Brine and pickling liquid

The standard dictionary of literary Czech defines lák as a preserving liquid in which meat or vegetables are steeped, for example cucumber brine, and gives its origin as German. Nálev is the broader term: a liquid used in pickling and other preserving methods, such as a sweet-sour pickle for cucumbers.

German Lake is a strong salt solution for preserving food. The DWDS derives it from a Low German word for a puddle and notes that in the sense of salt brine for fish it spread from the 14th century along with the herring trade. French saumure, from Late Latin salimuria, a compound of sal, salt, and muria, salt water, is recorded in this sense as early as the late 11th century.

Escoffier’s brine for salting meat contained, besides water and grey salt, saltpetre and brown sugar; he adjusted its strength with a peeled potato, adding water or reducing until it just floated. Large joints were to be injected with brine, otherwise the outside would be over-salted before the salt reached the centre, and beef over eight to ten pounds (≈ 3.6–4.5 kg) stayed in the brine for eight days.