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cold running water, blossom end only, a 1/16-inch coin

cucumbers, scrubbed clean and a thin slice cut from the blossom end of each — the end opposite the stem scar, which is slightly pointed and often carries a dried blossom remnant. This is not trimming for looks. An enzyme concentrated in the blossom end breaks down pectin, and left in the jar it will soften every pickle around it over the following weeks; a whole batch can go limp from this alone. Buy or pick cucumbers no more than a day old and use them the same day. No later step recovers crispness — the canner, the calcium chloride and the tannin leaf all only slow a decline that starts the moment the cucumber leaves the vine