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How to make pickles

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One writer's tips on how to make pickles and pickle recipes.

How to make pickles

When I planned my garden this year, I abandoned my plans for fresh green beans in favor of cucumbers. My kids love pickles, so growing them would be a fun way to show them how one of their favorite foods develops. Genius, right?

One problem: Before this summer, I had never actually made pickles. The whole experience was new and foreign. Six cucumber plants went into the ground ready to bear fruit…and bear they did. We’re now three weeks into pickling. Weekly pickling.

Freezer pickles

The first week’s haul yielded enough cucumbers to try a recipe for freezer pickles found in the Gardeners’ Community Cookbook. The recipe was super easy: slice the cucumbers; layer them in quart freezer containers; top with dill and garlic; cover them with a simple pickling juice; then freeze them. When it’s time to eat, defrost and enjoy.

The whole experience was so easy (and the results so tasty) that it felt totally foolproof. And that meant time for the real pickling.

Dill pickles

Next I made dill pickles with another recipe from the Gardeners’ Community Cookbook. These pickles are canned so the process takes a little longer and has some added steps.

To start, all of the quart canning jars need to be sterilized in a hot water bath. This takes a while because of the volume of water necessary to make it happen for six quarts.

Also, the brining liquid is cooked on the stove. Once finished with those steps, the cucumbers are packed into the containers, seasonings are added and they are covered with brining liquid. Then, they were sealed and processed in boiling water. Once processed, the jars are removed to cool and the lids tightened (once cooled!).

All in all, it was pretty easy, too.

3 Things I learned about making pickles:

  1. To speed up the creation of sliced pickles, use a food processor with a slicing attachment.
  2. If the cucumber slices are too fat to fit many in a jar, cut them in half -- that way you can cram in a lot more.
  3. Always wipe the rim before closing a quart jar for canning -- even if you don’t see anything there.

Pickle recipes from FabulousFoods


 



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