Pickle Crisp has all the instructional information on the box. It will help to SLOW DOWN the effects that a long term acidic vinegar has in cucumbers. Yours might be mushy for a few reasons, too long a process time, which will 'cook' the cukes, cukes were not really fresh and crisp when packed in jars. Whole cukes take a little more time before softening after long storage. I slice lengthwise for a sandwich 'stacker'. Spears are OK, as are slices or chunks. It all depends on the recipe and what you like as to shape. Not only do you cut off the blossom tip end, but also the stem end. According to the PC instructions, you pack the jars with cukes, and pour the boiling brine over them. The PC is added (1.5 teaspoons per quart) at the time the cukes had been packed tightly and before you pour the brine over them. It tends to fizz somewhat. I add fresh garlic and dill seed heads to mine, and then add the PC amount, the pack the jars with cukes and fill with the boiling brine. Mine get a steam canning process of only about 5 minutes. Some say that a steam canner hasen't been fully proven safe, but because these are fairly acidic with all that vinegar, you don't usually have to worry about any bad bacteria contaminating the jars. You always follow the safety canning guidlines regarding clean jars, and allow the lids to be in a slightly simmering water before capping. A bread & butter pickle is a good choice for long cukes. I use a crinkle cutter for these, as well as sweet dills. B&Bs are made with a little dill, mustard seeds and celery seeds, as well as a little cidar vinegar and white distilled. They also have sugar added to cut some of the harshness of the vinegar. A sweet hamburger dill slice is similar to those that you see on hamburgers at McD and BK. They are not quite as sweet as a sweet mixed or B&B. I also prefer to use mixes from Mrs. Wages and Ball. These have the necessary salt, and contain a concentrated amont of the necessary spices. For sweet mixed, they have clove added along with a few other familiar flavors. Using the mixes can give you approx 7 quarts. You can double, triple, or more your batches, but keep in mind that you should only fill and cap a batch size that will fit in your canner. Turn down your boiling brine between processes, and while its processing, you can be filling new jars herbs and cukes for the next batch. I always TASTE my brines before adding to the jars. Even though I use mixes, I still add extra spices to every jar. Adding things like a whole dill seed head after cukes are packed, makes it difficult to get all the lobes of dill into the jars, so that dill usually goes in first.

Thanks Great advice! I used the ball dill mix last year and they were better then the ball recipe in the book! But a little mushy! I just might try it again, and the heinz recipe! I also want to try a sweet pickle for my li'l guy, he loved them, but he didn't like the bread and butter. Can anyone suggest a recipe? Thanks again, ksrogers
Brenda

Ball and Mrs. Wages have the type mixes for your preferences. Instead of sugar, I have used a very small amount of Splenda and it has nearly the same as a 5 pound bag of sugar. Becuase of the differences in the two mix products, I use a bit of both, and add the suitable spices along with these. Even my half sours which are refrigerated have used some of these mixes. Because of the oils and extracts they have in the mixes, you tend to get a stronger flavor or the brine. Nothing aggreviates me more than adding a ton of dill to a batch of bland pickles and not getting a nice dill flavor. The mush can be reduced by using the PC as mentioned. Processing for 10 minutes in a BWB, for me is just too much time. I only go 5 minutes. Everything I do which has high acids also get proessed in a steam canner which can recover to boiling much faster than a a big bucket of water. The mush is usually caused by heat and time. Your not trying to 'cook' the cukes, only preserve them safely.

Oh yeah, I'll happily endorse Linda Lou's sweet pickles. I was making the second batch before I ever got the first ones canned. They never did get canned, the teenagers (well, I had a COUPLE, LOL) snitched them from the bucket as fast as I could make them.

I'm all out, and I'm making a lot more this year. Slices of those sweet pickles on a fish sandwich with some mayo and I'm in heaven.

It's the only crisp pickle I've ever made, so I can't help you much on the other. I used pickle crisp in dills last year and they were still mushy.

