canning pickles

I was gifted with a box of pickling cucs on Friday. I have never canned pickles before but we had a plan all laid out for Saturday. Dill pickles, sweet pickles and some bread and butter slices. yumm. My folks would be over early and we would spend the day canning. Instead I had a very good friend that I haven't seen a long time stop in. We spent all day catching up. An awesome way to spend a Saturday. BUT, Sunday my folks had plans so it was me and the net and a box of cucs that wouldn't make it another day. I looked at way too many different recipes. Either they took too many days or too many ingredients. So, I made my own up. In 6 weeks I will know if it worked well or not :) I did like the taste of the brine so I think it will be a hit.

Recipe:

• 10 clean wide mouthed pint jars /lids prepped
• about 40 pickling cucumbers at least 5 inches long, wiped with a wet cloth to remove the pokies and put in a large bowl with ice water for crunchy pickles. I just used a cooler for that.
• large bunch of fresh dill
• a local grape leaf per jar. I have heard that it helps to keep your pickles crisper longer. Lucky for me I have grapes out in the yard so I didn't have to raid a neighbors.
  

Simmer the following;

• 3 cups apple cider vinegar
• 3 cups water
• 6 Tb salt (I used Kosher just because I had it)
  
• 4 TB pickling spice. I just use what ever brand is available, which was Grumpy's jar of spice hidden in the cupboard that he used for his pickled eggs.

Slice your cucs into quarters about 1/2 inch less than the depth of your jar.

Place a grape leaf in the bottom of your jar. I first put it in dark side facing in but it looked prettier dark facing out. The only prep I did for the leaves was to pick unblemished ones and to rinse them in cold water. Add your slices. Because of shrinkage pack them as tight as you can...and then shove 1 more in the jar. It takes about 4 cucs (x 4 slices) to fill a pint.

I used a wooden skewer to shove dill heads down the sides. No reason for the sides except it looks pretty. Fill jars with hot brine leaving 1/2 inch headroom. Make sure you stir each time you dip your ladle to capture a good mix of spices. Cap and they're ready to process.


5 pints at a time fit in the steamer canner (or 7 in the hot water bath) for 15 minutes. Remove and set aside for 24 hours. I had 1 lid not seal so I processed the jar with a new lid and it still didn't take. I will have to toss that jar (when it cools down :D)


While those 5 are steaming I get the other 5 pints ready. I did 25 pints today. Not too bad for a complete newbie :) The color change was a bit disappointing but, eh, should still taste ok as long as they have a good crunch.

I did try to experiment a bit early in the day with a sweet pickle recipe. Again, too many ingredients and too much time. Instead I used the original recipe halved and added a cup of sugar and strained it before adding it to the jars minus the dill and grape leaf. I don't think I'm going to like it too much but c'est la vie. It was only 4 pints.

*An up-date. Because 2 of my dills didn't seal and I didn't want to double (or in one case, triple) process, we put them in the fridge. I don't know what step did what...but they crispier than when they went in!! I could even hear the crunchy while Grumpy was chewing (with his mouth closed, of course :D) 9 days after.