Cheap and Easy Dill Pickle Recipe
We have done a little small batch canning, but we’ve never made proper pickles before, so we scanned our cookbook collection and the web for recipes. James Beard’s American Cookery had a suspiciously easy version, and ones on the web seemed a bit complicated. None, of course, was scaled for making one jar of pickles. Yet, the cukes need to be used while they are fresh and we wanted to perfect our recipe before the full onslaught of fruiting.
So, here is our successfully adapted method for making one jar of delicious, authentic American dill pickles. It’s a little more sanitary than the James Beard cold pack, but still allows for fermented, homemade flavor. Obviously, this recipe can be scaled up if you come into more than five pickles at once.
Small Batch Dill Pickles
Ingredients:
5 3-4 inch pickling cucumbers
2 cups boiling water
1 1/2 Tablespoons salt
1 Tablespoon pickling spices*
1 teaspoon dill seeds (or 1 head of dill weed)
1/2 cup vinegar (we used mostly white with 2 Tablespoons malt added)
1 large clove garlic
Procedure:
Boil a kettle of water. Fill a 2 cup glass measuring cup and use the rest to sterilize a glass wide mouth one quart jar and lid (reusing a pickle jar should work or the widest shortest quart jar you can find.)
Make brine by adding the salt and garlic to the measuring cup. Let that cool to handling temperature. Then thoroughly scrub and trim the ends off of the cucumbers. Drain the jar and lay it on its side to stack in the cukes. Stand the jar up and sprinkle in the spices and vinegar. Pour in brine to fill the jar. If the jar is not full and the pickles are not floating, add just enough boiled water until they float.
It’s important to keep them fully submerged but they want to float, so try to find a small ramekin or something to weight them down with. We ended up using a small plastic funnel which pushed them all under but stuck out of the top of the jar. We then covered the funnel with a small plate. Otherwise, you will need to turn the top pickles daily to ensure they get fully brined.
Leave the jar in a warm place to begin fermenting. You will see small bubbles forming within 24 hours. This is a natural part of the process, and this ratio of salt and vinegar prevents nasties from growing. We didn’t get lots of bubbling, and after just 4-5 days days the bubbling subsided. At this point, some of the pickles sank to the bottom of the jar, but otherwise seemed normal. Move the pickles to the fridge and wait a week to eat for the best flavor. We were so excited, we ate them all within a week, and even then they kept getting saltier. Next time, we will move them to another jar with a lighter brine (1 teaspoon salt ).
The results exceeded our expectations. We are now ready for the next batch. We want to reuse our brine, though some advise against it. We are confident we have kept it clean (using a fork not fingers to remove the pickles), and we just need to recharge it with more salt and vinegar. We will add 2 teaspoons salt and 1/4 cup or more vinegar. {Note: We did try reusing our brine, and it was okay but the flavor was not as good. We definitely won’t go beyond one reuse.}
* Pickling Spices
You can buy pickling spices already mixed. We are mad collectors of spices, but having never made pickles or pickled meats before we didn’t have any pickling spices on hand. We found several mix recipes online, and adapted them to what we had in the cupboard that sounded good for dill pickles. We made extra so we are ready when the next jarsful of cukes ripen.
1 Tablespoon mixed black and yellow mustard seeds
1 Tablespoon coriander seeds
1 Tablespoon dill seeds
1 Teaspoon carroway seeds
1 Teaspoon whole cloves
2 Teaspoons black peppercorns
1 Teaspoon cumin seeds
1 Teaspoon fennel seeds
5 bay leaves, crushed
1 dried red chili, crushed
1/2 star anis, crushed
That’s a long list, but this was super easy to make. We just measured each of the whole spices into a spice jar, and put the bay, chili and star anis into a mortar and pestle to bash them up a bit then stirred them into the mix. Done. If we’d had cinnamon sticks we would have put one in, crushed, but everyone said to avoid using ground spices because they become overpowering and excessively darken the pickles.
This article was written on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 and is filed under Making Creations.
