Buying fresh, organic ingredients is the first step to delicious sour dill pickles.
Sour Pickles Recipe:
At the market, buy the following ingredients:
- Pickling cucumbers
- White vinegar
- Purified water
- Measuring cup
- Garlic
- Mustard seed
- Celery seed
- Fennel
- Sea salt
- Black pepper
- Mason Jar or other large glass container
- Medium sized pot
Note: For one jar of pickles, buy six to ten small pickling cucumbers. Large waxy cucumbers will not work, so wait to make this recipe until the right cucumbers are available. One clove garlic, and two bunches of fresh dill. One small jar of each of the additional herbs and spices will suffice. Buy one large container of plain white vinegar, and have several cups purified water on hand.
Directions:
- Wash and slice the cucumbers however you want your pickles to look. Sprinkle the slices with salt and place in a large bowl of ice water. Leave on the counter for two hours, pouring out the water and adding ice as it melts. This process makes the pickles crunchy.
- To hours later, rinse the jar, set it inside the clean sink. You will be pouring boiling liquid into it soon, so the sink is the safest place to keep it.
- Rinse the dill, chop off the roots, and dice it into one to two inch pieces. Fit the chopped dill inside the jar.
- Measure equal parts water and white vinegar, and pour both into the soup pot. The amounts you use depends on the size of the pot, but for a normal mason jar, you can start with two cups of each. Turn the burner on to medium heat.
- Slice the garlic into thin circles. Place the garlic in the jar.
- Bring the pot to a rolling boil, and add one tablespoon each celery seed and mustard seed. Add a sprinkle each of black pepper and fennel.
- Place the cucumber slices in the jar.
- Stir the pot and return to a boil.
- Turn off burner and pour steaming contents of pot into jar. Allow the steam to escape for twenty-thirty minutes, or until jar is not longer too hot to touch. Cover the jar and place in the refrigerator. Wait six weeks.
- Enjoy!
Tips:
You can eat these pickles before six weeks have passed, but if you wait they will reach their maximum potential. The pickles can keep up to a year, but they won’t last that long! This recipe for Grandma's sour dill pickles never gets old, and a jar or two f these pickles makes a terrific homemade holiday or birthday gift.
Make several jars at a time to save time and ingredients.
The boiling vinegar and water mixture will have a strong smell. Open all the kitchen windows while preparing these pickles.
Eva Gordon - Eva Sage Gordon
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