One of the crops I was most excited about this year was our cucumbers, because I wanted to make pickles. Fortunately, we have had good production from that section of the garden. We are well over three cases of pickles for the seasons, in various flavors.
The first batch I made was a crock of traditional brined/fermented pickles. We used a 2-gallon crock from my mom, with a weight and lid from the hardware store. They came out very salty, but tasted like the pickles that float in the big jar at a deli. Maggie used a second crock from my mom to make fermented pickles with less salt.
We invariably missed a few cucumbers while picking, and then found them when they were huge. We have been using those to make refrigerator pickles by cutting the cucumbers into chunks or large slices with a couple of garden peppers to provide some zip. We also made a batch of sweet refrigerator pickles, which have been a tasty alternative to the dills.
We also made a couple of batches of fresh-packed dill pickles. We made our own pickling spice mix using the recipe in the Ball canning book.
The last batch from the garden were used to make a bread and butter pickle. This recipe called for placing the cucumbers and onion slices in a bowl, mixing in salt, and covering with ice cubs for 90 minutes. I have seen this technique in other canning books, and it is unclear what the ice does, especially since the next step is to wash the salt off the cucumber slices and put them into a pot of boiling brine.
Our stacks of pickles should encourage us to explore a variety of sandwiches this fall and winter.
The recipes are all in the Ball canning book, so it does not seem necessary to repeat them here. However, we modified the refrigerator pickle recipe to include peppers, so am including it below. The recipe below is a half-recipe for 2 pint jars, since we only use it if we have a couple of very large cucumbers or some left overs from a water bath canning session.
Refrigerated Zesty Dill Chunks
Ingredients
4 Cups cucumbers, cut into chunks or thick slices
1-2 Jalapeno pepper, diced
1 Banana, yellow, red, or orange pepper, coarse chop (for color)
1 Cup white vinegar
1 Cup water
3 Tablespoons canning salt
1/8-Cup sugar
1 Tablespoon pickling spice blend
3 Teaspoon dill seed (divided)
1 Teaspoon mustard seed (divided)
3/4 Teaspoon peppercorns (divided)
2 Cloves garlic
Wash and cut up cucumbers and peppers, and place in glass or stainless steel bowl.
Combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and pickling spice in a saucepan, bring to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes
Pour brine over cucumbers and let come to room temperature, about 60 minutes
Using pint jars, place 1-1/2 teaspoon dill seed,1 teaspoon mustard seed,1/4 teaspoon peppercorns, and one crushed garlic clove into each jar.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer cucumbers and peppers into jars and pack jars.
Pour brine into jars, leaving 1/2-inch of headspace. Place two-part lids on jars and place jars in refrigerator.
Use within 3 months.
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