When a friend of mine asked me if I would like to have the grape leaves that have been growing like crazy in his backyard, I could not resist. He needed to prune them as they sadly do not produce any fruit but taking a lot of space, crowding the trees on both sides.

Sure enough I wanted to preserve them. Llike the ones you can buy in the stores. They are consumed a lot in Turkey that we usually have a big jar of them preserved in brine waiting to be used in winter. What do we use that for? Mostly for making the stuffed grape leaves (dolmas), but other recipes call for them as well: anchioves wraped in them or eating kisir (bulgur salad, just like tabouleh) and many others.

The picture above was taken during my recent visit to old Jerusalem’s Muslim quarter at their Friday bazaar. This is a typical picture that you could see in Turkey, and probably everywhere else in the Middle East and even Balkans. There I have not seen them selling the grape leaves in brine, though. Other than that, the whole bazaar looked and felt as if I was in Turkey. The only thing missing was the language I could comprehend.

The preserving style I am about to explain is no different then many of you know for pickles; making a brine and putting the leaves in them. This is the common way of preserving the leaves. Lately I have been hearing people putting them in the freezer after dipping them in the salty boiling water. In fact, after I have posted the Turkish version of this post there were many comments on how some were successfully keeping them in the freezer. More details can be found at the end of this post.

Most important thing to note is to find nice leaves that will be used for dolmas. They usually come from seedless grapes and are not fuzzy. Once you find such a grape leaf source, before cutting the branches down make sure you have some time set aside for this task; leaves will not survive too long after the branches are cut down. Remove the leaves from the branches leaving about 1/2 - 1 inches of the stem on the leaf. Carefully group the leaves according to their sizes. And start another group when there are 10 - 15 leaves already stacked. Make sure to have the shiny sides down for easy stacking.

Once you are done with grouping, boil salty water (2 spoonfuls for a gallon of water should be enough) in a large pot. Dip the leaves into the boiling water one group at a time, and immersing them for 20 - 30 seconds on each side. Use a slotted spoon for this task, and put them on a colander to cool while giving the others a hot bath.

Now off to an easy task: find a jar big enough to hold these. Have I mention my obsession for jars before; cannot get rid of them and even collect them from friends and family. This one, for example, is from a friend. OK, back to grape preserving. Take a cooled group of leaves, tuck in the stem part, and start rolling the whole group like a puro. Start stacking that “puroâ€? s into your jar, one on top of the other. Probably there will be some space left in the jar, if not, make sure to start filling another jar and leave some headspace in each. When we pour in the brine, we need to make sure the leaf rolls do not open. A classic solution for that is to find a big enough river rock that can fit through the jar’s opening and place it on the leaves. For some living in the cities, finding that river rock could be quite a challenging task! So, you can do what I have done: find a jar that is big enough to push the leaves down when the lid is closed.

Our next job is to make the brine. This part is the most important part; if you do not make the brine salty enough nothing will be preserved, but so much salt can also eat through your leaves. Also, you need non-iodized salt. I have used sea salt; I guess rock salt works, too. You also need an egg; not to put into brine but to determine its saltiness. In my case I have used 2 cups of water and 2/3 cups of salt. After dissolving the salt, put the egg slowly in the water and see if the part of the egg shows up is about 1/2 inch diameter. That’s the size area you have to see out of water to make sure your brine is salty enough.

Now take out the egg (I cannot help myself but write that!) and before pouring the brine on the leaves, make sure to push down on the second jar with one hand (or place the river rock) so the leaves do not float. We do this so the leaves do not get in contact with air. Close the lid tightly and move the jar to a dark, cool place.

When the time comes to use them, this could be as early as tomorrow or as late as next spring, all you have to do is to take them out of water and keep in the warm water a bit to wash their excess salt down. Enjoy!

The following way is suggested by some of the readers leaving comments in Turkish: after grouping and dipping them in salty boiling water put them in freezer bags and enjoy when needed. I, personally, have not tried this way before but after reading the comments from these experienced users I also put some of the leaf groups in the freezer.