Cucumber – Fresh Refrigerator Pickles
Fresh refrigerator pickles are one of summer’s most perfect foods. You can grow your own cucumbers to have exactly the variety you like best, then make them in small batches to avoid stockpiling cukes for a larger batch; less fresh cucumbers don’t improve when they are made into pickles. Pickling uses vinegar as the acid to anaerobically ferment foods; it produces lactic acid from the sugar in the fruit or vegetable itself. The result is a vinegary garlicy dill crisp delight a few days after you make them, and they keep for a few weeks, if they last that long.
The difference between fresh and processed (cooked) cucumber pickles is that the cooked pickles last for months or years in the pantry and aren’t as crisp due to the heat of processing.
There are many things to add to pickles, and in this recipe you can use your home grown garlic and dill. The salt used should be a pickling variety, that has no iodine. These pickles can keep for many weeks but will get stronger and eventually softer. Fresh (fermented) pickles don’t need products like Pickle Crisp.
Garlic Dill Refrigerator Pickles
Yield: a small batch (3 pints all at once or one jar at a time)
Ingredients
2 pounds pickle cucmbers (Kirby, Persian, etc.)
Brine
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups water (distilled or tap)
2 tablespoons pickling salt
Jar spices
6 cloves peeled garlic (two per jar)
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (1/4 teaspoon per jar) (optional)
3 teaspoons dill seed (1 teaspoon per jar)
1 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns (1/2 teaspoon per jar)
Instructions
Wash and cut up cucumbers (cut 1/4 inch off of the flower end)
In a saucepan combine vinegar, water, and salt and bring brine to a simmer.
Prepare the pint jars needed (you can do this one jar at a time if you don’t have many cucumbers) and measure in the spices and garlic cloves. Carefully add the cucumber spears or slices, don’t damage them but pack them tightly.
Pour the hot brine into the jar, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Tap or jiggle to release any bubbles trapped in the jars, then put on the lids. The jars should cool to room temperature before moving them to the refrigerator.
Let them sit for at least 48 hours but a week to two weeks is optimum before eating these pickles.
Refrigerate any extra brine and use it when you have enough cucumbers to fill another jar with all of the ingredients. Reheat the brine before pouring over, and let sit, as directed above, until room temperature before placing in refrigerator.
It’s a good idea to write the date the pickles were made on the lid of each jar, especially if you make only a jar or two at a time, to eat them in the order you make them and not lose track of any jars.