Husband needs help with dill pickles

17 years ago

Hello,

My wife is recovering from surgery and I have 15 pounds of cucumbers to process but I'm not sure what recipe to use for dill pickles. I should mention that have canned beets, carrots, jam and jelly with out help but this time I'm asking for help because I now how easy it is to make cloudy, mushy and sour pickles.

1) I am looking for a fast dill recipe that makes crisp pickles and requires canning because I don't have the room to store a crock in the fridge for a long period of time and I don't have the time to watch over fermenting pickles.

2) What size of jars do I need?

3) What type of vinegar do I use? 5%, 7%?

4) What type of water do I use? I have hard city water but it is no problem to get reverse osmosis.

5) How do I process? Hot water bath or pressure canner? I would guess pressure canning is not required because vinegar is used.

Thanks for all the help.

Andre

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Comments (3)

dgkritch
17 years ago
Let's see if I can help.

1. Here's the recipe I use, makes nice crunchy dills.

Kosher Dill Pickles (Heinz Recipe)

You can easily keep your brine in the fridge and use as needed.
I use this recipe and like it fine. It makes a small batch.
Kosher Dill (Heinz Recipe)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 lbs pickling cukes
14 cloves garlic, peeled & split
1/4 cup salt
3 cups distilled or apple cider vinegar 5% acidity
3 cups water
12-14 sprigs fresh dill weed
28 peppercorns
Wash cucumbers; 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.

2. Jar size is up to you. Process 15 minutes for quarts?
Linda Lou may jump in and tell us it only needs to be
10 minutes??!!?!?

