Anyone make their own pickles?

I am a big fan of a good pickle. I'm not talking any of those floppy fluorescent green POS you buy off the shelf (like Vlassic or Mt Olive). I decided give pickle making a try last week.

A coworker is growing pickling cukes, the short fat one. They bring in bags of them, so I figured why not give it a try.

So I searched the interweb for a Claussen type, "refridgerator" pickle recipe.

I had a gallon glass jar, packed it with these cukes cut in spears, and a handful of whole Jalapenos, garlic, dill weed and seed, pepper and brine. Let them sit for 10 days, and they turned out really really good. Tangy, dillly, garlicy, spicey and crunchy goodness.

Anyone else do this or have a special recipe?
[Reply]

those sound awesome, i wanna try it now
[Reply]

I used to make a bunch every year. I lost the second big fridge so i can't do them anymore. Part of what I do has them sitting in a lime bath for 14 - 18 hours...... Love me some crisp, hot homemade pickles.

The pepper I use is sold at Krogers and is just called "Tiny Peppers" on the jar. I have no idea what they are. Very easy to raise and lower the heat in the jar depending on how many you put in. The brine mix I use is from Mrs. Wages. Good stuff.
[Reply]

I make pickles every year. Whole dills and "sandwich slicers".
I didn't grow dill, so I'll use a packaged pickle mix this year. When I grow my own dill, I use garlic, dill, and a few banana peppers in there.
They're awesome. :-)
[Reply]

my grandfather used to make them and store them in those big 2 gallon glass jars.. very similar to what you mentioned above (sliced, with seed, pepper, onion, etc).. I could literally eat them all day long.. love pickles..

I think this might go on my Winter "I'm bored as hell" project list.
[Reply]

I also enjoy making my own pickles. There's a farmer's market just down the road from my apartment, and on weekends they have vegetable wholesalers; this means that I can get tons of veggies for awful cheap. With such prices (and the fact that you have to buy entire crates/bushels at a time), pickling becomes a great option.

What I do varies only slightly by vegetable. Since I do not have a pressure canner, I only make fridge pickles. To further combat botulism, I get vinegar (or a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water) boiling hot before pouring it into the container with the veggies. Garlic, onions, jalapeno, cilantro/coriander, dill, and other flavorings have all graced some of my pickle jars. Really, it's all about using what's at hand to make something delicious :-)
[Reply]

Interesting. This was my first time doing this, so I just used the brine recipe I found online. This recipe called for a 4:1 of distilled water to distilled vinegar with 2 tbls of kosher salt for every quart brought to a boil. Do you think that's too diluted to ensure safety?

At this ratio they have a good level of vinegar tang, it seems that a stronger brine would be pretty potent.

I decided to pickle the bag of Jalapenos my coworker brought me. I just sliced the peppers and used brine and some whole garlic cloves. Can't wait to try these.
[Reply]

Try some whole ones too Jason.I'll be expecting some samples soon :-)
[Reply]

but of course :-)
[Reply]

I've never really gone by a recipe. I looked at a few recipes to get a general guideline, then I just made it up as I went along. :-)

I didn't mention it, but yes I do (when I remember) add salt to my pickled vegetables.

I don't know the biomechanics of the safety, but if they're recommending a 4:1 ratio then I'd say it should be pretty safe. You can ask those who attended the Lake Herf and tried my okra and asparagus; pure vinegar seems to work just fine.

Good eats :-) Let me know how those jalapenos pickle up.
[Reply]

I love pickles, so making your own seems like a kinda cool idea
[Reply]

These sound mighty tasty! I'll have to try this.
[Reply]

What a great idea!!! I'm a fan of pickles that have heat. Let us know how they turn out.
[Reply]

i hole heartedly agree
[Reply]

The cuke pickles turned out great. The Jalapenos I threw in with the cukes were hotter than average. The pickles have a slight heat, but I eat hot all the time, so I'm not so sensitive to the spice. I am told by others that they have a kick.

I cracked the jar on the straight pickled jalapeno I made last week. They are pretty nice. Not like store bought, that are soft, these have a crispiness to them. These I had sliced, if I get more peppers I'll try blanching them and pickling them whole.

A note on the cucumber pickles.. I noticed that some of the cuke's center (seed portion) got pretty soft and just fell of the cuke. I think this is because these were over ripe. I think if you try this you want the cukes to be dark green. As they ripen the centers get softer and spongier and the seeds get bigger.
[Reply]

Y'all have inspired me to try to make some of my own pickles. Sometime this week I'll be making my first batch. I'm going to go with a spicy garlic recipe I found online. Mmmmm mmmm mmmm.
[Reply]

Could I use cucumbers from the store to make my own pickles?
[Reply]

Yes, but you'll find that the "pickling cucumbers" make better pickles--they're shorter and fatter. Standard pickles might do alright, but they'll probably end up getting quite soft during the pickling process.
[Reply]

That's exactly what happens to them. I made two one gallon jars of "regular" cucumber pickle slices a month or so ago when I couldn't get pickling cucumbers at the farmers market here. On the thinner slices the cores got very soggy and some collapsed entirely. The thicker slices held together though.

Also, I discovered for "regular" cucumbers, you need to peel them, as the rinds tend to stay rather tough for a long time in the brine.

On the recipe I used - it started out a number of years ago as Alton Brown's Bread and Butter pickles, which are really good, but I grew tired of the B&B and was looking to re-create a real deli pickle ala Chasens or Jerry's. Ended up cutting the sugar way back, yes there is still some in there to balance things (you can't taste it - but it rounds out the flavor), omitting the turmeric, cutting the celery seed quantity down, and using nothing but distilled white vinegar (it's cheap) rather than the fancy vinegars he calls for - I also upped the amount of vinegar a bit, about the called for amount of pickling spices, with some additional brown mustard seed and a metric asston worth of chopped fresh garlic in the jar with the slices. While I didn't duplicate the deli pickle I was aiming for, but I'm really liking the results.
[Reply]

I like that "toughness", it gives it that crisp snap when you take a bite.


The recipe I used called for tumeric and mustard seed, but I did not add them (because I didn't want to spend the money, lol) also black pepper corns, but I just used ground black pepper, which I thought gave it a nice peppery taste. In the gallon jar along with the cukes I added about 4 pinches of dill weed and 4 pinched of dill seed, about a teaspoon or 2 of black pepper, about a tablespoon of minced garlic and 3-4 jalapenos.

I was very please with the results. I think next time I will get the tumeric.
[Reply]