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If you sterilize a glass container in boiling water, add cucumbers + spices with a 3.5% salinity brine and close the container without creating vacuum, can you let it pickle for a few days and then keep it refrigerated for consumption over the medium-term? Many of the recipes seem to either speak of preserving the vegetables or using vinegar, which gives a different flavor.

So what process would be safe using a regular container without special vacuum and for how long may the pickles be consumed?

TLSO
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A vacuum is not necessary for either quick pickles or lacto-fermented pickles. Pickles made with vinegar are usually in the "quick" or "refrigerator" pickle category. The brine flavors the vegetable. This type of pickle should be kept in the refrigerator and consumed within about a month, especially if you keep your fingers out of the jar (which, introduces a mold risk). Though, the vegetables often get mushy over time, and you may not enjoy that. Because these are "quick", I often only make what I will consume in about a week.

Lacto-fermented pickles are usually prepared at cool room temperature (or cellar temperature, as a wine analogy). Vegetables are placed in a brine (or in the case of cabbage, simply salted and allowed to create its own brine from the leached water). A vacuum is not necessary, but the fermentation takes place in the absence of oxygen, so the product should be submerged. This type of pickle has a longer shelf life given the salt and acidity produced in the fermentation process. They can remain at cellar temperature, though the fermentation will continue. Refrigeration can be used to slow the process and preserve the "sourness" that you like.

Almost any container can be used for either process, though glass is useful because it doesn't retain flavors/odors.

moscafj
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