What's your favorite dill pickle recipie? I've been looking for a good dill pickle recipie. The best pickles I ever tasted by far were some my brother made in a old wooden whiskey barrell. The fermented kind. He would load up the barrell, set it in the cellar, turn it every day till it quit bubbling. Man were they good!
Of course I don't have the recipie. I have just started a batch using a recipie I found on a U of M web-site. I haven't got to taste these yet but I'm hopin' they're half as good as my brother's.
Use the following quantities for each gallon capacity of your container. (food grade plastic containers work too)
4 lbs. of 4-inch pickling cucumbers
2 Tbsp. dill seed or 4 to 5 heads fresh or dry dill weed
½ cup salt
¼ cup vinegar (5%)
8 cups water and one or more of the following ingredients:
2 cloves garlic (optional)
2 dried red peppers (optional)
2 tsp. whole mixed pickling spices (optional)
Procedure: Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch slice off blossom end and discard. Leave ¼ inch of stem attached. Place half of dill and spices on bottom of a clean, suitable container. Add cucumbers, remaining dill, and spices. Dissolve salt in vinegar and water and pour over cucumbers. Add suitable cover and weight. Store where temperature is between 70° and 75° F for about 3 to 4 weeks while fermenting. Temperatures of 55° to 65° F are acceptable, but the fermentation will take 5 to 6 weeks. Avoid temperatures above 80° F, or pickles will become too soft during fermentation. Fermenting pickles cure slowly. Check the container several times a week and promptly remove surface scum or mold. Caution: If the pickles become soft, slimy, or develop a disagreeable odor, discard them. Fully fermented pickles may be stored in their original containers for about 4 to 6 months, provided they are refrigerated and surface scum and molds are removed regularly. Canning fully fermented pickles is a better way to store them. To can them, pour the brine into a pan, heat slowly to a boil, and simmer 5 minutes. Filter brine through paper coffee filters to reduce cloudiness, if desired. Fill jar with pickles and hot brine, leaving a ½-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process in a boiling water bath, or use the low-temperature pasteurization treatment.
I have read that the very best fermented pickles can be made by not using any vinigar at all, just salt. The pickles produce their own vinigar (lactic acid) which is why the better flavor. If I get enough pickles from my garden I plan on trying this process.
Here is another recipie for fermented pickles I found in a old church recipie book - the Mary and Martha Cook Book 10th Edition, Mary and Martha Circle, First Mission Covenant Church, Rockford, Illinois, date unknown.
Chunk Pickles:
Wash one peck cucumbers (dill size) and place in a stone crock with alternate layers of dill. Cover with brine.
Brine - 1 gallon water, 2 c vinigar, 1 c salt, alum, boiled. Cover let stand 14 days.
Wash and slice cucumbers into jars. Cover with syrup of 2 c sugar and 1 c vinigar and a small piece of alum in each jar.
Mrs. Willard Peterson
Mrs. C. Henning Johnson
If I use this recipie I plan on using the brine and not the syrup for canning them. I personally don't care for sweet pickles. I will update this post when my batch of pickles has been tasted.
Of course I don't have the recipie. I have just started a batch using a recipie I found on a U of M web-site. I haven't got to taste these yet but I'm hopin' they're half as good as my brother's.
Use the following quantities for each gallon capacity of your container. (food grade plastic containers work too)
4 lbs. of 4-inch pickling cucumbers
2 Tbsp. dill seed or 4 to 5 heads fresh or dry dill weed
½ cup salt
¼ cup vinegar (5%)
8 cups water and one or more of the following ingredients:
2 cloves garlic (optional)
2 dried red peppers (optional)
2 tsp. whole mixed pickling spices (optional)
Procedure: Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch slice off blossom end and discard. Leave ¼ inch of stem attached. Place half of dill and spices on bottom of a clean, suitable container. Add cucumbers, remaining dill, and spices. Dissolve salt in vinegar and water and pour over cucumbers. Add suitable cover and weight. Store where temperature is between 70° and 75° F for about 3 to 4 weeks while fermenting. Temperatures of 55° to 65° F are acceptable, but the fermentation will take 5 to 6 weeks. Avoid temperatures above 80° F, or pickles will become too soft during fermentation. Fermenting pickles cure slowly. Check the container several times a week and promptly remove surface scum or mold. Caution: If the pickles become soft, slimy, or develop a disagreeable odor, discard them. Fully fermented pickles may be stored in their original containers for about 4 to 6 months, provided they are refrigerated and surface scum and molds are removed regularly. Canning fully fermented pickles is a better way to store them. To can them, pour the brine into a pan, heat slowly to a boil, and simmer 5 minutes. Filter brine through paper coffee filters to reduce cloudiness, if desired. Fill jar with pickles and hot brine, leaving a ½-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process in a boiling water bath, or use the low-temperature pasteurization treatment.
I have read that the very best fermented pickles can be made by not using any vinigar at all, just salt. The pickles produce their own vinigar (lactic acid) which is why the better flavor. If I get enough pickles from my garden I plan on trying this process.
Here is another recipie for fermented pickles I found in a old church recipie book - the Mary and Martha Cook Book 10th Edition, Mary and Martha Circle, First Mission Covenant Church, Rockford, Illinois, date unknown.
Chunk Pickles:
Wash one peck cucumbers (dill size) and place in a stone crock with alternate layers of dill. Cover with brine.
Brine - 1 gallon water, 2 c vinigar, 1 c salt, alum, boiled. Cover let stand 14 days.
Wash and slice cucumbers into jars. Cover with syrup of 2 c sugar and 1 c vinigar and a small piece of alum in each jar.
Mrs. Willard Peterson
Mrs. C. Henning Johnson
If I use this recipie I plan on using the brine and not the syrup for canning them. I personally don't care for sweet pickles. I will update this post when my batch of pickles has been tasted.
