Post by Dixie Bushcraft on May 14, 2020 19:20:50 GMT -6
Dill pickles
Pickles made with the proper brine only need to be canned in a boiling water bath. No matter what brine recipe (within guidelines) or spices you use, this canning process will work for them all. It will work for either dill or sweet pickles, but I don’t like sweet pickles and have never made them.
- A good basic spice recipe for dill pickles per quart:
1 Teaspoon of Dill Seed
½ Teaspoon of Dill Weed
½ Teaspoon of Peppercorns
1 Tablespoon of Sliced or Crushed Fresh Garlic (pressed garlic gives off more flavor if you really like it)
- Basic Brine Recipe:
The FDA recommends 50% water and 50% vinegar for safety reasons which makes things very easy. The salt content that we like is 1/3 (one third) cup of salt per half gallon of brine. So a basic and safe dill pickle brine recipe would be:
One quart of Vinegar
One quart of Distilled Water (hard water tends to shrivel pickles)
1/3 cup of salt
- Probably the most important thing to make crispy pickles is to can them as soon as possible after picking. If you wait 12 hours, they will be noticeably softer than if you pickle them within the hour. If you wait 24 hours, they will be quite soft. Letting cucumbers sit for a few days doesn't affect the safety aspect of the pickles at all, they are still safe to pickle for many days after harvest.
- The next step is extremely important and can make or break your efforts. Here again, safety is not at stake, just crunchy pickles. Cut the tip off each cucumber and allow the enzyme rich juice to leach out. This enzyme is responsible for making pickles softer if the proper heat is not reached during the canning process. I have found that removing both tips of each cucumber makes the pickles noticeably crunchier. On smaller cukes, I tend to remove only the stem tip. If you leave the cucumbers intact for any longer than 12 hours, the amount of juice and enzyme released is greatly reduced. We do this step even before cleaning the cukes. This juice is tacky to the touch and should be completely washed off the cucumbers before pickling. Picture below was taken within seconds of cutting and the juice is flowing nicely.
- Since we pick all of our cucumbers at the same time regardless of size, we sort the sizes into different jars. This helps reduce the need to leave them sitting in the fridge while more become ripe. The smallest ones go in whole and the next size up gets sliced in half. We slice the larger ones into spears and the largest into hamburger slices. This method of harvesting and pickling allows us to can all types of pickles all at the same time. Just keep the bigger ones picked while you wait for enough to make a batch. If they get too big on the vine, the vine will stop producing cucumbers.
- After you cut the ends off each cucumber, you'll need to make sure there is no dirt or grime on them. We like to use a potato brush, which works nicely. The tiny cukes are easily bruised, but the larger ones are tough enough to scrub.
- Before you start the canning process, put your spices in the bottom of the jar so they are less likely to float. Floating spices can get lodged in the seal and cause it to fail. The picture shown is of spices put in after the cukes. I didn't know how many jars I would need, so I put the spices in last.
- After they are clean and sliced to your preference, pack them into jars. You should leave a full inch of headspace for pickles because they tend to float.
- Pour the brine in over top of the cucumbers and make sure it's hot! Heat itself makes pickles soft, so the hotter the brine, the less time in the canner. Ideally, you want the cucumbers to be cool and the brine to be nearly boiling. The reason for that is so the cucumbers don't have to be held at a high temperature very long. The boil water bath canner will boil much more quickly this way, allowing you to remove them from the heat more quickly. The point isn't to cook the cukes, but to sterilize. Make sure your jars are hot before adding the boiling brine or you could easily break a jar.
- Check for air bubbles trapped under the surface of the brine. In the case of pickles or other free-floating food, a butter knife is handy to knock air bubbles loose.
- Apply lids and rings finger snug, not tight.
- Place jars into the boiling water and make sure they are covered by a minimum of 2 inches of water.
- Put a lid on the canner or pot to help hold in the heat.
- Start the timer for 10 minutes when the water comes back to a full boil.
- When the time is up, turn off the heat and wait until the water stops boiling.
- Remove the jars from the water bath and set them aside.
- The next step is unnecessary, but greatly increases the chance that your jars will seal.
- After a minute or so, tighten the lids fully to “complete” the seals. A silicone oven mitt is a good tool for this purpose.
