My Favorite Quick Pickles
August is here, and the garden is officially bursting with delicious vegetables! After what felt like the longest wait ever, we are finally bringing in bright and colorful produce each day. We grow excess vegetables each year with the specific intention to can them for winter storage. This year, I planted lots of pickling cucumbers and green beans. That means we have the option for lots of pickles!
While I love long term shelf storage for most of my food, which typically means I will hot water bath can or pressure can my produce, I am not always a big fan of the results from hot water bath canning pickles. This has always been a big hit or miss for me, so I decided this year to try my best to figure out what I could do differently to produce a firm and crunchy pickle to enjoy even in the depths of winter. In this post, I share the brine recipe that I use as well as some tips for super crunchy pickles. I have honestly been enjoying refrigerator pickles this year more than anything! They are so easy to throw together and the results happen almost instantly. We do not eat that many pickles in our family, so this makes for a great way to enjoy pickling while also not having the pressure to make pints and pints worth of them.
ingredients & recipe:
MAKES ABOUT 8 PINTS OF PICKLES:
6 lbs pickling cucumbers, cut any style
3 cups water
4 cups distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup pickling salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
16 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tbsp mustard seed
8 bay leaves
16 dill flower heads
Ball® Pickle Crisp
DIRECTIONS:
Clean and sanitize jars, lids, and rings. If canning, prepare your hot water bath canner.
Wash and trim both ends off the cucumbers, about 1/8-inch. Place the cucumbers in an ice water bath and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. I personally think 3 hours is best! Slice the cucumbers any way that you prefer for pickling, such as leaving them whole, slicing thickly or thinly, spears, etc.
In a large saucepan, combine the water, vinegar, pickling salt, and sugar. Whisk until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Bring to a boil and turn off heat, if pickling in the refrigerator. If you are canning the pickles, keep the brine at a simmer.
Fill each clean jar with 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp mustard seed, 1 bay leaf, 2 dill flower heads, and 1/8 tsp Ball® pickle crisp. Fill the jars with the prepared cucumbers leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Cover the cucumbers with the brine to 1/2-inch headspace, removing air bubbles, and adjust headspace as necessary. Apply lids and rings to fingertip tight.
If you are refrigerating, place the pickles into the refrigerator and store for about 2 months. Check pickles daily for flavoring. Peak flavor is usually about 1-2 weeks after making the pickles, and then they get softer as time goes on.
If you are canning these pickles, you should fill each jar individually to make sure the jars remain hot. Once all jars are filled, process the jars in the canner for 15 minutes. Remove the canner lid and let the jars stand in the canner for 5 minutes before removing. Check seals after 12-24 hours. Store in a dark space for up to 18 months.
tips for crunchy pickles:
Soak Pickles in an Ice Bath. This is best done for several hours, but at the least 1 hour is good enough. You can let these soak on the counter and continually add new ice or leave them floating in the fridge. This keep the cucumbers cold and crisp before pickling. I like to keep them in the ice water and cut them as I can them so that they remain cold as long as possible!
24 Hours Vine to Brine. When it comes to making super crisp and crunchy pickles, the fresher the better. This can be difficult if you do not grow cucumbers yourself! There is an old saying that goes, “24 hours from vine to brine” and that really rings true here. Cucumbers should really pickled the same day that they are picked, if possible. Because cucumbers are mostly made up of water, they begin to lose their firmness as soon as they are off the vine. If you cannot get to them that quickly, then make sure to give the ice bath trick a try. I also like to use older cucumbers for bread and butter pickles since they don’t necessarily need to be super crunchy!
Cut Off Blossom Ends. The blossom end of the cucumber, or the narrower end if you did not pick them yourself, can make the pickle go limp in the brine. It’s best to cut this off. If you are unsure which end is the blossom end, then just trim off both ends about 1/8-inch.
Add Grape Leaves. Grape leaves and oak leaves have tannins that help keep the cucumbers firm in the brine. Adding a couple of grape leaves to your jar will naturally improve the crispness of your pickles and give it a really good crunch! This is typically done when fermenting pickles in water.
Use Ball® Pickle Crisp. I love this stuff! It’s simply calcium chloride that helps to improve the quality and crunch of your pickles. I prefer using this over a pickling lime, which is generally not recommended for modern pickling anymore as it has the potential to be dangerous. SHOP PICKLE CRISP HERE.
So far we have been loving the refrigerator pickles the most! Which do you prefer? I love that we can make both options; some to enjoy now and some to enjoy later into the winter and spring months. I have been chopping my pickles super chunky. I noticed they were being sold at a little roadside cart this way, and I thought it was just so old-fashioned and rustic looking!
In all, pickle making is really personal. My recipe is based off of the Ball® Kosher Dill Pickles, though most recipes are the same across the board. The amount of garlic, dill, and other flavorings are up to you! If you are canning, the general rule of thumb is 1:1 ratio of vinegar to water for safely canning pickles at the appropriate acid levels. I would always suggest using an FDA approved canning recipe, if possible. But if you decide to use an unapproved recipe (mine is not!) then know that there is more risk to your canning process and potentially having the recipe go bad, which could cause botulism. Know the signs, and when in doubt - throw it out!
Have you made pickles yet this year?
xoxo Kayla
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