Grape leaves in pickles?

[peskin]

Someone mentioned to me that I should put grape leaves in my cucumber pickles to keep them crunchy. Will it work? How many grape leaves should I put for that effect? Will it affect the taste?

[nancyhudson]

I received grape leaves along with pickling cukes in my CSA this week so apparently there could be some truth to the rumor!

[acgold7]

I do this and it seems to work. The tannins in the leaves are alleged to help. I use one large (10-12") leaf per pound of pickles. Fresh leaves should have no effect on taste. I suspect you could use leaves from a jar as well.