Food - Drink
The Part Of The Cucumber You Must Remove When Making Pickles
By SYLVIA TOMCZAK
When making classic pickles at home, the way you prep your cucumbers can either lead to a satisfyingly crunch result or an underwhelming, soft texture. To make sure your DIY pickles don't taste like old, floppy ones that came out of a jar from the supermarket, you must slice the blossom end of your cucumbers off.
According to Penn State, cucumber blossoms contain an enzyme called pectinase that can cause pickles to soften significantly, so you should cut off the cucumber about 1/16 of an inch away from the blossom end. If you grow your own cucumbers, the blossom end is on the opposite end of where the stem is.
For store-bought cucumbers, the blossom end has a rough spot, rather than a smooth, indented spot where the stem once was; if you're unsure, just cut off both ends of the cucumber. To keep cucumbers crisp after cutting off the end, store them in cold water, and you can also add a tannic grape leaf, which inhibits pectinase.