Easy Dill Pickle Recipe from Fresh Cucumbers (2024)

FAQs

Do cucumbers need to be soaked before pickling? ›

Your pickles will turn out crisp and you won't need to add firming agents. For a quick and easy way to help ensure crisp pickles: soak cucumbers in ice water for 4 to 5 hours before pickling.

Top the cucumbers with a few stacked lids or a resealable plastic bag filled with extra brine to keep them submerged. Place the airlock on top and secure it to the jar with the band. Store in a cool area (between 60 and 75F [15 and 24C]) for 3 to 5 days, or until the cucumbers taste like pickles.

While any cucumber can be pickled, pickling cucumbers, or Kirby cucumbers, work best. They have bumpy, spiny skins, are never waxed, and range in color from pale yellow to dark green. Burpless cucumbers are the sweetest type of cucumber. They have thin skins, are easier to digest, and are practically seedless.

Pack the cucumber into jars, pour over the hot vinegar and seal. Ready to eat in 2 weeks, or longer, if you like.

Soak Cucumbers In Ice Water Beforehand

If you're not canning your cucumbers immediately, leave them in an ice bath or in your refrigerator overnight to maintain firmness. Doing this before you start canning them will give you the crunchiest pickles you've ever had!

It may be a normal reaction during fermentation caused by bacteria. If the pickles are soft, they are spoiled from the yeast fermentation. Don't use them. Using too weak a salt brine or vinegar solution may cause soft or slippery pickles, as can using moldy garlic or storing the pickles at too warm a temperature.

Cucumbers are often soaked in salt water to remove some of the naturally high water content. Cucumbers will otherwise give up water and dilute the salad dressing. Unpeeled cucumbers are higher in nutritional value as fiber and vitamin A are lost by peeling.

Using quality salt is crucial. Don't use table salt or industrial salt. Measure salt exactly: 2 level tablespoons of salt per liter of water for half-salt pickles or 3 tablespoons of water for traditional salt pickles. The pickles are ready after only 24 hours, when they're half fermented.

Most pickle recipes call for distilled white vinegar. This is the clear, colorless vinegar made by fermenting grains. It has a mellow aroma, tart acid flavor and does not affect the color of light-colored vegetables or fruits.

Firm, dry flesh: Angela also notes that pickling cucumbers should have firmer and drier flesh, which stays crunchy even after a long brine. Small size: Cucumbers bred specifically for pickling are shorter: anywhere from 1-1/2 to about 6 inches long.

Can you make pickles out of store-bought cucumbers? ›

Use only fresh, blemish-free cucumbers. Wash cucumbers thoroughly under running Do not use soap. Select fresh, firm, unwaxed Quite often pickles purchased from a grocery store will have a wax finish. This will prevent the brine from penetrating and not properly curing to make a good pickle.

You must make sure to leave enough room at the top of the jars for a good amount of vinegar to be added to the fruit or vegetables. We recommend leaving no less than 2.5cm. Larger, longer vegetables like green beans and cucumbers fit best in our Wide Mouth Preserve Jars, particularly the 1 litre Jar.

Sodium in pickled cucumbers

Too much salt in the diet can raise blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease. Sodium can also strip calcium from bones. That can weaken bones and increase the risk of fractures.

The right choice is to go for tempered glass that can bear extreme temperatures involved in the canning process. Tempered glass is durable and made of hard material that does not break easily. These are thicker than the regular glass to withstand the pressure and heat involved in the process.

Begin sampling the cucumbers after 4 hours if you've quartered them, 8 hours if you've halved them. In either case, it will probably take from 12 to 24 or even 48 hours for them to taste pickled enough to suit your taste. When they are ready, transfer them to an airtight container and refrigerate them in the brine.

Cucumber water can also offer a tasty alternative to drinks with empty calories, which may aid in weight loss or weight management. The potassium in cucumbers may help with lowering blood pressure. Cucumber water may also help support skin, muscle, and bone health. Learn more about the benefits of cucumber.

The brine prevents spoilage, so it is crucial that the cucumbers remain submerged throughout the fermentation process. If they float, seal excess brine in a new quart zip-close bag and arrange it so that it fills the top of the jar and keeps the cucumbers under the brine.

A pickled cucumber – commonly known as a pickle in the United States and Canada and traditionally a gherkin (/ɡərkɪn/) in Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand – is a usually small or miniature cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or other solution and left to ferment.