The only thing you can't leave out in a pickle recipe is the vinegar. So if you don't want sugar (it cuts the sharp taste of the vinegar) don't use it. If you don't like garlic, leave it out. Same with mustard seeds, peppercorns. Though if you leave out the dill you won't have dill pickles anymore ;-) There are several good dill pickle recipes in The Joy of Pickling.

The guideline reads that anything processed for 10 mins. or longer does not require pre-sterilized jars. The sterilization is done during the processing. Anything that calls for LESS than 10 min of processing does require the use of pre-sterilized jars (10 min in boiling water prior to filling). Heating the jars and sterilizing the jars are two separate issues. Sterilized jars are automatically heated but heated jars are not necessarily sterilized. Dave PS: your pickles are fine

Carol, can you provide a link to the 3:1 recipe you found? The best I could find from the Penn State extension was the Quick Fresh Pack Dill Pickle recipe, which is the same as NCHFP (linked below). This is a 1.3:1 recipe (aka 4:3) water:vinegar. Meta, what Carol was saying is that the water:vinegar ratio is tested as safe for a given quantity of sugar and salt at a given processing time. Sugar and salt change the way microorganisms can interact with the available water, so the recipe is a whole package. The recommended ratios are general advice meant to give people an idea of what might be safe in an untested recipe. Food scientists like Ellie Topp have creative ways of increasing acidity to get around the ratio, but she lab-tests her recipes. Unfortunately, as you are seeing, many of the old tried-and-so-far-true recipes turn out to be food-safety roulette, even though they are from sources we'd like to think are reputable (such as published canning recipe books!). The sources I trust are state extension services (and when I doubt I compare a small state website to one of the food safety biggies like Penn State or NCHFP at UGA), the current versions of the Ball Blue Book and Complete Book of Home Preserving, and Small Batch Preserving by Topp and Howard. Generally I also trust The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich, but if in doubt I post on here to get more opinions. Sorry to hear that your family recipe is now in doubt. How about adding more vinegar, then maybe some sugar to take the edge off? I would ditch the alum...aluminum is not a necessary nutrient and has been suspected in an Alzheimer's link. Don't give up, you can still find a way to make a safe version of your grandfather's pickles! Melissa Here is a link that might be useful: Click on pickles

angiepangie: "I have been making dilly beans and pickled beets by just blanching the beans, boiling the beets- and pouring over hot seasoned water and vinegar mixture. I keep them in the fridge and then are eaten within a couple of weeks or months. I've always heard that you are supposed to heat process things or you could get sick. However this is the method my grandmother uses and I've never gotten sick with it....." "...Please don't tell me to invest in a canner and learn how to heat process! I don't have the money to do so, no matter how cheap- I only come across organic beans and beets etc every so often, and only make pickles a few times a year. my basic question here is, can I just pickle up all these beans by blanching, then hot vinegar/water/sugar/spices- and leave them in the fridge indefinately? I don't want to make my family sick." Have you ever tried to lacto ferment your dilly beans? This was actually my first year at fermenting raw unpasteurized unblanched live Fortex beans and we like them nearly as much as we do the half sour/full sour cukes; I served them at a cookout last weekend and they were a huge favorite with most of the folks there. It's soooo easy, and absolutely no heating energy or special equipment is required; they will keep for months in the fridge, and they're not only 'safe' for your family, they are very nutritious for them also. This is the basic recipe I followed: "These pickled green beans make a tasty snack anytime of the day…they have a wonderful garlicky taste and are a great little “finger-food”. I like to grab a few straight from the jar and munch on them….betcha’ can’t eat just one Recipe type: Lacto-fermentation, Appetizer, Condiment Serves: 1 quart Ingredients ¾ to 1 pound fresh green beans 1 large clove garlic, thinly sliced pinch red pepper flakes 1 teaspoon dried dill OR 3 to 4 sprigs fresh dill 1½ Tablespoons unrefined sea salt 2 cups filtered water Instructions Place half of the sliced garlic to a clean quart-sized mason jar, followed by the red pepper flakes and dill. Snap off the stem-end of green beans. Blanch green beans in boiling water for 2 minutes, then immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water until no longer hot. Drain the blanched beans well and pat dry with paper towels. Add green beans to your jar, stem-end down, packing them close together….it helps to lay the jar on its side at first. Fill the jar completely with the green beans, but do not pack them in too tight. Sprinkle remaining garlic slices on top of beans in jar. In a bowl, or large glass measuring cup, mix together the water and salt. Pour this mixture into your jar of beans to cover, being sure to leave 1-inch space from the top of the jar for expansion. (If the brine does not cover, simply make up another batch using the same ratio of salt to water.) Place lid (preferably air-lock lid) on the jar tightly. If using air-lock fill with water according to instructions. Allow to ferment (culture) for 3 days at room temperature, checking after day 2. When they are done, the beans will smell and taste “pickled”, but they should still be slightly crisp. Remove air-lock lid, if using, and replace with storage lid ��" transfer to cold storage." Here is a link that might be useful: Lacto-fermented “Pickled” Green Beans This post was edited by sidhartha0209 on Tue, Sep 10, 13 at 21:33