Mom's Dill Pickles

On Friday we made some dill pickles from a half bushel of pickling sized cukes bought fresh at McCully's Farm. Most years I make dill pickles inspired by my memories of my mom making them when I was a child. I like them a lot as do a lot of friends and family. My version is sort of a Polski Olgorki (lots of garlic which my mom would never use) with jalapeno (again mother would never use) for a bit of a kick. Many times people have asked for my recipe, I'll share what I do here:

My Dill Pickle Recipe

There’s no secret to my pickles. They’re pretty much the same as what my mother made but spiced up a bit. I like lots of garlic and a bit of heat from jalapenos. These are what they call cold pack pickles — the other style (which Kate prefers and which I do not make) is fermented. It basically calls for packing a jar with cucumbers, dill, etc.; pouring a hot brine over that; then canning in a boiling water bath. Fresh ingredients are important, don’t skimp.

A half bushel of cukes makes about 21 quart jars of dill pickles.

Pickling Brine

The basic ratio is 3 cups water, 3 cups white vinegar, and 1/3 cup pickling salt. Double that, smash a head of garlic into it and bring to a boil. Any brine you don’t use can be put in a jar and stored in the fridge to be used the next time (bring to boil). You can use this to pickle jalapenos, beans, etc. 

A quart jar packed will require 2 cups of brine.

Sterilizing Jars and Lids

Use the 1 quart or larger canning jars that take the tin snap lids. I’ve had bad luck with the old style "Mason" jars from my mom’s era. Use new snap lids (you can reuse the outer ring but not the snap lid)! Wash jars and lids thoroughly with soap and water (you could use your dish washer but that takes too long) then sterilize them for several minutes in or over boiling water. You’ll need a “canner” for this — basically a big pot, with a lid and a wire lift out base so the jars don’t touch the bottom (you can use the wire racks you have for cooling your pastry). This has got to be big enough that your jars fit comfortably and can be covered by the lid.

Cold Packing the Jars

Add a half tsp or so of pepper corns, a smashed garlic clove or two or three, one half a jalapeno (or half tsp or so of chili flakes), a grape leaf (find some wild grapes or raid a neighbor), a dill stalk and stuff the jar with as many well scrubbed pickling cukes as will fit. Feel free to cut some to make small bits to fill the top and to halve some to fill the voids. Feel free to add some jalapeno slices, more dill, more garlic, more chili flakes, or dill seeds to top it up and pretty it up for when it’s opened.

Note: People use alum instead of grape leaf to add some pucker. Try ¼ tsp per jar (I haven’t done that in years as wild grapes are common and we have a grape arbor). A tbsp or so of dill seed could be used if you can’t get dill weed. Chili flakes or other hot peppers will work.

A friend suggested I add a teaspoon of sugar to each quart jar. I've tried that and didn't see an appreciable difference.

Canning/Cooking

In your canner you should have enough boiling water to come up ½ way on the jars when they’re filled and put into the water. I don’t want to immerse the jars in boiling water and I want to do more than just steam them. Make sure you have a wire rack on the bottom so the jars aren't in direct contact with the heat source else the jars may crack.

Fill jars with hot brine leaving some space (say ½ inch or so); don’t over fill. Add lids and tighten snuggly; but don’t crank them down! If the lids are too tight the jar can break from the internal pressure. Add filled jars to your canner and let them cook in a boiling water bath until the fresh green disappears. That’s likely to be around 20 minutes for a quart jar. You don’t want to over cook, that would make them mushy. You don’t want to under cook, that might be dangerous. Lift out the hot jars when done and now you can tighten the lids down. Leave them on the counter to cool.

Lids will pop as they cool. Any that don’t (that would be extremely rare) should be put in the fridge to eat right away. Store away now to use over the coming year. Makes perfect Xmas presents.

See also "The Joy of Cooking".