Dill Pickles 101

[Greatwhite]

I started making pickles about 10 years ago after little baskets if pickle cukes caught my eye at Farmboy. I found a recipe online, and stuck with it ever since.

My dad planted a TONNE of cucumbers in his garden and we harvested them two years before we decided that we didn't like the funny shapes that he was producing. Since then, we'd buy cucumbers by the case at Produce Town (in Kingston) and mass produce beauties.

The recipe is simple.

The most important step... Clean your cucumbers (kirby cucumbers, about 3" long are best) and put them in a sink about 1/2 full of water. Then cover the cucumbers with ice. Lots and lots of ice. This is how you get a crisp pickle in the end!!!  Let them sit for 2 hrs MINIMUM.

I always use wide mouth jars. Put 2 cloves of garlic (halved or quartered) and a few sprigs of dill in each jar.

Make the brine. 3 cups of water, 1 cup white vinegar, 2/3 cups of coarse salt in a large pot... And get that to a good boil.

Stuff cucumbers into the jars so that the jar is full with a little space on top before the lid. I usually add more garlic and dill on top, and then fill the jars with boiling brine. I scoop it out of the pot with a 4cup measuring cup and pour it into the jars carefully so as not to mess up the rim.

I boil my snap lids to soften up the rubber edge, and then lightly screw the ring down. You don't want to go too tight so that some air can escape, and they will stick down as they cool, creating a vacuum.

Once they are cooled down, pack the jars into a box and put them in storage for 60 days. Yes, waiting is the hardest part.

They say that they'll keep for 2 years in a cool, dry place, but I have never had a jar last that long.

Simple recipe, amazing results.   Make sure you have plenty of vinegar and salt on hand if you are making lots of pickles. This recipe will fill 6 jars (1liter jars)....  When you have a manufacturing operation like my dad & I had for a few years, and we were making 100+ jars of pickles in a weekend, you go through a LOT of vinegar.

Anyone have a favorite recipe for pickling or preserving that they want to share???

[sas]

We make dills as well, but we grow our own cucumbers.
I also make pickled beans and when the kids were young
also made pickled carrots.
There is no better feeling than heading out to the garden to pick the
cucumbers, dill and garlic fresh.

[Greatwhite]

We make dills as well, but we grow our own cucumbers.
I also make pickled beans and when the kids were young
also made pickled carrots.
There is no better feeling than heading out to the garden to pick the
cucumbers, dill and garlic fresh.

Yeah, my dad's garden is HUGE and we had about 200lbs of cucumbers picked one year.  They were good, but only 10% of them looked like proper pickles.  They ended up lightbulb shaped with a hook on the end.  I suspect he wasn't planting Kirby cucumbers, and instead was just picking the cucumbers before they got too big.  Everything else was straight from the garden though!! 

My parents pickle beets, peppers, etc too.  I wish they'd pickle beans - those are amazing.

When we discovered that a case of perfect kirby cucumbers was only $25, he stopped planting so many cucumbers and used the space for more tomatoes and peppers.