Wednesday, July 21, 2010

24 Hour Dill Pickles

I have a friend with a green thumb. I don't know about all of you, but my thumb is about as green as an overripe banana. My friend on the other hand has an overwhelmingly abundant garden with several kinds of lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles, squash, a ton of herbs and probably a ton of other things I can't even keep track of. So when she called me to make pickles I rushed right over. She had a recipe for sweet pickles that need to sit for a month to mature, but once we had those bottled we got restless. "But I want something now! All this work and nothing to taste, what gives?" So we went out back and using my tiny little key chain flash light (it was dark by then and I was not patient enough to wait for her to find an actual flash light) I filled up my shirt with about a dozen more beautiful pickles. We snipped off some dill growing nearby and headed back in. I hopped online and found this recipe


Dill Pickles

24 Hour Refrigerator Dill Pickles
via Liska

4 cups water
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
2 tbsps kosher salt
1 tsp white sugar
5 or 6 pickling cucumbers cut into quarters
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp allspice seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp celery seeds (we didn't have any and it came out just fine without)
8 medium cloves garlic, cut into long thin pieces
6 large sprigs of fresh dill

In a small non-reactive pan, bring water, vinegar, salt, and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Place pepper, allspice, mustard, and celery seeds in the bottom of two clean quart-size ball jars or one great big half liter jar like I did. Pack cucumbers in tightly, the more you pack in, the more you'll have in the end. Drop garlic pieces into the jar around and between cucumbers.

Dill Pickle Jar

Carefully pour your brine over your cucumbers, being sure to cover them completely (you should have approx. 4 cups brine after boiling and cooling and you’ll probably have a little left over), and place dill sprigs on the top of the jar before sealing very well. Turn and shake jar until seeds have distributed throughout the brine. Place in refrigerator for at least 24 hours.
Try not to sneak any out of the jar early, but after the 24 hours...yum! Pickles! Take THAT Claussen!

14 comments:

Joy said...

Oh I understand the impatience. Did you save me a jar?

Anonymous said...

I'm so excited that you liked them! :) Thanks for linking to my blog! :)

Anonymous said...

I'm so excited that you liked them! :) Thanks for linking to my blog! :)

Marie said...

I just finished making these and put the jars in the fridge- now! Can I wait 24 entire hours before I try one? We'll see!

Anna said...

Joy, do you even like pickles? If you want, I'll make you more. I'll be making more for me anyhow.

Liska, absolutely! The recipe came out great, thank YOU for sharing it.

Marie, they are definitely worth the wait, I promise. I've been stealing spears from the jar all week. Yum!

scrambledhenfruit said...

These look easy and delicious! I love a cold dill pickle with a sandwich in the summer. (And cucumbers are so plentiful this time of year.)Thanks for sharing :)

Abby said...

What a cute blog! Followed your link from Giver's Log. (You need photography lessons? Pshaw.) My grandmother always made dill and grapelead pickles - the best. I miss them!

Chef Dennis Littley said...

my wife loves pickles, what a great way to make your own and use some of this great produce we have!!! Now I just need to buy some jars! thanks so much for sharing!!

Laetitia said...

Home made pickles ... with dill... my favourites! your photos are to die for!

Carol said...

Can't wait to try these! I'm sure we will eat them in a hurry, but with so many cucumbers being ready right now, I'd like to make up several batches. Do you know how long they might keep in the frig?

Anna said...

That's a good question, but unfortunately they go so fast in my house that I can't really give you a max time. They aren't completely "canned" so I don't think they'll last longer then a month, but I'd say just use your judgement and don't eat them if you see the brine getting cloudy or odd discoloration on the pickles. The garlic might turn colors, but that shouldn't be a problem. Hope that helps.

Erin said...

Oh... my... gosh! These turned out soooo well! So tasty, and so much better than store-bought pickles! I've never tried making them before, and I've already been through a jar of them! So yummy, I am definitely saving this recipe!

Carol said...

I made a batch and wow - love them! So easy and I can hardly believe how much flavor the cucumbers absorbed in just 24 hours! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I'll be passing it on. :)

Kaylee said...

Can these be made shelf stable? They are sooooo yummy!