There is nothing quite like the crunch of a Garlic Dill Pickle to accompany your sandwich at lunch or on a pickle dish for a dinner.
These Garlic Dill Pickles are not hard to make, but you need to follow a few simple rules for good results.
- Use only pickling or kosher salt without additives. Do not use table salt. Although pure, the additives in it to keep it free-running in damp weather make the pickling liquids cloudy; the iodine in iodized salts darkens the pickles.
- Salt as used in brining pickles, is a preservative. Brine draws the moisture and natural sugars from foods and forms lactic acid to keep them from spoiling.
- Use a high grade white distilled vinegar or 4 to 6 percent acidity. Avoid vinegars of unknown acidity which will cloud the pickling liquid.
- Use white sugar unless the recipe calls for brown. Brown or raw sugar makes a darker pickle.
- Buy fresh spices for each pickling season, because they deteriorate and lose their pungency over time.
Drew’s Garlic Dill Pickles are short-brined, which means the cucumbers sit in the brine overnight. The whole process takes 2 days to complete.
Fresh Dill from the local Farmer’s Market
We were very lucky because the local Farmer’s market had fresh picked cucumbers and dill for puchase. Fresh prime ingredients are basic. They lose moisture so quickly, that even one day at room temperature may lead to hollow-centred or shriveled pickles.
Drew’s Garlic Dill Pickles
Print recipe| Serves | 10 jars |
| Inspiration | Putting Food By by Hertzberg, Vaughan, Greene |
Ingredients
Short-brine
- 2 4 litre (quart) heaping baskets of pickling cucumbers
- 8 Litres (quarts) drinking quality water
- 1 1/2 Cups pickling salt
Pickling solution
- 8 Cups white vinegar
- 1 cup pickling salt
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 12 Cups drinking quality water
- 3 Tbsp whole mixed pickling spices
Canning process
- 10 Litre (quart) canning jars with snap lids
- cheese cloth
- 20 Tsp whole mustard seed (2 tsp in each jar)
- 10 to 20 Cloves garlic (1 to 2 cloves in each jar)
- 30 Dill heads (3 heads in each jar OR 10 tbsp of dill seed, 1 tbsp per jar)
Directions
| Short-brine | |
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Make a 5 percent brine with the water and pickling salt  | |
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Wash and brush scrub the cucumbers and place in a non-corroding crock or kettle and cover with the brine.  | |
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Place a plate on the top of the pickles to keep them submerged. Let them stand overnight.  | |
| Pickling solution | |
| Combine vinegar, salt, sugar and water: tie pickling spices loosely in cheese cloth and drop into the mixture. Bring to a boil. | |
| Canning process | |
| Use clean canning jars. Fill them with boiling water. Place the snap lids in a small pot, cover with water and bring to a slow boil to activate the rubber in the lids. Prepare your Boiling-water canner. Fill 2/3 full with water. Bring to a boil. | |
| Drain the cucumbers that had been in the brine overnight. | |
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Empty the water out of the jar, add the mustard seed, dill and garlic to each jar. Then pack the cucumbers into the jar, adjusting them to get as many as possible, while still leaving and 1/2 inch headroom at the top. Cover with the pickling solution. Wipe the top of the jar with a clean cloth. Then remove a lid from the simmering water and place on top. Screw on a ring to secure the top.  | |
| Repeat this process until all the jars have been filled. | |
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Process in the Boiling-water bath for 20 minutes. The canner will hold 8 jars at a time. Lift the jars out of the canner and place on a heat proof trivet. The lids will start to snap as the jars start to cool down. Do not move the jars for 12 hours. Then write the date on the lid and store in a cool dark place.  | |
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Repeat the process until all the jars have been processed. | |