4 lb pickling cucumbers, quartered length-wise
3 cups water
2 3/4 cups white vinegar
1/4 cup pickling salt
6 teaspoons yellow mustard seed
6 tablespoons dill seed
3 teaspoons dillweed
6 bay leaves
6 cloves garlic
1/2 cup minced dill
Directions:
Bring the water, vinegar and salt to a boil. Prep wide-mouth pint lids/jars. Place 1 bay leaf, 1 teaspoon mustard seed, 1 tablespoon dill seed, and 1/2 teaspoon dillweed in each jar.
Add the cucumber spears and one clove garlic to each jar. Evenly divide the dill among the jars. Pour in the vinegar mixture. Close the jars and process for 10 minutes in a hot water bath. Allow to sit 2 weeks before eating.
Yield: about 6 pints
Note: A great source for canning information is the Blue Book guide to preserving. I highly recommend it for learning how to can. Here is a bunch of other canning books and equipment I find useful.
My thoughts:
Pickles! I sent my husband to buy pickling cucumbers the other day and he came back with 15 lbs. He helped cut up the cucumbers (thank goodness!) and I ended up canning 22 jars of pickles in three varieties. These are the first ones I’ve opened. To my delight they stayed pretty crisp and have wonderful but not overpowering dill flavor. I was a little worried that using dillweed, dill and dill seeds would end up being too much but it really wasn’t. There was just a depth of flavor that one normally doesn’t find in a pickle. I hope the other ones I canned turned out just as well! After a while, I felt like I was living in a pickle factory and I think I developed “pickle wrist” from trying to really pack the cucumbers in there. But it really wasn’t difficult at all, just a little time consuming.
Made these today. I had leftover cukes from making Bread and Butter pickles and sliced them thickly instead of spears. I didn't have anymore wide mouth jars, so I thought the slices would be easier to get in and out of the jars. I used Kosher Salt, because that's what I have (I Googled "substitute for pickling salt"). Easy, fun recipe Rachel! Can't wait to taste them and thanks so much for coming up with it!
These look great! I'm going to try this recipe out, as the first and only pickles I've made were with fresh ginger and rice vinegar and came out way too strong. But these look like they'll be nice, crisp, and not-too-overpowering after the two week wait.
I made a batch today. This is my first foray into canning and I hope my seals are good. But the recipe looked fantastic. Thanks!
I love the distinctive flavor of dill, so these triple dill spears would be right up my alley. I'm a canning neophyte, so I appreciate all the encouragement. 😉
Awesome. I was just swooning over pickles the other day at the store and thought it will have to be one of my next kitchen-food projects. Now, wondering if they can be standard canned or if they have to be pressure canned this way?
Rosie
As the directions state, you process the pickles in a 10 minute water bath. High acid foods do not need to be pressure canned.
yummers! I can't wait to try them!
My best friend and I made these together last night since it was our first try at canning! They already look so pickle-y and DILLicious it's going to be hard to wait two weeks.
Thank you for making it so simple!
I know it's a couple of years since this post but I just made these today. I've never canned anything before and just did a web search to find out that the "pop" noises my jars are making as they cool on the counter are normal — the sound of the last air seeping out and the lids sealing : ) I can't wait to try these. It's going to be hard to wait two weeks. I also canned one jar of green beans with this recipe since I also had a lot of extra in the garden. I also had a couple of malformed cukes from the garden that I ended up slicing like bread and butter pickles so there's a jar of those too.
Thanks so much for the recipe!
Enjoy! I make them every year!