Maybe you'll find something at the link below.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation

Oh Sharon.............. I think someone is calling your name here................................. where is your pickle recipe? It is the BEST!

Alexa

How about this for "fast" -- and "you can't tell the difference":

Bread & Butter Pickles

1 Qt dill pickles (absolutely NO garlic) I use Vlasik)
2 cups sugar
2/3 cups cider vinegar
2 Tblsps pickling spices

Drain all liquid off pickles, ( you can leave them in the original jar if you want, or re-pack in a canning jar to fool folks.)

Put sugar, vinegar and spices in sauce pan and bring to a simmer; allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Pour strained liquid over drained pickles in a jar. Put the cap back on. Allow to cool. Refrigerate until gone. Make more. (Usually taste best if allowed to rest for a week before eating..... but not necessary.)

I do this same with plain canned beets.... but they Do need to be put in a real jar since the can won't do. I've used my own pre-cooked, sliced beets too.

I use to make jars and jars of B&B Pickles and Beets every summer. Not any more.

What kind of pickles are you interested in? Dill? Sweet? Relish?

how about this? NO cooking (and we like garlic)
\ Annie Margaret's Piquant Pickles
Source: Annie Margaret McLeod Mitchell. These pickles could be called candied dills.

1 quart plain dill pickles (I try to find Polish)
2 cloves garlic quartered
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 cups sugar
4 or 5 dried red peppers

Slice pickles crossways and drain well. Mix with other ingredients and let stand until sugar is dissolved. Stir often. Replace in jar and chill.

Terri, what kind of pickles DO you like? I like sweets, but Dad likes dills and Ashley only likes dilled green beans.

I have a great sweet pickle recipe but it takes 10 days of sitting on the counter. I make Chase's dill pickles, very easy, but mine always get a little soft, no matter what I do.

And I have a refrigerator pickle recipe that San gave me that everyone in my house likes.

Do any of those sound good?

Annie

all of them Annie..
I love pickles..okay cucumber based pickles..sweet, spicy, dill..I don't care..I've never reallly had pickled other veggies...probably would like them...

But let's just start with cucumber based. :o)
Thanks!

This is the recipe my mom used when I was growing up. I made two batches of them this spring and they are still my favorite pickle.
2 cups cider vinegar
1/2 cup pickling salt
6 cups water
Combine and bring to a boil. Place fresh dill (I use a lot), one or two cloves garlic and one hot pepper in sterilized jars. I used serrano in some and jalapenos in some. Pack the cucumbers in the jar. My moms recipe calls for repeating the dill, garlic and pepper. I did this with second batch and they are better, so do that for sure. She says to add a speck of alum the size of a grain of rice to each jar but she doesn't say what size jars so I added that amount to quarts and pints. I'm not sure what it's for. Fill the jars with the vinegar/salt solution leaving about 3/4 inch space at the top. Screw on the lids and in six weeks you have salty, spicy dill pickles. I asked her about processing in boiling water and she said she doesn't so I didn't. They came out fine.

I read that alum is used in canning pickles to keep them crisp and crunchy. But there are articles that say it is not necessary. My grandma never used alum and her pickles were great. My attempt to can pickles, on the other hand, was not so good!

This is a old recipe, given to me years ago, and very easy to make, no canning, and as the recipe says,-- stored in the "ice box" Pickles picked before the seeds become to large work best. Great with a sandwich.

Ice Box Pickles ( bread and butter)
5 cukes, washed, and sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 onions sliced thin
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vinegar
2 t celery seeds
2 t dry mustard
1/8 cup salt
1/2 t turmeric
Mix sugar and vinegar together add celery seeds, dry mustard, salt, and turmeric. Heat just enough to blend spices well.
Pack pickles and onions in 2 qt. or a gal. jar, pour liquid over, making sure you have enough to just cover pickles. Store in refrigerator turning twice a day for the first week.

Alum makes you "pucker", but it doesn't really help keep them crisp, IMO. Neither does grape leaves or pickling lime, or at least they don't help mine! There's a product called "Pickle Crisp", I think it was sodium chloride, but Ball stopped making it because it wasn't popular enough. Worked pretty well, though, and I'm glad I have a couple of boxes left from last year! I think it can be purchased in bulk still from other companies too. The best way to get crisp pickles is to use cucumbers the same day they are picked, as fresh as you can get them, pack them in ice to chill well and always cut off the blossom end. There's an enzyme in the blossom end that makes pickles soft, apparently.

Anyway, for dills I use Chase's recipe. It doesn't meet USDA safety standards because it isn't 50/50 water and vinegar in the brine and it isn't hot water bath processed. I make them anyway for Dad because he loves them but I have to tell you that they break the U.S. "safety rules". Canada has different rules, so they use Chase's method, which sounds the same as Jimtex's way. A lot of older people still use that "open kettle" method but the USDA says it's not safe. Anyway, you choose the method you like, here's the recipe and I just canned 7 quarts of them. I did up the vinegar to 6 cups vinegar/10 cups water, but that's still not 50/50, LOL. Half and half each is just way too sour for me.

Dill Pickles

"This recipe for Kosher style dills was given to me 25 years ago by a farmers wife who grew cucumbers and it has never let me down. The two things I have found critical to crisp dill pickles are soaking the cukes in ice water for at least 2 hours and ensuring the brine is at a full boil when poured over the dills."

