Whoops! Cucumber toffee anyone?

[Madmac]

Oh dear,

I had a glut of cucumbers so I decided to make some pickle. Found a nice looking recipe for an award winning cucumber pickle.
First attempt I failed to reduce the liquid to a syrupy consistency, i was getting worried about having enough liquid to fill the jars and stopped too early. I hoped it would thicken after cooling, but it didn't. Yesterday I emptied the jars and re-boiled, strained out the veg and made an extra batch of syrup. Only this time while trying to reduce the liquid in to a nice thick syrup I had a rolling boil which turned out not to be such a good idea. I now have cucumber flavoured toffee. It's quite spicy, gave it a lick and it's was a bit odd having something so sweet and spicy in a solid block. Bunged the veg in to the freezer until I can get some more ingredients to try again.
So I guess for syrup, it should be a slow and steady boil rather than hard and fast. Or am I missing something?

[rustylady]

Would help if you posted the recipe. I've never made a syrup consistency for pickles, that's more for chutneys.

[Madmac]

Copied from the Cottage Smallholder website

Jo’s Award Winning Cucumber Pickle Recipe

Ingredients:
4 large cucumbers
3 medium onions
2 oz/50g of salt

For the syrup:
1pt/570ml of white wine vinegar
1lb/454g of soft brown sugar
½ level tsp of ground turmeric
½ level tsp of ground cloves
1 tbsp of mustard seed (we used black)

(Being independent, we also put a large sprig of wild fennel in each jar when we added the vegetables).

Method:

Wash cucumber and slice very thinly (we used Danny’s natty Japanese mandolin for slicing the cucumber and the onion).
Peel the onions and slice very thinly.
In a large bowl, layer cucumbers and onions with a sprinkling of salt in between the layers. Weigh down with a plate.
Stand for three hours.
After three hours, pour away the liquid and rinse the cucumbers and onions under running water twice.
Put your jars in the oven to sterilised them. (How do I sterilise jars? See tricks and tips below).
Put vinegar, sugar and spices in a stainless steel or non stick saucepan and stir over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.
Add the cucumber and onions to the saucepan and bring to the boil.
Boil syrup and vegetables for a couple of minutes. Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Reduce remaining syrup for 15-20 min.
After ten minutes or so, gently fill warm, sterilised jars with vegetables. Don’t press down.
When syrup has reduced, pour over vegetables in jars.
Cover immediately with plastic lined, sterilised metal lids. (How do I sterilise lids? See tricks and tips below).
When cold, label and store in a cool, dark place, away from damp.

It does taste nice, quite spicy bur i'm definitely going to try again. My only gripe is, what constitutes a large cucumber? Shop bought ones or my own shorter but stumpy ones?