3. Use 5% vinegar (Can't comment on 7% as I've never seen it)

4. You may want to use bottled water for best results.

5. Hot water bath, no need to pressure can and it will make mushy pickles.

Have fun!
Deanna
PrairieRoots
Original Author
17 years ago
Hi Deanna,
I went shopping this afternoon to buy the ingredients but I forgot the garlic and of course I forgot to plant garlic in the garden this year. I wasn't sure about process time but I think I'll do one batch at 10 min and the second at 15 min. I will be curious if this affects crispness.
I hope other recipes will be posted because I have more cucs to pick.
Thanks
Andre
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My cukes are grown in short 4 foot tall wire trellises and most are never even touching the ground. I pick them and jsuy rinse well under running water, and place in a colander to drain. One more water spray over them and they sit for a an hour or two. No ice water, just plain water. I store them in the fridge until I get enough tto make a few quart jars of pickles. If you want faster pickles, you can slice a few into wedges or spears and can that the same way you do the rest, but just let it cool and refrigerate the next day and it should have some flavor after sitting a day in the fridge. I use straight 5% vinegar in most all my pickle brines, an even for sweet ones, where I add a little Splenda, and use some cider vinegar too. Give hubby a simple job like peeling a lot of onions. My dad had to do those in tears, while mom messed with the green tomatoes and the big spice bag. Another way to keep him away from your creation is to have him go onto the computer and read all about the stuff your making. Aren't those pickling cukes tender? They never need peeling even if eaten fresh or in a salad. One of my favorite summer treats is a cucumber sandwich. I thickly slice some lengthwise and spread mayo on the bread. Add a dash of salt, and you have a great cucumber sandwich!! Before you pickle whole cukes, you should cut off the blossom end tip. It has nasty enymes that are not good in pickle brines. I cut both end tips off when I can whole cukes. I do add cut up garlic and of course fresh dill, weed and seeds. This year the dill has nearly passed and only a few brown seed heads remain. I do use a Mrs. Wages dill pickle mix for mine, and add more dill and garlic. My latest batch will be sour pickles, and I plan to soak the cukes in a salt water brine for about 24 hours, then rinse them. That soak will help to remove a bit of water from inside the cukes, shrinking them a little. I plan to use all white vinegar but at higher than 5% acidity. It will also have a bit of tumeric added for that yellow color, but no other spices, only a bit of alum.
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Penn State's agricultural service (food safety division) says slicing or burpless varieties aren't well-suited for pickling (mainly a quality rather than a safety issue) but that they can be used in bread and butter-type pickle recipes or in relishes so finding the right recipe can make use of at least some of the surplus. If you want to mix some of the white cucumbers in with the green, you can. It's a pickling cucumber, so sure. Keep in mind that time will change the pickles, so they may be great initially but not hold up so well over time or the delicate flavor may be subsumed by the pickling brine. Only time will tell. In that case the benefit may be principally aesthetic, but there's nothing wrong with trying to make your pickles "pretty." Carol Here is a link that might be useful: Penn State Cucumbers for Pickling
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The USDA standards are established principally for the home food preserver. Many recipes are not USDA-approved but are still tested and safe. Lots of labs have that capacity. For example, Oregon State has a small entrepreneurship program which supports new purveyors of small-yield bottled food products and offers lab facilities for the testing to assure products are safe for sale. However, they would still have to be safe when processed and meet FDA plus any state regulations. Basically it comes down to the credentials of the person(s) who wrote the book and what they have done to assure food safety according to the criteria Dave indicated. One of the problems I have with many recipes/books is that the author(s) may have credentials but not necessarily credentials appropriate to home food processing. So Rick Fields, for example, does sell commercial pickles and relishes. However, he has available to him processing equipment not available to the average home preserver. Without his assurance of specific testing and safety in the home environment who knows how suitable the recipe is? I might add that in the home environment developers of canning recipes need to be sure they fall within a certain margin of error because there's more individual variation when you have many cooks using different product. In a commercial environment there's much more consistency. So Beverly Alfeld, for example, in her pickling book never goes above 4.3 pH, even though the limit for higher-acid BWB is 4.6 pH. She believes that leeway is important. Basically, I operate with a do not assume stance. My default position with any doubtful recipe is it isn't safe without very specific assurances, not merely the generic statement emailed by Williams-Sonoma. Carol
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Sorry to hear about your loss..... 1. You will get better results using pickling cucumbers, although that's not what caused the spoilage. You can also use small burpless cucumbers for fresh pack pickles, however, mature burpless cucumbers produce an enzyme that causes the pickles to soften during fermentation, so avoid them for canning. 2. Did you count the time from when the water came back to a FULL boil, rather than when you added the jars to the water? Are you using the suggested amount of time for your altitude? If you don't know your altitude, just do a Google search for your town (or the nearest town) and it should give you the altitude. This should help prevent under-processed foods. 3. Did you clean the cucumbers well? This reduces, but doesn't eliminate bacteria, and is especially important with foods that are in contact with the ground where they can pick up bacteria spores. 4. Did you maintain the water in the canner at least 2-inches deeper than the jar tops? 5. Do your lids and jars match? Some single-use jars aren't the exact size of canning lids if you happened to be using recycled jars that oritginally contained other commercial products. 6. Did you sterilize your lids properly? Make sure the lids aren't stacked together in the hot water, and I'd suggest a lid sterilizing rack for that. A small investment (under $15) to assure each lid stays separated. Be sure to dispose of the tainted food in a place where it will not be accidentally eaten by children or pets and it must be destroyed properly. The link below give the how-to information. Sanitize your kitchen after opening the tainted jars. Make sure that includes all flat surfaces, facet handles and the often forgotten refrigerator door and handle. Once the bacteria has become a toxin, that's when you can have a real problem. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Canning 101: How to get rid of canned goods gone bad.
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Linda_Lou
17 years ago
That is the recipe I use. I actually prefer dried dill weed. I know, it is messy in the jars, but that is how I like the taste best. I tried fresh dill, fresh dill weed, dried dill seed, and the dried dill weed.

Use 5 % acidity vinegar. And, canning/pickling salt. The hard water may make them soft, I don't know. You could try some with each water and then mark them so you know which is from each type, then compare them later. I use plain old city water. We have hard water.

Yes, process quarts 15 min. and pints 10 min.

Husband needs help with dill pickles

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dgkritch

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Husband needs help with dill pickles

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dgkritch

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