by Katherine Born

Created on: August 19, 2009

Being a so-called "city kid" I was not prepared for my first tast of a homemade dill pickle. I was not a big pickle fan, but when I discovered what pickles are supposed to taste like, I was amazed! Now I laugh when I read pickle labels that say "Canned just 7 days after picking!" - like that's supposed to sound good? If you make your own pickles you can have them ready in a day!

This dill pickle recipe is in the Mennonite tradition. Feel free to adjust the recipe if you like a more sour, less sweet pickle - I've added suggested changes in italics. Making homemade pickles may seem complicated, but it's not. Basically, you put small cucumbers into a glass jar and fill with brine and then boil them 'til they're sealed and ready to store. Anyone can do it, and the results are well worth the time!

Ingredients:

A peck o' pickling cucumbers (I actually have no idea how many that is, just stuff jars until you run out of jars!)

12 cups water

3 cups vinegar

3/4 cup pickling salt (do not substitute regular salt! You'll get dark cloudy pickles!) or 1/2 c. salt

2 cups sugar or 3/4 c. sugar

dill - several clumps of flowers and leaves

garlic cloves (optional)

sliced onions and peppers (optional)

pickling spices (optional - see this recipe link if you want) - I usually use mustard and coriander seeds

Directions:

Sterilize your canning jars by heating them for 10 min. in a 250 F oven or by boiling. Put the lids in a saucepan and set aside for later.

Mix the water, vinegar, salt and sugar together in a large pot and heat it to a boil. This is called the brine. Also bring another large saucepan full of water to boiling. If you're using pickling spices you can put it into the brine in a mesh or metal container (if it isn't already in a tea bag), or you can add it directly to the pickle jars.
To be extra careful, cut off the "blossom end" of the cucumbers, but leave a little bit of stem on.

Once the jars have cooled, start stuffing! You can put the garlic, onions, spices, etc in the bottom of the jar and cover them with cukes or wait til you've stuffed the jar with cukes and put them at the top. I've tried both ways and prefer putting them in first, but you choose which you like.
Starting with the larger cucumbers (whole, but you could slice them if you want), make a circular layer on the bottom of the jar. Stuff more and more until you simply can't fit another one in. My mother-in-law stuffed my first jars and I couldn't believe how many cucumbers she got into there! Remember that

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>