Because You Need These Pickles
Monday, July 4, 2011 at 12:00PM Happy 4th of July! I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful day spent with family, friends, and tasty BBQ.
In honor of the holiday, I'm going to post a recipe that you need. Yes, need. If you're a pickle-lover, make these pickles right away. You'll never buy lamesauce storebought pickles again! It's so easy - I knock out six jars in under 15 minutes, and they keep in the fridge until you've eaten them all. Cheaper than storebought, too.
Mmm delicious...
OK, let's get to pickling...
PANTOMIME PICKLES
*Pickling is not one of those things where there are exact measurements - you're going to have to access your loosey goosey free-and-easy side. It's not baking - you won't ruin anything! Also, this is not a tutorial in canning. I just stick mine in the fridge. They last a long time, but I also eat a lot of pickles. :)
Ingredients:
- Fresh dill pickles (labelled as such at your grocery store in the produce section - I buy mine from my neighborhood mom-n-pop produce stand.)
- Multiple glass jars (I like quart-size Masons)
- 3 cups distilled white vinegar
- 3 cups water
- 2T + 2tsp sea salt
- 2T sugar
- Fresh dill (just buy a package, enough to drop @3 sticks/spears/sprigs into each jar)
- Pickling spice (enough to drop about a tsp into each jar)
- Mustard seed (enough to drop about a tsp into each jar)
- Fresh garlic, sliced (enough to drop about 1-3 sliced cloves into each jar)
Instructions:
- Make sure your glass jars are squeaky clean.
- Cut your dill pickles into either spears or slices and distribute them into your jars.
- In each jar, place 3 sticks of dill, a tsp of pickling spices, a tsp of mustard seed, and then 1-3 sliced garlic cloves. Use your discretion as to how much you want in there - my numbers are just a guideline.
- Make your brine! In a large pot, stir together your vinegar, water, sea salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil and make sure the sugar and salt is dissolved into the mixture. Let it boil for about 2 minutes, then remove from heat.
- While still hot, fill your jars with the brine! Be careful not to overflow, but make sure the pickles are covered completely with the brine.
- Allow the jars to cool until it's ok to cap 'em, then stick them in the fridge!
The pickles will start to taste pickly 24 hours later, but I like to give mine 72 hours for them to reach full flavor.
Enjoy!
Reader Comments (2)
Mmmm, sounds delicious! I love pickles!
Yay for pickles! We have a crazy producing cucumber plant and have been taking the water bath canning approach to pickling thus far...and I hate the 3 week wait all these recipes have called for. This weekend we attempted a batch that uses fresh lemon juice instead of dill, and I'm not sure how I feel about that switch-up. I will be giving this one a try this week!