You will be surprised how easy these dill pickles are to make. No canning necessary! They are ready to eat within 24 hours, but the longer you wait to open the jar, the better the flavor. They will last up to 8 weeks in the refrigerator, so it is the perfect way to use up any cucumbers that you have sitting around right now or to tackle that out of control cucumber vine growing in your garden! Dill pickles (or pickled anything really) also make a nice gift.
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This recipe fills a 1 quart Mason jar, but you could easily increase the quantity. Just remember that you have to keep the water to vinegar proportion at 3 parts water to 1 part vinegar and up the salt accordingly to keep it at 2 tablespoons per quart jar.
There are so many adaptations you can make too! Try pickling carrots, kohlrabi, or making dilly beans. You can use the same dill pickle recipe below, just sub out the vegetables. You can make them as spicy or mild as you like by increasing or decreasing the garlic or adding other spices. Give it a try, I guarantee you will be pickling everything in no time.
Easy Dill Pickles
Ingredients
- 1 & 1/2 cups water
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 2 tbsp sea salt
- 2 cucumbers
- 1 dill head
- 1 garlic clove
- 10 whole peppercorns
- 1 quart Mason jar
Instructions
- Make the brine. Add the water and vinegar to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the salt and stir until dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool completely (if brine is hot, it will soften the cucumbers and you want them to be crisp!)
- While the brine is cooling, smash the garlic clove with the side of a chef's knife. Remove the peel and place half of the clove into the bottom of your 1 quart Mason jar.
- Place 10 whole peppercorns onto a cutting board and press them with the side of a chef's knife or the back of a spoon to roughly crush. Place half of the pieces into the bottom of the Mason jar.
- Next add the dill head, with the head down, into the Mason jar.
- Cut the ends off of the cucumbers (removing the ends will help prevent the pickles from spoiling). Slice the cucumbers in half width wise, then cut each half lengthwise into spears. Pack the spears vertically into the jar as tightly as you can. Any remaining spears can be stuffed in the top of the jar or cut into smaller pieces and placed on top.
- Add the remaining half of the garlic clove and peppercorns to the top of the jar.
- Pour the cooled brine over the top of the cucumbers, making sure to cover the entire contents of the jar completely by at least a half inch.
- Seal the jar and place in the refrigerator. Let sit for at least 24 hours and preferably several days before opening. The longer they sit, the better the flavor. The pickles will be good in the refrigerator up to 8 weeks.
So what if I don’t have dill heads?!?! 🙂
Hi Maria! No worries – if you can’t find dill head in the grocery store, you can use 2-3 sprigs of fresh dill instead. I know Willy St Co-op sells the heads and farmer’s markets will too but other stores probably won’t. Our CSA farm gives us a few every year. What we traditionally think of as dill is the leafy part. The dill head is when the plant flowers. If you keep an herb garden, consider adding dill. Last year we had cucumbers in my garden and I put a dill plant next to it. Both plants went crazy! It was nice to always have the ingredients to make pickles.
I ended up using some dry dill because that’s what I had–eeek! BUT…I am happy to report that they were SO GOOD!!!! Will definitely use this recipe again!! Thanks Jenny!
Yes! That’s the mark of a true chef – be creative and use what you have. Glad you experimented and it turned out!