8. Classic Cucumber Pickles are the last on many people's meals. To make pickles, use cucumbers grown specifically for pickling. Cut into spears or leave whole.

3.1 Do not pickle and soak vegetables and fruits in plastic or stainless steel jars. There are many types of sour fruits such as apricots, crocodiles, and strawberries that will often be soaked in sugar into syrup to make summer refreshments. In addition, pickled dishes from cabbage, cabbage, bamboo shoots, eggplant, cabbage.... are also popular dishes in every family's daily meal.
However, preserving food in plastic or stainless steel jars is not safe and can cause many harms to your health. Therefore, choose a quality glass jar to ensure safety and sterilize the pickling tool in boiling water before storing food.
3.2 Do not eat pickled foods too often Eating too much pickles can cause gastric irritation, increase acid, aggravate symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease, even stomach ulcers.
In addition, subjects who need to limit salty foods such as people with a history of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, kidney disease should limit pickled foods to be able to control the amount of salt in their daily diet.
3.3 Do not drink soaked fruit juice on an empty stomach Drinks made from fruit syrup soaked in sugar at home will help quench thirst effectively in the hot summer.
However, pickled fruit will often have a sour taste, so you need to limit drinking water mixed with syrup when hungry to avoid causing stomach upset. Children with weak digestive systems should not use these pickled fruit drinks.
3.4 Do not eat pickles when they are green and have a pungent taste. Most foods that are processed through fermentation such as salted fish, pickles, and fish sauce contain nitrosamines.
The nitrite content will decrease and be completely lost when the melon is yellow. Therefore, you should eat melons and tomatoes with compressed salt and water for enough time. Limit eating when the salt is still green and has a pungent taste.
3.5 Check for spoilage of foods you plan to salt. Use tried and true recipes from solid sources and follow directions exactly. Make sure you use the right amount of vinegar and water in your pickling process, and check the finished product for problems before eating.
If you want to store your product vials at room temperature (in the pantry), heat treatment is necessary and will kill spoilage microorganisms. Heat treatment will also inactivate enzymes that affect the taste, color and texture of your product during storage.

Whichever method you choose, pickles should be made from young, fresh vegetables. Do not use waxed supermarket cucumbers for pickling as the acid or salt will not penetrate them properly. You can grow your own cucumbers or go to the farmers market. The Seed Directory is a good source of information on suitable varieties. Choose only the freshest vegetables for pickling, unblemished and unblemished. Use as soon as possible after picking. Pick cucumbers early to prevent them from becoming bitter.
When choosing vegetables, tubers and fruits for pickling, you should choose those that are roughly the same size and cut or slice just right so that the brine penetrates the pickles evenly.
Once you know the foods that should be pickled, you can choose and start implementing them to make your daily meal more abundant.