Interactive lesson

Salted vegetables, step by step

Interactive lesson: soup herbs, green beans, vine leaves, capers and chillies in heavy 20 % salt, with soaking before cooking.

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The whole lesson as text

1. The 20 % rule

Heavy salt keeps vegetables without pickling and without fermenting.

A fifth of the weight in salt — 1 kg of vegetables takes 200 g of salt. For leaves, make a brine of 200 g of salt per 1 L of water.
Salt is weighed — A kitchen scale accurate to 1 g. Salt "by feel" is the most common mistake.
No weak salt water — Green beans, peas or sweetcorn in weak salt water in a jar aren't safe, even after boiling the jar. It's one of the most common causes of botulism from home-made jars.
Kept cold — In the warm, vegetables darken and lose their aroma. In a fridge or cellar at up to 5 °C (41 °F), herbs stay green for 3–6 months.

Why: Vegetables are 85–95 % water. When you add a fifth of their weight in salt, you get a brine of almost 20 %, in which neither botulism nor spoilage bacteria grow. Less salt means a different product: fermentation or spoilage.

Use fine, non-iodised salt, because it mixes better. Coarse salt is fine for capers and beans.
Fermentation with little salt is in the H54 series, and vegetables in acid brine in H43-06.

2. Herbs in salt

A spoonful of this mix goes into soup, stew, stuffed cabbage and beans all winter.

Pick and dry — Pick in the morning, once the dew has dried, before flowering. Wash, drain and dry on a cloth for 1–2 hours.
Chop finely — Finely chop parsley, celery leaf, dill and chives. Finely grate carrot, parsley root and celeriac.
Weigh and mix — Weigh the herbs and measure 200 g of salt per 1 kg. Mix with your hands or a spoon for 3–5 minutes, until the herbs release juice.
Pack into jars — Pack into small jars layer by layer, with a spoon or pestle, so there's no air. There should be a little liquid on top.

Why: Parsley is the main base, celery leaf up to a quarter of the mix, and grated carrot and roots up to a third. Water on the leaves dilutes the salt, so the herbs must be dry.

Make three jars: "for soup", "dill" and "chives". That way the aromas don't mix.
Wilted, yellow or spotted leaves don't go in the jar.