Pickling cukes are typically 4-6" long. There are several different varieties available for purchase but they are all classified as a "pickling" cuke. And there is no need to peel them. The skins on the pickling cukes are not as tough as on your standard slicing cuke (standard?? is there such a thing? lol) which allows the brine, vinegar, whatever you are using, to soak in to the cuke.

I've never tried to make pickles with a regular cucumber, not sure if they turn out the same??

The Pickle Crisp is ONLY meant for the canning process. You add the necessary amount per jar. I usually like to to add it before packing the jars. If there is a boiling brine added, this gets poured over the fermented cukes, and then they are capped and processed. Yes, pickling cukes can be as small as 1-2 inches and as big as about 6 inches. Any smaller and they are considered 'gerkins' and any larger, they get a bit mushy and the seeds are tough. You will see these smaller dull, light to dark green cukes in supermarkets usually seperate from the regular salad types. For most any cuke needs, I prefer the pickling types over the regular ones, and that includes those big long english types that are shrink wrapped in clear plastic. Some regular cukes seem to have a wax coating to help keep them from drying out and spoiling. Making pickles from them are not the best way to get a pickled cucumber, as you must also remove that wax, or peel them which is not going to work for a pickle.

Hi White Raven,

Yes, let the pickles sit out on the counter unrefrigerated. Most people cover them after they cool, if only to keep out the pickle snitchers. Using boiling water every day kills any bad stuff, but I like to rinse mine if they have any scum on them.

Pickling cukes are smaller...you will probably get the firmest and least bitter pickles from them, but choose your smallest burpless & they'll still be good. The only kind you don't want to use is the ones that have wax smeared on the skin, which of course you won't find in your garden.

Pickle Crisp is not needed for Linda Lou's sweet pickles, they are very crisp without it & I believe someone once posted that PC made them less good.

Have fun! I should really make another batch of these before the end of summer, but the stores are selling such huge pickling cukes right now. Better focus on tomatoes before the season starts to wind down!

Melissa

These particular ones -or maybe them all lol, these are the first I've grown myself- but these claim on the seed package to never be bitter and so far that has proven true. It states on package "thin skinned and does not require peeling" although we usually do.
I've been reading and reading through the posts, some like the pickle crisp and some don't- however I figure with using oversized cukes I would be one of the ones who definately needed it. Also it seemed that a few folks were having trouble finding the pickle crisp so I was quite happy to find it at Walmart.

Near me they sell pickling cukes in three sizes...small (2-3"), medium (4-5"), and large (6"+, some of these start looking like slicers in size almost).
IF I BUY cukes, I shoot for the small or medium.

FWIW: I am growing English cukes for the first time this year and thought about trying some dill pickles. The one plant I have is prolific! Cukes are cool looking when they're little. About 1/2" diameter and 6" long.
DD would love some long, skinny pickles. :+)

Haven't used Pickle Crisp, so can't help there.
Deanna

Pickle Crisp does work against you when doing sweet pickles with sugar added to the brine. Because Linda Lou's recipe uses a salt brine to essentially remove a lot of the water from the cukes, it leaves them open for the penetration of the vinegar and sugar. With the addition of the calcium chloride of Pickle Crisp, it will tend to break down the cukes a little and have a negative effect on crispness. Because the fermented salt brine method to making these unusual sweet pickles makes the cukes a bit less watery by its nature, they do act a little different when they are stored in sugar and vinegar. I don't think it would be the same if they were not sweetened with regular sugar, or if Splenda or some other artifical sweetener was used instead of sugar. My 32 ounce jar of bulk Calcium Chloride is almost 1/4 gone already. I use it ONLY for my dills, sweets without sugar, and my pepperoncini pickled peppers in full strength vinegar and salt.

The pickling cukes actually suffer in taste and texture if you peel them, even for a fresh salad. Its not necessary for most any pickling cuke to be peeled. As to bitterness, it cannot be bred out of the cucumbers, no matter what they say about bitterless or burpless varieties. Usually it occurs early in the season when there are only a few flowers and the plant is not big yet. Once the cukes get into the summer growing season, they tend to be much more reliable and you will be hard pressed to find a bitter one then. Even for that, when I am picking early ones, I try to taste each cuke with a small slice near the stem end to see if it has any bitterness. If so, its tossed. There is nothing worse to throw off a nice jar of pickles if you come across a single slice (or slices) of a bitter cuke. No amount of vinegar, salt, sugar, or spices will hide its awful taste. I have had my share of bitter ones, and most have been from seeds that said they had no bitters.

Ok, went to garden and found some relatively small cukes- most are less than 6" for sure- I did have to add a couple that were a bit bigger since I ran short of the 2 dozen recipe calls for. I rinsed them then added the boiling water to cover them. My new question is *gulp* Is it normal for some of the cukes to float in the water? If so, should I rotate which ones are exposed on top? If not- what can I do to correct this situation. TYIA (again) :)

I made thee pickles last year and Linda Lou commented that her husband though the Pickle Crisp made them too crispy. I thought what does that mean?.....and added PC to my jars. However, I must say.....I agree with Mr. LL - they are too crisp. Kind of a "fake" crisp, if that makes sense.

Floating cukes may be hollow. You'll figure that out when you cut them. Hollow cukes can still be used in sweet pickle chunks. They're just not as pretty.

It's routine when soaking or brining pickles to weigh them down to keep them under the water. You can fill a heavy ziploc bag with water and fit it in the top of your jar/canister/whatever or use a heavy plate, something of that sort that's nonreactive. People have even been known to use a sterilized rock on top of a plate or disk.

Carol

I just added the bulk calcium chloride to the jars of dill pickles. It doesn't foam or do anything at all. I am using half a tsp. per pint.

What salt brine in the sweet pickles? It is plain old water. No salt added...

I like the Pickle Crisp in the sweet pickles. It doesn't work against itself, they are more crisp than without it.

The bulk version of Pickle Crisp is not as fine a granule as the Ball brand. The Ball brand recommends using 3/4 teaspoon per pint, and 1 1/2 teaspooons per quart. I would think that the bulk version should be about the same amount or a bit more, due to its 'pelletized' size. KInd of like comparing regular salt and Kosher salt, with the latter needing more to equal the same strength. PC, seems to help in the long term, like after about 6 months, where the vinegar would break down the cells of the cucumbers, if they were pickled without the PC.

Oh boy- I guess I'll have to find a bigger container then! If I put anything on top of this one to weigh the cukes down it would likely overflow :(

I have probably gotten at least 50 cukes so far and not one has been hollow but it could be from the weather change perhaps? We were having a drought and high heat on top of that, we watered but probably not as much as they could have used I guess (and never as well as God can do it)

Linda Lou- ty for clarifying :) I wondered about the salt brine myself and scrutinized the recipe over and over wondering if I was supposed to add salt to the water. I finally decided I wasn't misreading but was not about to offend my newly found (and much appreciated) helpers by questioning. I also decided that perhaps the "syrup" was equal to salt brine :)

I may make half with pickle crisp and half without and let my family be the judge of which they like best :) (since there are 4 of them and only one of me they usually get majority rules anyhow)