Regular cukes will soften quickly, and because the skins are so thick they will be tougher to enjoy. When I buy cukes for salads, I use pickling types as their skins are very thin and crisp, and are not needed to be peeled off. Can't say the same about regular cukes, as they would be like biting into a hard tough skin, and softer inside. Pickling cukes are the #1 choice and MUST be used immediately after picking!! to get the best texture. Chilling in ice water can help to recrisp them, but its short term only, and will not fix/replace an older cukes' texture, or to get to be crisp again for a longer time. If sunken, rubbery, soft, old, they are not going to be as good for making crisp pickles. Long English cukes (sport), are usually sold in a shrink wrapped plastic. The reason is simple. If left out to air they dry out very fast and you end up with a poor texture again. They are bred to offer the softest skins that are found on all cukes. I wouldn't use any English cukes for pickles, but they are decent in fresh salads however. As to the crocks, you may want to see if cheap the lead tst kits used for tsting paint might work. A tiny chip of the glaze may be a way to see if the sample shows positive for lead. I think crocks made before 1960-1970 are are questionable, but correct me if I am wrong.

I still have the lime here (Mrs. Wages brand) and it did help to hold the cukes a bit firmer for the all vinegar sour pickles. I do not use alum anymore and because it still seems to be linked to aluminium and allzheimers I was not going to even try going any further with it. The lime was used, and the whole cukes were soaked in it for 24 hours in the fridge. I used huge stainless steel bowls that take up a whole shelf in the fridge. I cut off the tips of both ends prior to the soaking, They did get a long rinse afterwards, but even for that, there was a bit of white sediment in the brine after a few days. I also used a bit of tumeric for some color. They were quite pungent. I could have even added a bit of my acid blend and made them even more potent.. My sours are not fermented. They are just 100% plain white distilled vinegar, salt, and a little tumeric. My pickled pepperoncini are also done that way, but without the tumeric. My half sours are just a salt brine with a dash of vinegar added after they sit on the counter overnight. Ive also use the pickling lime for making some sweet mixed, but it was just for the cukes to soak in first. The amount of alum used in a 7 quart batch of sour pickles was something like about 2-3 teaspoons for the toatl amount of vinegar brine. With Pickle Crisp, you do have as slight flavor of chlorine, but that tends to dissipate once they are opened and allowed to 'breath' a few minutes before serving. A chilled pickle always seems to be a bit crunchier than at room temp. FYI> Rumford brand baking powder has no alum in it. Baking soda is basically bicarbonate of soda and nothing else. There is also a bakers ammonia that is still used today for some Swedish cookies and pasteries. I can't taste Pickle Crisp, but that might be because of the heat of the peppers, or the strength of the flavors and spices I use in regular pickles. Mrs. Wages and Ball mixes are the primary ingredients I use when making spiced pickles, and I add extra spices like dill, celery seeds, mustard seeds and such to the various kinds of pickles.There is nothing worse (besides a sour or mushy cuke) than a bland tasting pickle. A recent America Test Kitchen episode dealt with making a flaky pastery for a big berry tart. They mixed the butter and flour to a very course mix, then used their palms to press the flour into the butter lumps. This helped to spread the butter into thinner bits. Ever made puff pastry? I have, with excellent results. MUCH better than the Pepperidge Farm frozen stuff. It does take a long time, a cold work surface, lots of patience and lots of rolling between each chilling.

I would prefer more vinegar - double it. Granted the ratio of water to vinegar is a little better than the 50/50 minimum allowed but it doesn't take into account all the water in the cukes themselves plus the onions. I would also cook the seasoned brine first rather than just using it raw. That way the brine has less of a chance of turning cloudy on you and they would keep longer in the fridge - couple of weeks. Dave

This is an old thread but if anyone wants the flavor of real salt cured cucumber pickles, I found a listing by googling the subject. It was a patent application if I recall. What the auther tried based on a chemists perspective was that grain alcohol can be substitured molecule for molecule for salt in the curing process. He gave the formulas to use and I followed them and made a plastic crock full of wonderful dill pickles in my spare bathtub. It takes almost a month to cure fully and the pickles are nice and sour just like real deli dill and like the salt pickles my mother and father used to make in the 1930s and 49s. Sorry but I only made them once but you can find the reference by googling like I did. And no you can't drink the brine, the alcohol is all used up in the process and the brine tastes sour and full of dill.