Early Spring Dill Pickling

I've read that pickling cucumbers should be purchased fresh from local farmers rather than a storefront, something about store cukes being for fresh eating and waxed. Whatever. I made my dill pickles tonight and I already heard a couple lids POP so I'm excited to taste them. 

What you'll need:

1) Baby cukes (or be prepared to cut cukes to fit jars)

2) wide mouth jars (easier to work with as you squeeze the cukes inside, but whatever you have should be fine)

3) new lids to fit your jars

4) rings for jars

5) garlic

6) dill

7) canner (I see canners at second-hand shops all the time, be sure to get one with the metal rack insert - this is the important part to keep the jars from hitting one another while boiling. And don't mind if you find a rusty canner - none of the water it holds will be entering your jars).

For Brine you'll need:

1) 8 1/2 C water
2) 2 1/4 C vinegar

3) 1/2 C kosher salt

(Obviously, the amount of brine and jars/lids/rings you'll need depends on how many cukes your pickling - vinegar is fairly cheap so just make more if you use it all before you're done. For my purposes I needed 1 1/2 batches of brine, and I had about 10 pounds of cukes.)

Start by washing your jars very well and boiling your lids for a couple minutes to sterilize.

Thoroughly wash your cukes, hot peppers and dill, and peel garlic.  Load up your jars, squeezing as many cukes in as possible and still leaving about an inch of space at the opening. 

I've placed the rings on top only to be sure I counted correctly.

How much dill, garlic or hot pepper is a personal preference. I added one clove of garlic, one hot pepper, and about a tablespoon of sprigs of dill to each jar.

Heat the water, vinegar and salt till dissolved and near boiling. In moments, these same jars will be boiled in the canner so the brine must be very hot, just remember to slowly add the brine to the jars so they don't crack. 

Cover the cukes with the brine and wipe the jar tops dry. Place sterilized lids on top and secure with rings. 

Large canner, holds 7 jars.

Inside of canner can be rusty, the water never reaches inside your jars.

Place them in the canner with water up to the bottle necks. (There are many different opinions on this, some people cover the jars with water, others do not even use the canner; this method works for me so I use it.)  Bring water to a boil and remove the jars with oven mitt. Place on cardboard (or a towel) and place a towel on top to help them cool slower. 

Don't disturb the jars for 24 hours (if you can hold out that long!) then check to make sure they all sealed. If a jar didn't seal, simply refrigerate and eat as you would normally. Store the remaining sealed jars in a cool, dark place.

Expect some discoloring as the hot brine affects the fresh cukes.

My husband made his own batch of Arabic pickles, which are similar but he added lemon in place of dill. 

Arabic pickles, with lemon and garlic

I'd like to can some red pepperoni peppers next. And some peaches and pears! Yumm!! My mother canned everything! I have 10 living siblings so we really DID can everything. We even canned kumquats. Yup! Those tiny oval tart hollow orange skins! At least that's how I remember them. And they weren't too bad canned. What's the strangest canned food you've ever canned?