Making Pickles is Easy!

In April I bought 6 cucumber plants from Roots and put them in my garden. Now it is July, and I have probably harvested 50-60 cucumbers in the last 3 weeks. The day that I came back from the garden with 12 cukes in hand, I decided it was time to find a good pickle recipe. I wanted to make pickles that would keep in the refrigerator, rather than go through the whole canning process. I had already tried one recipe, but it had contained so much vinegar and sugar that I had to pitch the whole jar. So, I decided to google “best ever dill pickles” and see what I got. The very first recipe that came up was “Grandma Rubin’s Kosher Dills.” The recipe looked easy, tasty, and it was meant for refrigerator pickles, so I decided to give it a try.

Refrigerator pickles only keep for 3-4 months, but there are several advantages to this method. 1. You don’t have to hassle with boiling water baths and the time-consuming process of canning. 2. The cucumbers don’t get boiled, which I thought would keep them crisper. 3. You don’t have to use as much vinegar as you do when canning pickles.

So, off to the store I went for apple cider vinegar, pickling spice, fresh dill, Kosher salt, fresh chili peppers, garlic, and canning jars (I still needed jars even though I wasn’t officially canning). Making these pickles was easy and fun, and I have to say, I have never never never tasted a better pickle!

Here is the recipe, so have fun!

Recipe: Grandma Rubin’s Kosher Dills

Thursday, July 31, 2008, http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08213/900733-107.stm

PG tested

If there’s no dill in your garden, substitute a tablespoon of dill seed.

2 1/2 to 3 pounds small pickling cucumbers, well scrubbed

8 cups water

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/3 cup kosher salt

2 teaspoons pickling spice (Grandma always removed the excess allspice and cloves)

1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

6 to 8 cloves garlic, peeled, brown ends trimmed

2 small fresh or dried chiles, more for jars

6 to 8 heads dill

Place cucumbers in large bowl. Cover with ice water and refrigerate 1 hour until icy-cold and crisp. Drain.

In 2-quart measuring cup, measure water. Add vinegar, salt, pickling spice and peppercorns. Stir to dissolve salt.

Put cucumbers in pickling crock or deep glass or ceramic bowl. Add garlic and 2 chiles. Pour in brine and stir to mix. Place dill on top, pressing into brine.

Place a clean, unchipped small plate on top. Press down gently to submerge cucumbers. Cover with a clean towel. Let stand at cool room temperature 2 days for barely pickled cucumbers, 3 to 4 days for more pickled ones.

Pack pickles into 4 or 5 clean pint jars. Add a garlic clove from brine and a chile to each. Ladle brine into jars, covering pickles. Discard dill and remaining brine. Cover jars and refrigerate. Pickles are ready now but will keep 2 to 3 months. Brine may become cloudy; that’s OK .

Makes 4 or 5 pints.

– Miriam Rubin

Jillian Borchard, MS, RH(AHG), Clinical Herbalist
Roots Market Resident Herbalist
jillianb@rootsmkt.com