My first thought is that the pickling cukes from the store were too old. I can't imagine, given the delivery system with groceries, that they were any less than 36 hours and likely more. That just doesn't work with pickling.

I do buy cucumbers but from a farmers market where I can call in an order and pick them up the same day they've been harvested.

You just can't make good pickles with old cucumbers. My guess right now would be that the slicers will be better, even though they're not the ideal pickling cuke, as long as you made them the same day the cucumbers were picked.

Carol

An ice water pre-soak can make a big difference. So can using pickle crisp. But 18 days isn't very long for brined pickles to mature either. If you are going to eat them that soon you might just as well make fridge pickles and skip the whole processing thing.

But like Carol said the most common cause of pickle disappointment is using store bought cukes in the first place. The results will always be disappointing.

Dave

Eh, I made the fermented kosher dills from the Ball Complete Book and was very disappointed. They've already become chicken food.

I used cucumbers that I grew and picked that day, and they weren't bad out of the bucket, but after processing, even with Pickle Crisp, they were unacceptably soft. Sigh.

I seldom make an edible batch of pickles, other than bread and butter slices and Linda Lou's sweet chunks, so I'm not surprised, but these were particularly bad...

Back to just plain old unfermented dill pickles for Elery, makes me glad I don't eat the darned things.

Sorry about those pickles, ajsmama, it's disappointing after all that time and ingredients.

Annie

These weren't fermented, they were the quick-process ones in vinegar that Carol (maybe Linda Lou originally) posted. Oh well, my mom said my dad found the refrigerator dills (same solution) too "puckery" so I'm sending the last jar of this batch to him b/c to me they don't taste like much. Though DS came back from their house with empty jar, told me Papa liked the first jar until the end, and liked the 2nd jar they just opened of the fridge dills, so maybe it was just that he'd kept them a couple of weeks and the last few slices were "puckery".

I made a sweet pickle, cross b/t The Frug's pickle and Alton Brown's, gave a quart to my uncle and had 1 here I promised to my mom, but then I tasted one when I was packing it into Classico jar (quart wasn't full and it's my aunt's jar), not sure I want to give it up now! DH wouldn't try it, says he doesn't like sweet pickles but DS thought it was better than the fridge dills and he really liked those.

Gotta make more today but I need onions. I want to enter this (and Annie's salsa, and maybe blackberry jam) in the Grange fair next w/e. Waiting to hear if the "canned goods" category allows for fridge pickles. All produce, baked goods, etc. are sold after judging so not sure if jars need to be sealed, you provide a small sample in separate container for tasting, or if judges open the jar and taste, then throw out the rest? Maybe they don't even taste them? At fair where we used to live, they did taste baked goods, and they returned that and your produce (though after a week w/o refrigeration, I didn't want them back). Never entered canned goods before.

As mentioned in another post here called something like "how long before you should open pickles" and explained in more detail in the BBB P. 49 and on NCHFP, quick pack (aka fresh pack) pickles require 4-6 weeks to cure and develop flavor.

Dave

I think it was Linda_Lou who posted that recipe. I've only made fermented dills and not from Ball.

One thing I've noticed is that people have very definite "pickle preferences" re sourness, saltiness, crispness, etc. Remember that old saying, "There's a lid for every pot." So somewhere out there is the right pickle recipe for you. I have gone through periods when I have tried out three or four small batches of pickles in a summer (plus the T&T regulars). Then sometime in the winter it's taste-testing. I've made recipes I didn't like that some others loved.

Carol

Recipe as I recall said 3 weeks, I was a few days early, the flavor may get better but the texture won't.

My dad said the fridge pickles I made with dill seed were too dilly, so I sent the other jar I made with dill weed home with him just now. Turns out he likes B&B pickles better anyway, so he got the last jar of those and I made more today.

Annie, I make lacto fermented pickles but I never process them, I just store them in the fridge. In the summer I have been making a batch a week with my CSA cukes and we eat them all by the following week. Processing them would soften them (as you found out) and kill off all the helpful lacto bacteria.

-Robin

p.s. Thanks for the comment on my blog when you visited, I loved *seeing* you there