Annie

Thanks for all the answers! I can't find the pickle crisp!
I have a few more places to check! I will try the sweet pickle chunks but I have to read the recipe again, I think I'm gonna have more questions, I will search the posts first so I don't repeat questions! But I kinda like really detailed instructions, I'm such a worry wart! Silly but I just don't want to hurt anyone and I'm not a confident canner yet! You guys are great and very patient and I really appreciate it!
Brenda

You wil have a problem finding the PC now. There is a post for it being sold as BULK somewhere on this forum. Its a lot cheaper that way, but must be carefully stored in a totally air tight container as it has the ability of sucking up a lot of moisture from the air, then turning into muddy clumps..

I was told to use Alum last year in my pics and that was supposed to keep them crisp just like the PC should. Anyboday ever done that?? Mine were definitely too mushy. I have a friend that makes them but she doesn't process, just keeps them in the fridge. I would like to be able to process for the sake of storage.

Linda Lou - where can I find the Heinz Dill recipe and when you pack the sweet pickles into jars I'm assuming you boil the syrup again and fill with it??

I've used alum in an old family sweet pickle recipe. Alum only works for fermented pickles. Generally you won't see alum mentioned as an ingredient in recipes today, though it's not unsafe to use, as it's been supplanted by Pickle Crisp.
The link I've included below from the NCFHFP discusses alum briefly and gives a lot of good information about pickling.

My concern with mushy pickles is that whether it's Pickle Crisp or alum, you're just covering up an underlying problem. It might be the cucumber prep, the water, the heat of processing, any number of causes, but it could be worthwhile to think back over last year's pickle-making and see if you can pinpoint a cause.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Pickle Primer

Adding alum to fresh pack pickles can actually make them mushy as they sit in the jars. Like Carol said, it only works in fermented pickles. I used the Pickle Crisp just because I have to buy my cucumbers and not sure how freshly picked they are. I do think I taste it, though. Just a hint of bitter taste. Don't know if anyone else noticed it or not. It could have been the cukes,too, that I had.
Carol brought up a good point, too, about the water. The water some people have to use can affect the outcome, due to the minerals in it.
Kosher Dill (Heinz Recipe)

4 lbs pickling cukes
14 cloves garlic, peeled & split
1/4 cup salt
2 3/4 cups distilled or apple cider vinegar 5% acidity
2 3/4 cups water
12 to 14 sprigs fresh dill weed
28 peppercorns

Wash cucumbers; remove 1/16 inch from blossom end, cut in half lengthwise. Combine garlic and next 3 ingredients; heat to boiling. Remove garlic and place 4 halves into each clean jar, then pack cucumbers, adding 2 sprigs of dill and 4 peppercorns. Pour hot vinegar solution over cucumbers to within 1/2 inch of top. Immediately adjust covers as jar manufacturer directs. Process 10 minutes in BWB. Makes 6-7 pints.

Alum, as recently discussed here several times, is NOT for making pickles crisp. Yes, it has the ability to 'absorb' some things like the use on open cuts. Its aluminium and isn't recommended in any home pickling today. Originally it was used in sour vinegar pickles to gove the sensation of 'pucker'. If you check most commercial pickled products you will notice that it is not listed anymore. Today, aluminium based additives are not recomended. Its like using aluminium pots and pans to do chome canning of acidic foods. Ever hear of the term 'non-reactive', that means a metal that isn't easily stained by acids or salts. Aluminium comes under that issue and if its used in home canning of pickles and acidic things like tomatoes, its going to be more harmful to people in the long term. Mushy pickles are caused by a few different reasons. Long storage time is the biggest reason they go mushy. using very fresh cukes is important, as well as a heat processing time that is short enough to make them safe, and not long enough to cause them to sofen as they 'cook'. Some have processed pickled cukes in pressure canners, just because they think it can help to totally eliminate virtally any possibility of any food poisoning from contamintaing them. Obviously a pressure canning of a pickled cuke will make it very soft. Some describe 'soft' as being like apple sauce, while others describe it like a bit less crunchy compared to store bought. We can never expect a pickle to be as firm as crisp as store bought, only because they use very special heat treatments, as well as working under vacuums while jars are filled and capped. Lets just throw out the alum as its not a good thing to use in any home canning as far as I can tell. Pickle Crisp, like I mentioned before in another post, is mainly used as a 'buffer' to reduce the effects that vinegar acid has on long term storage of home made pickled cukes. It will NOT make a mushy cuke crisp, or make any pickle of any kind less mushy if the canning process uses too much/long a heat cycle.

