Dill Pickles-Chase (Sharon)
skeip
13 years ago
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dgkritch
13 years agoreadinglady
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Now a Pickle Question (Sharon's Dills)
Comments (3)If it's spoilage in the pickles themselves, the pickling solution may turn cloudy or the pickles will be soft and mushy. There may also be unpleasant odors. If the pickles still smell good and are firm, my guess would be either some yeast formation which has precipitated to the bottom, or if you used something other than canning and pickling salt, perhaps some mineral residue. Either way those are harmless. But if you're at all uncomfortable, it's better to toss the contents. Carol...See More???'s Chase's dill pickles
Comments (10)nosnowtn, Chase's pickles do not meet the USDA canning guidelines as they do not have a sufficiently high water to vinegar ratio and they are not water bath processed. However, that method does Canadian guidelines, which are somewhat less stringent than ours. However, the hot brine in hot jars should have sealed, normally you pack in the pickles in hot jars, add hot liquid brine and then place hot lids on the jars and they'll seal. Canadian rules also allow the sealing of jams and jellies in the same fashion, although the government here recommends against it. So, the short answer is yes, the jars should have sealed. Most of us know that the recipe doesn't meet the U.S. government standards and have chosen the level of risk we wish to take. The guidelines are just that and each canner assesses the possible danger and takes only the level of risk they are comfortable taking. The risk with pickles is small, although they are a food that is not reheated, they are eaten cold, so boiling them for safety isn't an option and that does increase the risk somewhat. At any rate, I'm comfortable making them and eating them, and letting my family eat them. You have to decide for yourself. Mine have always sealed that way, BTW, and my Dad open kettle canned tomatoes his whole life and they sealed most of the time too. I figure I get about a 10 to 20% fail rate on the seal using that method, which is why I only use it for those pickles, everything else gets a water bath, even jams and jellies. Annie...See MoreRe the safety of Chases Pickle recipe from another thread
Comments (28)I never got sick either, but a bunch of family members got sick from eating my Aunt Midge's pickled mushrooms at a family party once. It kind of takes the fun out of an evening, watching Aunt Esther barf in the bushes..... It does happen, although it doesn't happen often, in my experience. Some cases of botulism do come from home canned foods and some people do die, although not many. The risk is relatively miniscule. Many cases come from the same area, like a whole bunch of people in Alaska that ate badly canned salmon. Others come from commerical items like that Bolthouse Farms carrot juice and the baked potatoes at the restaurant that were wrapped in foil and left sitting on the counter for hours. The "rules" in Canada are different than the "rules" in the United States because we are loathe to take any risk at all, IMO. The extension services do not want the liability of someone coming back and saying "you said it was all right and now I'm sick". I don't think it's necessarily the government's job to protect us from our own cooking, but many people do. The guidelines are extremely conservative, IMO, but very safe. I do not know Canada's testing specificiations, or any other country's, for that matter, so do they know something we don't know or are they more independent or bigger risk takers? Beats me. At any rate, there's a risk, albeit extremely small. Maybe even smaller than that, LOL. I choose to take it, and it's my choice. I'd eat LindaC's jelly too. Oh, that's right, I already have! It's the "don't" part that got my back hairs raised, I'd rather see a "did you know that it's not tested, I just thought I'd let you know" approach. And agmss, I agree, the Search function here is abysmal, next to useless. Ugh. I don't even try to use it anymore, I just Google "gardenweb" and whatever I'm looking for. Annie...See MoreSharon(or anyone) dill pickle question.
Comments (1)Linda , I've only ever canned them whole or at most cut in half (lengthwise) to fit the jar. Not sure if they would take on too much of the vinegar but it's not an overly vinegary recipe. All you can do is try! If they turn out carpy just run them through the food processor and voila..... dill relish! Ask me how I know ;)...See More
annie1992
13 years agoLinda_Lou
13 years agoreadinglady
13 years ago
dgkritch