- Place the finished jars aside at a minimum of one inch apart to cool.
Pickles made with the proper brine only need to be canned in a boiling water bath. No matter what brine recipe (within guidelines) or spices you use, this canning process will work for them all. It will work for either dill or sweet pickles, but I don’t like sweet pickles and have never made them.
- A good basic spice recipe for dill pickles per quart:
1 Teaspoon of Dill Seed
½ Teaspoon of Dill Weed
½ Teaspoon of Peppercorns
1 Tablespoon of Sliced or Crushed Fresh Garlic (pressed garlic gives off more flavor if you really like it)
- Basic Brine Recipe:
The FDA recommends 50% water and 50% vinegar for safety reasons which makes things very easy. The salt content that we like is 1/3 (one third) cup of salt per half gallon of brine. So a basic and safe dill pickle brine recipe would be:
One quart of Vinegar
One quart of Distilled Water (hard water tends to shrivel pickles)
1/3 cup of salt
- Probably the most important thing to make crispy pickles is to can them as soon as possible after picking. If you wait 12 hours, they will be noticeably softer than if you pickle them within the hour. If you wait 24 hours, they will be quite soft. Letting cucumbers sit for a few days doesn't affect the safety aspect of the pickles at all, they are still safe to pickle for many days after harvest.
- The next step is extremely important and can make or break your efforts. Here again, safety is not at stake, just crunchy pickles. Cut the tip off each cucumber and allow the enzyme rich juice to leach out. This enzyme is responsible for making pickles softer if the proper heat is not reached during the canning process. I have found that removing both tips of each cucumber makes the pickles noticeably crunchier. On smaller cukes, I tend to remove only the stem tip. If you leave the cucumbers intact for any longer than 12 hours, the amount of juice and enzyme released is greatly reduced. We do this step even before cleaning the cukes. This juice is tacky to the touch and should be completely washed off the cucumbers before pickling. Picture below was taken within seconds of cutting and the juice is flowing nicely.
- Since we pick all of our cucumbers at the same time regardless of size, we sort the sizes into different jars. This helps reduce the need to leave them sitting in the fridge while more become ripe. The smallest ones go in whole and the next size up gets sliced in half. We slice the larger ones into spears and the largest into hamburger slices. This method of harvesting and pickling allows us to can all types of pickles all at the same time. Just keep the bigger ones picked while you wait for enough to make a batch. If they get too big on the vine, the vine will stop producing cucumbers.
- After you cut the ends off each cucumber, you'll need to make sure there is no dirt or grime on them. We like to use a potato brush, which works nicely. The tiny cukes are easily bruised, but the larger ones are tough enough to scrub.
- Before you start the canning process, put your spices in the bottom of the jar so they are less likely to float. Floating spices can get lodged in the seal and cause it to fail. The picture shown is of spices put in after the cukes. I didn't know how many jars I would need, so I put the spices in last.
- After they are clean and sliced to your preference, pack them into jars. You should leave a full inch of headspace for pickles because they tend to float.
- Pour the brine in over top of the cucumbers and make sure it's hot! Heat itself makes pickles soft, so the hotter the brine, the less time in the canner. Ideally, you want the cucumbers to be cool and the brine to be nearly boiling. The reason for that is so the cucumbers don't have to be held at a high temperature very long. The boil water bath canner will boil much more quickly this way, allowing you to remove them from the heat more quickly. The point isn't to cook the cukes, but to sterilize. Make sure your jars are hot before adding the boiling brine or you could easily break a jar.
- Check for air bubbles trapped under the surface of the brine. In the case of pickles or other free-floating food, a butter knife is handy to knock air bubbles loose.
- Apply lids and rings finger snug, not tight.
- Place jars into the boiling water and make sure they are covered by a minimum of 2 inches of water.
- Put a lid on the canner or pot to help hold in the heat.
- Start the timer for 10 minutes when the water comes back to a full boil.
- When the time is up, turn off the heat and wait until the water stops boiling.
- Remove the jars from the water bath and set them aside.
- The next step is unnecessary, but greatly increases the chance that your jars will seal.
- After a minute or so, tighten the lids fully to “complete” the seals. A silicone oven mitt is a good tool for this purpose.
- Place the finished jars aside at a minimum of one inch apart to cool.