Original recipe yield 8 - 1 quart jars

8 pounds 3 to 4 inch long pickling cucumbers
4 cups white vinegar
12 cups water
2/3 cup pickling salt
16 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
8 sprigs fresh dill weed
8 heads fresh dill weed

DIRECTIONS
Wash cucumbers, and place in the sink ( I use the bathtub!) with cold water and lots of ice cubes. Soak in ice water for at least 2 hours but no more than 8 hours. Refresh ice as required. Sterilize 8 (1 quart ) canning jars and lids in boiling water for at least 10 minutes.
In a large pot over medium-high heat, combine the vinegar, water, and pickling salt. Bring the brine to a rapid boil.
In each jar, place 2 half-cloves of garlic, one head of dill, then enough cucumbers to fill the jar (about 1 pound). Then add 2 more garlic halves, and 1 sprig of dill. Fill jars with hot brine. Seal jars, making sure you have cleaned the jar's rims of any residue. (If you choose to waterbath them, process quarts for 15 minutes)
Store pickles for a minimum of 8 weeks before eating. Refrigerate after opening. Pickles will keep for up to 2 years if stored in a cool dry place.

And here's a refrigerator pickle I got from San:

THE FRUGS PICKLES

In a saucepan, heat on low until thoroughly dissolved:

1 C water
1 tsp salt
1/2 C white vinegar
1/2 C sugar
then stir in:
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp mustard seed

pour the above mix over:

2 cukes, thinly sliced (we use english cukes which are very thin-skinned and don't bother to peel them)
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced

cover and refrigerate several hoursÂthese will keep a couple of weeks with no loss of crispness

My favorite sweet pickle, but be aware that after I put the brine on them Ashley starts snitching them right out of the bucket on the counter so my yield is never what the recipe says, LOL.

Linda Lou's Sweet Pickle Chunks

Sweet pickle chunks:

Every day for four days, pour boiling water over 24 pickling cukes. Drain off old water and use fresh water every day. On 5th day, drain, cut cukes into chunks and add this syrup.
8 cups sugar
4 cups cider vinegar 5% acidity
3 1/2 tsp. pickling and canning salt
2 Tbsp. pickling spices, tied in a bag.

Bring syrup to a boil and pour over pickle chunks. Every day for 3 days, drain syrup, reheat and pour back over pickles. On 4th day, pack pickles into jars, seal with lid. Process in water bath canner for 10 minutes.

For something different that the kids love (for some odd reason, LOL), here are some Koolaid pickles. Some people love 'em, some people hate 'em. I think they taste weird, but Ashley will eat half a jar, go figure. I don't know where it came from originally, this recipe was in my local newspaper, but I've seen it on the Food Network on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives". He liked them too.

KOOLAID PICKLES

1 (46 ounce) jar whole dill pickles
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
2 (1 ounce) packets kool-aid unsweetened cherry drink mix
Directions
Drain and discard the juice from the pickle jar. Remove the pickles from the jar and cut each one in half lengthwise. Return the pickles to the jar and set aside.

In a large measuring cup, combine the sugar, water and Kool-Aid. Mix until the sugar has completely dissolved. Pour enough of the liquid into the pickle jar to cover the pickles. Discard any excess.

Cover the jar and refrigerate at least 24 hours.

This recipe is from my old Farm Journal Cookbook. It didn't call for a hot water bath, but I do it anyway and it doesn't seem to matter. I like the onions in there better than the cucumbers and I leave the peppers out altogether because no one likes them:

Bread and Butter Pickles (Farm Journal)

Quick Bread and Butter Pickles

4 quarts sliced medium-sized cucumbers
6 cups sliced white onions
2 green peppers, sliced to make 1 2/3 cups
3 cloves garlic
1/3 cup granulated pickling salt
5 cups sugar
3 cups apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 1/2 tsp. celery seed
2 T. mustard seed

Combine cucumbers, onion, green peppers and whole garlic cloves. Add salt; cover with cracked ice and mix thoroughly. Let stand 3 hours, then drain well.
Remove garlic. Combine remaining ingredients; bring to a full boil for 5 minutes.

Pack vegetables into jars and cover with hot syrup. Seal. (I put them in a hot water bath for 10 minutes)
Makes 8 pints.

So, whatcha waiting for? Make some pickles, LOL.

Annie

Alum only works to crisp pickles fermented the traditional way and thoroughly rinsed. Otherwise it's just aluminum in the jar.

I think Pickle Crisp is 100% Calcium Chloride. You can't buy it under the brand name any more but you can buy the generic in bulk online. Just be sure it's food-grade.

Carol

Thank you! stashing the recipes...

Refrigerator Pickles
Our church cook book

Slice onion in bottom of gallon jar (I use quart). Slice pickles to fill but do not peel. Boil syrup, until dissolved and pour over pickles and fefrigerate.

4 c. white vinegar 1 1/2 t. mustard seed
4 c. sugar 1 1/2 t. tumeric
1/4 c. canning salt 1 t. celery seed

It takes about 36 pickle size cukes for a gallon.

I have found that this also works with Splenda for a sugar substitue.

I also usually make them in quart jars and give some away, as I don't have room for a gallon jar in my fridge.

these are similar to bread and butter pickles and are easy enough for my dad to make.

Tami