Classic Dill Pickles

Ingredients:

  • 3-4 lbs small pickling cucumbers
  • 2 cups vinegar
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 Tbsp pickling salt
  • 8 heads dill
  • 8 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 2 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1 tsp peppercorns
  • 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes

Directions:

Prepare Cucumbers

  • Wash and scrub lightly with a soft brush.
  • Cut a thin slice from blossom ends to help prevent softening.
  • Cut wide cucumbers into quarters lengthwise and long cucumbers so they fit in jars.
  • Place in ice water bath while preparing everything else or up to 8 hours.

Prepare Canner & Jars

  • Fill large pot or canner with water so that jars will be covered by 1″ of water.
  • Check jars for cracks, wash with warm soapy water, rinse well and place in canner.
  • Heat jars in canner (no need to sterilize as final processing will be longer than 10 minutes).

Prepare Brine

  • In medium size pot, combine vinegar, water and pickling salt. Bring to boil and simmer five minutes until salt is dissolved.

Fill Jars

  • Remove hot jars from canner.
  • Place 2 dill heads, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1/4 tsp peppercorns and 1/8 tsp hot pepper flakes into each jar.
  • Tightly pack cucumbers into jars to within 3/4 inch of rim.
  • Add hot vinegar brine to cover cucumbers. Use a plastic utensil to remove any air bubbles and add more brine, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
  • Wipe rim with clean cloth and seal with hot sealing lid. Screw band on top and tighten finger tight.
  • Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes for pint (500 mL) jars or 15 minutes for quart (1 L) jars.
  • Makes 4 pint (500 mL) jars or 2 quart (1 L) jars
  • Processing time from National Center for Home Food Preservation. Remember to adjust cooking times if you’re at altitudes higher than 1000 ft (306 m) above sea level.

Notes

Allow pickles to mellow for 4 weeks before eating. Heat processed, sealed pickle jars will last for years, but for best flavor and texture use within 1 year. Once opened, store in fridge for six months up to 1 year. Optional: Add 2 to 3 Tablespoons of sugar to cut the acidity of the vinegar without turning these into sweet pickles.

You can use this recipe for pickling Jalapeno’s, Ghost Peppers, Anaheim peppers, Pepperoncini, etc. For most hot peppers, wash and slice the peppers before putting in the jars. For Pepperoncini, leave them whole but put small cuts in the peppers to allow the brine to get into the peppers. Ghost peppers could be kept whole as well.

Original recipe can be found here: Getty Stewart