I never seem to have any fresh dill when I need it, so the mix seems like a good substitute. I'm trying to make refrigerator pickles. I have a small city garden and only have enough cucumbers for maybe a quart or so, and the package says it makes about 4 quarts. Would it be ok to save the extra brine in the fridge and use it when I have enough for another quart? If so, will I need to heat up the brine again? TIA.

For spears, the wait time for consuming can be down to 3 weeks after canning. If its whole cukes, it will take longer. Adding some Pickle Crisp (Calcium Chloride) will improve crispness. A 50:50 ratio of water to vinegar is marginal, so you may want to consider using a bit more vinegar and a bit less water. There is also a dill pickle that calls for a few whole peppercorns per jar. I don't care for that, but others might. Fresh dill weed is OK, but you can also add fress dill seed heads (swelld green stage) if you like a more powerful dill taste. I like lots of dill taste and use a Mrs. Wages dill pickle mix as the basis, instead of the pickling salt. I also like using all vinegar and no water most of the time. Another option is slices like the 'stackers' from Vlassic, where they slice lengthwise for sandwiches. Keep in mind that any cuts of whole cukes will get soft a bit faster after they are canned, hence, the need for the Calcium Cloride (available from Bulk Foods).

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

Brined for 10 days? Do you mean they were fermented? Pickles are brined for a few hours or maybe overnight except for fruits and a couple of candied sweet pickles. If you are fermenting them and added too much salt to begin with for the weight of the food then since it has only been 10 days - which isn't very long - you can just add more cukes and okra to dilute the salty flavor and even add a bit of sugar and let it keep fermenting longer until the salt level drops. But if you want to stop the fermenting process instead, then yeah you can rinse and pack in the 1:1 vinegar/water mix of your choice. White gives a sharp, cider gives a more mellow flavor. But it won't eliminate all of the over-salty flavor. If you mean something other than fermenting could you tell us exactly what recipe you are using? Dave