Refrigerator Pickles
Crunchy Refrigerator Pickles are the perfect pair to any sandwich, picnic and bbq. This is an easy, fast Midwestern recipe that needs to be in your fridge.
Ingredients
- 10 Pickling Cucumbers, sliced into flats or spears for a total of 40
- 5 Garlic Cloves, sliced thin
- ⅓ cup Pickling Salt, or this brand of Sea Salt (also used for making Kimchi)
- 3 Fresh Dill Heads, (If you can’t find fresh use extra 2 tsp dill seed and an extra 2 tsp dill weed)
- 2 tsp dry Dill Seed
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 5 cups Vinegar, white or apple cider
- Distilled Water, 3-4 cups needed to fill remaining jar
Instructions
- Making Refrigerator Pickles is pretty easy and takes very little time. Start by making sure your jar is completely clean whether from the last use or if it is the first time using it.
- Prepare the cucumbers by cutting them into spears or flat slices (for topping on sandwiches) and start to place them standing up inside the jar. I like to lay my jar on its side as I am doing this. Stop at about 3/4 of the way full with your cucumbers, stand up the jar and add in your Dill heads, dry dill, black pepper, garlic cloves, and pickling salt. Finish by placing the remaining 1/4 of the cucumbers standing up into the jar then pour in the vinegar and top off with distilled water. Make sure that when topping off the jar with water that the liquid covers the cucumbers. Seal the lid and GENTLY swirl in a circular motion to move the water around in the jar.
- Place into the refrigerator for at minimum 1 week but they seem to taste better the longer they sit. 2 weeks is preferred to get a nice "pickle" taste and crunch. Keep stored in the fridge until your pickles are gone. Empty the jar and repeat. It's that simple.
- Using Smaller Canning Jars:
- If you are wanting to use the smaller canning jars for the pickle rounds the above recipe makes about 2 Quart Jars and 1 Pint Jar depending on the size of your pickling cucumbers you may be able to get 3 Quart Jars. Only fill the Vinegar up 3/4 th of the jar after the cucumbers are in along with the other ingredients and top off with distilled water.
Equipment
- Large Gallon Canning Jar