For more articles about: food (1), preserving (1), canning (1)
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
on June 27, 2009 at 2:36 pm amanda hunt wrote:
I’ve searched and searched for a recipe to use …Most sound too complicated for a busy mom to bother with, so my cukes either get eaten fresh or handed out to assorted neighbors and friends. If this works ( and I’m excited to try it!), you’ll have my gratitude and I’ll finally have some fresh pickles!!! I’ll let you know how it goes!Thanks.
on June 27, 2009 at 8:55 pm BeeZed wrote:
Amanda, We find this a really simple recipe, and used it for smaller or larger batches all summer (NZ summer- we are in the dead cold middle of winter now). I hope it works for you- do let us know!
on July 7, 2009 at 2:45 pm Sandy Little wrote:
I made three batches of these pickles. I tasted the brine and was happy about the flavor. I will let them set for about a month and then try them. I will check back then but I think me and my family are going to love them. It was very simple and easy for small batches.
on July 7, 2009 at 3:10 pm BeeZed wrote:
Sandy, we can’t wait to hear how they turned out. You would be surprised how good they taste after just a week or two!
on August 9, 2009 at 7:06 pm Kool-Aid: Because I am just so darn optimistic abbout the coming season... - Los Angeles Kings Hockey Fan Forum wrote:
[...] Cheap and Easy Dill Pickle Recipe | BrewZone remove the pickling spices, dill and garlic. add kool-aid add sugar to final brine [...]
on August 13, 2009 at 12:00 pm Alexander wrote:
It’s nice to see a recipe that can be used for small batches. One question though, when making the brine, should the garlic be peeled before added or just placed in as a whole clove?
on August 18, 2009 at 4:51 pm BeeZed wrote:
Alexander- that’s peeled garlic. Thanks for asking and we hope you enjoy!
on August 18, 2009 at 4:54 pm BeeZed wrote:
OK, LA Kings fans, that was certainly not a use we had imagined for this recipe, but you have us intrigued if somewhat perplexed. Let us know how they turn out!
on August 20, 2009 at 7:12 am Kimberly wrote:
I made this recipe 2 days ago (altering the spices to what I had on hand) but I don’t see bubbles…I don’t know what the bubbles indicate. Please advise.
Thank you for posting a recipe that doesn’t require pounds of cukes – some years we have tons – others we don’t but still would like pickles! :)
Regards,
Kim
on August 20, 2009 at 4:08 pm BeeZed wrote:
Kim, these are fermented pickles, so bubbles come from the fermentation process which adds sourness like in sourdough. If they are in a very cool place you might not see the bubbles, it’s just occurring very slowly and you might have to wait a little longer for good flavor. The vinegar adds sourness anyway, so they just get a more complex flavor from fermenting.
on May 8, 2010 at 7:19 pm Rebec wrote:
My daughter and I make these almost weekly so we constantly have a jar on hand. We are THRILLED to be able to have fresh pickles on hand all the time.
on June 18, 2010 at 6:39 pm Ruth Beltz wrote:
I am so thrilled to have found your reciepe. I have had several years of serious illnesses and am so glad to be gardening again( with the help of my grandsons). I have picked the first of my cucumbers but didn’t want to wait on the big batch of pickles I used to make. I was soooo thrilled to see, make and eat my first pickles in 4 years. Thank you.
on June 27, 2010 at 6:39 pm ckron247 wrote:
I found your excellent recipe. I altered it somewhat to match my tastes, but the process was very helpful. I have just a couple questions… Does it matter if I use plastic containers rather then glass? Will they still ferment if they are kept in the fridge the entire time? Please advise. I am very excited for my first batch to be finished.
on July 1, 2010 at 4:50 pm BeeZed wrote:
Hi ckron247,
We haven’t tried plastic or straight into the fridge, but both should work. There’s a slight risk of the vinegar leaching a plasticky flavor into the pickles so we choose glass, but lots of companies sell pickles in plastic. And they do ferment in the fridge, just much slower. Can’t wait to hear how they come out!
on July 18, 2010 at 2:37 pm crazyxu85 wrote:
can the pickles be quartered instead of leaving them whole?
Also, do you leave them undcovered while fermenting, or should I cover them with a plate?
on July 29, 2010 at 5:01 pm BeeZed wrote:
Crazyxu85, we have never tried quartering them, but imagine it would work fine. We have never had trouble with the trimmed ends so cutting shouldn’t hurt. We definitely cover them.