Pickles

[Worth1]

2 cups water 2 cups 5% vinegar 1/2 to 1cup pickling salt 1/8 cup sugar and too many dried hot peppers.
Put in kettle and bring to boil.
Pack cucumber spears in jar with hot peppers from the brine and a teaspoon of garlic powder in each pint jar.
Pour hot brine over cucumbers and put the lids and rings on and let seal.

These things keep great in the fridge or outside.
And they are very crispy.
I dont hot water bath them because it ruins them.
Your choice I keep mine in the fridge.
But have no problem letting one stay out.
It is simple easy and no matter how much you make just remember the ratio not the amount.
Worth

[Patihum]

Like Worth said -you HAVE to watch the ratio (vegies, sugar, vinegar) in any pickle recipe to keep them safe to eat.
Tweaking the spices is not a problem.

I'm saving Worth's recipe for sure!

[coronabarb]

As long as the vinegar (must be 5% and not homemade) and water are 1:1 ratio or stronger (for quick pickles), you will be fine. Sugar has no effect other than taste.

[Nematode]

Worth,
How long those pickles keep?

[luigiwu]

German Dill Pickles Recipe
http://homesteadwannabes.blogspot.co...le-recipe.html

For one quart jar you'll need:

3 slices onion
3 slices green pepper
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1 clove of garlic (we like to put at least 4 cloves in every jar)
1 small dried hot red pepper (more or less depending on how hot you want it)
1 head fresh dill (or 1 Tbl dry dill seeds)
pickling cukes (as many as you can stuff in the jar)

Pack in jars. Put 2 onion rings, 2 green pepper rings, half the garlic, half the pepper, all the spices on the bottom. Pack with pickling cukes. Top with 1 onion ring, 1 green pepper ring, half the garlic and half the pepper.

Brine/Boil:
16cups or 4 quarts water and
4 cups or 1 quart apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cup pickling salt (the original recipe is really salty, so we like to cut the salt down to 1 cup)

Pour into jars leaving adequate head space. Heat in canner for 10 minutes. Do not boil! Let pickles sit for at least six weeks before opening.

Rough estimate of how much ingredients you'll need for 25 lbs of cukes:
1 gallon apple cider vinegar
1 box of pickling salt
1 pkg bay leaves
6 green peppers
6 onions
1 box/sack mustard seed
1 to 2 dill fresh stalks
6 heads garlic
1 to 2 packages of dried hot red peppers

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Nematode

Worth,
How long those pickles keep?

I just ate the last of one batch that was a year old I had in the fridge.
No difference between them and the new ones.
Proper sanitation is the trick.
I use hot bleach water to clean my jars.
Worth

[peebee]

Worth, is the reason you use garlic powder instead of a clove because it will stay fresh longer? I don't use powder if I can use the fresh. Somehow my tastebuds just reject the powder, I can taste it in any food I eat that contains it. But I can tolerate fresh (although I prefer cooked).

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by peebee

Worth, is the reason you use garlic powder instead of a clove because it will stay fresh longer? I don't use powder if I can use the fresh. Somehow my tastebuds just reject the powder, I can taste it in any food I eat that contains it. But I can tolerate fresh (although I prefer cooked).

I use what is in the house and I didn't have any fresh cloves.
when I make sausage I always use powders.
The salt and sugar are to taste so if you dont like the brine you won't like tbe pickles.
Adjust to taste.
Worth

[Mark0820]

Zesty dill pickles

1 to 1 ratio of water to white distilled vinegar (5%)

3 tbsp of kosher salt per 5 cups of water/vinegar solution

fresh sprigs of dill or 1 - 2 tsp. of dill seeds per quart (I've used both the sprigs and dill seed, and I can't tell the difference.)

4 serrano peppers (a small slit on each side) per quart jar

Like Worth, I let the boiling brine seal the lids, and never use a water bath.

[BlackBear]

Does anyone here have some real on the ground experience with

the Russian style of Tomato Pickles to preserve.........I will look into this more ..

But I think it is a style of pickling in which Large containers can be used....2-4+ quarts and large tomato pickles are preserved (often with other herbs and "end of the garden" produce ) by the salt/sugar method of pickling .

unlike the common vinegar brine method I think this method only preserves 2-3 months ??

it sounds interesting to me ....I would like to get some advise or recipes from this from "real experience " .....not just internet recipes.

I think this is an interesting option to keep produce over some of the winter months .

If it is not a great idea ...I want to know also .