Thanks for the info. I am going to pass this along to my friend who swears by it. Last year was the first I had heard of alum and this year it is going into the trash :)

linda lou - thanks for the recipe!! I am going to try it as soon as I get a really big day or two picking! I may just end up buying a bushel of cukes cause I can't wait for mine to be ready and I do a ton of pickles :)

Ken, I remember you mentioned a sour vinegar pickle you made using lime and alum. What luck have you had modifying that recipe?

Some sources recommend avoiding alum as a safety precaution, but the USDA considers alum safe to use, as long as it's not in excessive amounts. Their position is that people don't eat enough fermented pickles for it to be an issue. However, it can cause digestive upsets if taken to excess (or, I assume, if the fermented pickles are not sufficiently rinsed).

I am not, by the way, a spokesperson for "alum aficionados." There are other ways to crisp pickles today. Personally I think it's wise to avoid additives where possible, but I'm not too fond of Pickle Crisp either, as I don't like the taste.

For those who do wish to avoid alum, check the ingredients on the baking powder you buy, and purchase an aluminum-free brand.

On a day-to-day basis, though, I eat more cured meats than pickles and am far more concerned about those additives than miniscule measures of alum.

The document below provides some helpful troubleshooting tips for pickle problems.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Pickle Pointers for Safety and Quality

Carol, I agree about the baking powder. My daughter bought some of the stuff with aluminum in it. She made some biscuits using a recipe I tried. It has mayonnaise in it. She wanted to know why hers tasted sort of bitter. I asked what brand of baking powder she used. I told her I think it was that baking powder. I prefer the nonaluminum kind due to taste, not just the aluminum issue.
So, am I not the only one who can taste the Pickle Crisp ?

I still have the lime here (Mrs. Wages brand) and it did help to hold the cukes a bit firmer for the all vinegar sour pickles. I do not use alum anymore and because it still seems to be linked to aluminium and allzheimers I was not going to even try going any further with it. The lime was used, and the whole cukes were soaked in it for 24 hours in the fridge. I used huge stainless steel bowls that take up a whole shelf in the fridge. I cut off the tips of both ends prior to the soaking, They did get a long rinse afterwards, but even for that, there was a bit of white sediment in the brine after a few days. I also used a bit of tumeric for some color. They were quite pungent. I could have even added a bit of my acid blend and made them even more potent.. My sours are not fermented. They are just 100% plain white distilled vinegar, salt, and a little tumeric. My pickled pepperoncini are also done that way, but without the tumeric. My half sours are just a salt brine with a dash of vinegar added after they sit on the counter overnight. Ive also use the pickling lime for making some sweet mixed, but it was just for the cukes to soak in first. The amount of alum used in a 7 quart batch of sour pickles was something like about 2-3 teaspoons for the toatl amount of vinegar brine. With Pickle Crisp, you do have as slight flavor of chlorine, but that tends to dissipate once they are opened and allowed to 'breath' a few minutes before serving. A chilled pickle always seems to be a bit crunchier than at room temp. FYI> Rumford brand baking powder has no alum in it. Baking soda is basically bicarbonate of soda and nothing else. There is also a bakers ammonia that is still used today for some Swedish cookies and pasteries.

I can't taste Pickle Crisp, but that might be because of the heat of the peppers, or the strength of the flavors and spices I use in regular pickles. Mrs. Wages and Ball mixes are the primary ingredients I use when making spiced pickles, and I add extra spices like dill, celery seeds, mustard seeds and such to the various kinds of pickles.There is nothing worse (besides a sour or mushy cuke) than a bland tasting pickle.

A recent America Test Kitchen episode dealt with making a flaky pastery for a big berry tart. They mixed the butter and flour to a very course mix, then used their palms to press the flour into the butter lumps. This helped to spread the butter into thinner bits. Ever made puff pastry? I have, with excellent results. MUCH better than the Pepperidge Farm frozen stuff. It does take a long time, a cold work surface, lots of patience and lots of rolling between each chilling.