I make a lot of home-made pickles; mostly pickled onions/shallots/cucumbers. I use a cold process and I don't pre-brine.

I notice all of my pickles always end up floating to the top of the jars, even after months of pickling. This is very annoying because it means the top pickles don't get evenly saturated.

Commercial, store-bought pickles never have this problem. They always sink to the bottom of the jar. Even if there's only a single pickle left in the jar, it sinks.

What can I do to get my pickles to sink?


Most likely commercial pickles are preserved by an accurate pasteurisation and ascorbic acid or other chemical preservatives so that the "brine" contains much less salt as compared to your homemade ones. It is mattert of the liquid density, yours is heavier.

(Though the density of the vegetables might likely vary a bit - and though surface/volume ratio could have an effect on how much water flow throughout the skin of the preserved vegetables - I would expect it to tend to the same value upon preparation and storage).

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