[linuxmoose]

I've been making excellent dill pickles for years with a recipe that was passed down for ages, but it doesn't call for processing in a water bath canner, so I know that it technically is not considered safe by modern standards. Without processing, the pickles are very crisp. The recipe makes them in quart jars, so I looked through some pickling recipes, and noted that most of them call for processing quarts of pickles for 15 minutes in a water bath. I made my recipe exactly as before, but processed them for 15 minutes. I got what I feared would happen - mushy pickles. The recipe is posted below. Can any people who successfully make pickles look over it, suggest anything I could be doing wrong, or suggest a similar recipe that would be safe. Or...should I just keep making them the way I have been (fill the packed jars with boiling brine and seal, and hope I don't get poisoned ).

Recipe:
Pack washed pickling cucumbers into quart jars.
Add to each jar 2 pods of hot pepper, 4 pods of garlic, and 1 teaspoon dill seed.
Mix 1 quart vinegar, 2 quarts water, 3/4 cup pickling salt, and one tablespoon alum and bring to a boil.
Pour boiling brine mixture into jars, seal, and don't open for two months.
Makes approximately 5 quarts

I'm using small and firm pickling cucumbers, but when I process this for 15 minutes, I get mushy pickles. Should I:
1. Shorten processing time
2. Make some change to the recipe
3. Just do it the way I always have, and hope no one gets poisoned

Is 2 to 1 water to vinegar acidic enough to be safe?

Help!
Thanks.
Allen B.

[Zana]

Hi Allen,

Are you packing into hot sterilised jars?

Personally I would skip the alum, as I find it always leads to mushy pickles and a bit of a metallic taste. I also use more pickling/kosher salt than 3/4 cup with that volume of brine.

What is the acidity level of the vinegar that you are using? It may not be high enough, even with that ratio of vinegar to water.

And just a personal thing - which I know is not necessarily what some of the powers that be want posted, if the jars seal cleanly, I don't water bath process them. In close to 50 years of pickling, I've yet to make anybody sick with that method...although I'll pitch anything that even remotely looks or smells dodgy.

[linuxmoose]

Zana,
Yes, I'm packing into sterilized jars that are still hot from coming out of the canner. I'm using 5% vinegar. What ratio of water to vinegar to you use?
Thanks!

[feldon30]

Do them the way they've been done for 100 years with no trouble:

Hot pickles into hot jars with hot lids and rings, with everything having boiled at least once and everything kept hot and clean and wiped down until you're done.

The new methods are designed to be lawyerproof for people who cannot follow directions and forget to wipe the rim or cross-contaminate or don't have everything boiling or fail to measure things right or disturb/jostle the jars before they've sealed or otherwise they just plain don't follow the recipe!

I'm fairly new to canning but I am extremely meticulous/fastidious about having everything clean and boiling. I follow the Ball Blue Book recipe to a T and I've done two batches of Bread and Butter pickles, one batch of Sweet Lime pickles, and two batches of Blueberry Preserves and everything came out perfect. The lids all popped within a few minutes.

If you really want to do the "super safe" processing, then you can buy Pickle Crisp from Ball (green jar) which is what all major manufacturers use. You add like 1/4 tsp of calcium chloride powder per jar and it firms up the pickles.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by linuxmoose

I've been making excellent dill pickles for years with a recipe that was passed down for ages, but it doesn't call for processing in a water bath canner, so I know that it technically is not considered safe by modern standards. Without processing, the pickles are very crisp. The recipe makes them in quart jars, so I looked through some pickling recipes, and noted that most of them call for processing quarts of pickles for 15 minutes in a water bath. I made my recipe exactly as before, but processed them for 15 minutes. I got what I feared would happen - mushy pickles. The recipe is posted below. Can any people who successfully make pickles look over it, suggest anything I could be doing wrong, or suggest a similar recipe that would be safe. Or...should I just keep making them the way I have been (fill the packed jars with boiling brine and seal, and hope I don't get poisoned ).

Recipe:
Pack washed pickling cucumbers into quart jars.
Add to each jar 2 pods of hot pepper, 4 pods of garlic, and 1 teaspoon dill seed.
Mix 1 quart vinegar, 2 quarts water, 3/4 cup pickling salt, and one tablespoon alum and bring to a boil.
Pour boiling brine mixture into jars, seal, and don't open for two months.
Makes approximately 5 quarts
I don't think that is enough vinegar to be safe. I think it needs to be 50/50 or more vinegar.
I'm using small and firm pickling cucumbers, but when I process roximately 5 quarts
I'm using small and firm pickling cucumbersI process this for 15 minutes, I get mushy pickles. Should I: for 15 minutes, I get mushy pickles. Should I:
1. Shorten processing time
2. Make some change to the recipe
3. Just do it the way I always have, and hope no one gets poisoned

Is 2 to 1 water to vinegar acidic enough to be safe?

Help!
Thanks.
Allen B.

It needs 50/50 to be considered safe. The pickle crisp really works.