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Vegetables from Poland

Ogórki kiszone (Polish sour cucumbers)ogórki kiszone

Cucumbers are packed in a jar or barrel with dill heads, garlic and horseradish, covered with salted water and left to ferment, first warm and then cool. Lactic bacteria turn the brine and cucumbers sour, and Polish quality rules ask for 1.2–2.5 % salt and more than 0.7 % acidity in the finished pickle.

Fully documentedVegetables4 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne 1 L Weck jar, the home recipe used in a 2020 study of pickle brine. Families use many versions, so the salt in home pickles varies.
CucumbersTo fill a 1 L jar[ryznar2020]
Salt1 tablespoon (about 20 g)[ryznar2020]
Sugar1 level teaspoon (about 5 g)[ryznar2020]
Horseradish1 piece of root and 1 leaf[ryznar2020]
Dill flower head1 head[ryznar2020]
GarlicA few cloves[ryznar2020]
Water, boiled and cooled to room temperatureTo cover[ryznar2020]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactobacillaceaePediococcus parvulusLentilactobacillusLactiplantibacillus

What changes: Cucumbers are packed into a jar with dill heads, garlic and horseradish

Step 1 of 4
Pack the jar with cucumbers and herbs
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillaceae
Pediococcus parvulus
Lentilactobacillus
Lactiplantibacillus
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: packed jar.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Cucumbers are packed in a jar or barrel with dill heads, garlic and horseradish, covered with salted water and left to ferment, first warm and then cool. Lactic bacteria turn the brine and cucumbers sour, and Polish quality rules ask for 1.2–2.5 % salt and more than 0.7 % acidity in the finished pickle. Made in 4 steps over 4 days. The longest step, start the fermentation at room temperature, takes 4 days (Ryznar-Luty A. and Szymański M. 2020). Salt is 2–2.5 % (Piasecka-Jóźwiak K 2024). Lactic acid bacteria of the Lactobacillaceae and Pediococcus parvulus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4 daysReported[ryznar2020]Start the fermentation at room temperature
Temperature10 °CReported[ryznar2020]Move to a cool room and keep
Salt2–2.5 %Reported[ibprs2024]Add salt and sugar and cover with cooled boiled water
AciditypH 3.1–4.1Measured[ibprs2024][choinska2025]Move to a cool room and keep

What makes this one different

Unlike vinegar pickles, ogórki kiszone are soured only by lactic fermentation in a light brine, with dill, garlic and horseradish for flavour.

Related ferments

Safety

Polish quality limits are 1.2–2.5 % salt, more than 0.7 % acidity and pH 3.2–3.8. Market pickles held 48–221 mg/kg putrescine, and in some the sum of four biogenic amines was above the estimated upper toxic limit, so the institute advises monitoring them as a sign of hygiene.

Hazards the sources name: Coliform bacteria, which also cause gassy faults; Enterobacteriaceae made up 23.6 % of the bacteria by sequencing in one of 10 market samples (none grew on plates).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
  1. [ibprs2024] Piasecka-Jóźwiak K., Choińska R., Miecznikowski A. et al. 2024, Ogórki kiszone – diagnoza stanu (sour cucumbers, a state of the market), Zakład Technologii Fermentacji IBPRS-PIB, Warsaw, for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developmentgov
  2. [choinska2025] Choińska R., Piasecka-Jóźwiak K. et al. 2025, Microbiota and Quality Indexes of Commercial Sauerkraut and Fermented Cucumbers, Environmental Microbiology Reports 17(6):e70250paper
  3. [ryznar2020] Ryznar-Luty A. and Szymański M. 2020, Ocena wybranych właściwości zalewy solankowej i soku z kiszonych ogórków (properties of brine and juice from pickled cucumbers), Nauki Inżynierskie i Technologie 36, doi 10.15611/nit.2020.36.10paper