Today we are talking about canning, with both a modern dill, ER for picklemaking and an antique recipe for pickles.
Garlic Dill Pickles
Yield: Approximately 2 quarts (or 4 pints)
1 heavy quart of pickling cucumbers, whole or sliced
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
2-1/2 tbsp. pickling salt (or substitute coarse sea salt)
4 garlic cloves per quart jar, peeled & slightly bruised
4 springs of fresh dill per quart jar
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper per quart jar (adjust spicy to taste)
1/4 tsp black peppercorns per quart jar
1/2 tsp dill seed per quart jar
- Clean your jars and lids in hot, soapy water. Dry them completely (dishwashers are simple method too, but true sterilization means boiling the jars & lids first.) Arrange jars on counter and dole out the spices to each.
- Wash and slice the cucumbers.
- In a large saucepot, combine vinegar, water and salt. Bring this brine to a simmer.
- Pack the cucumber slices firmly into the jars. You don’t want to damage them but you do want them packed tight. Pour the brine into the jar, leaving ½ inch headspace.
- Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath (quarts for 10 minutes, pints for 5 minutes). When 10 minutes are up, promptly remove the hot jars from the pot and allow them to cool on the countertop. When the jars are cool, check to see if the seals are airtight (by pushing/tapping the lid to test). Processed pickles can be stored unopened out of the fridge in a cool, dry place for up to a year.
-OR- this recipe also works as quick refrigerator pickles, if you want to skip the boiling water process. Simply put the jars into the fridge after they have cooled to room temperature. Pickles canned this second way must be kept in the fridge. (I made one fridge style and a 2nd jar in the boiling water method with the same recipe, they definitely look different).
[If you'd prefer a sweet pickle, my bread & butter recipe is my blog by clicking >here<.]
ER for Picklemaking-
#1 If for some odd reason your jars didn’t seal, even after letting them cool completely down, just keep them in the fridge & consume within 2 weeks.
#2 If you lose some brine (or accidentally spill your jar before sealing), mix another batch of the simple salt/water/vinegar brine, set the liquid to simmer, then add it to your jar so you reach about 1/2" down from the lip of the jar.
#3 Too busy for pickling? My mom says if you prep everything in advance & cap the jar reallllly quickly after adding the hot liquids that you can do this straight into the jar. She says she uses her electric teakettle to get the water really boiling. Then just adds the vinegar & salt straight to the jar & puts boiling water in then super quickly caps its so the heat will start the process of sealing the jars airtight. She says this method has worked for her, but I didn’t try it this time.
#4 Do you have a different kind of salt & want to know if you can pickle with it? The answer is yes but the amount may be different. Check out the conversion chart from Morton Salt to keep the chemistry right for your pickle recipe.
I’d next like to share a pickle recipe from the first African American cookbook published in 1880 by Abby Fisher who was an ex-slave who later lived in San Francisco & operated a successful commercial pickling business.
Her entire cookbook is free online & has amazing recipes for pepper relish, chow-chow, watermelon rind pickles, preserves, jams and sauces that are still tasty today. Its important to read the cookbook phonetically or even outloud because Mrs. Abby Fisher was illiterate & dictated her recipes to people who wrote them down for her in the making of this cookbook. Often the transcriptionist was not a chef & common ingredients and methods are often misspelled but understandable to those with patience. Fisher was an experienced and astounding chef, her recipes range from the simple to the highly complex. The following recipe is for her pickles, but she uses the word pickle like a verb and these instructions can be used to preserve cucumbers as well as several other types of vegetables. As an antique recipe, it does not have the modern recipe structure & is more of a word problem that teaches her technique that could be used by the aspiring modern cook in smaller batches.
Mrs. Abby Fisher's 1880 Recipe for “Plain Pickles" (yields a 5 gallon barrel)-
Any vegetable you want to pickle under this head (recipe), say small or large cucumbers, cabbage or green tomatoes-, have them fresh and put them into a barrel, one layer of cucumbers, or other vegetable, about three inches deep, covering thickly with salt, and repeating layers and salt until you have under brine all you desire to pickle. Let them remain under the brine, if you want to pickle right away, for twenty-four hours, which is long enough, but they will keep a long time by always having them well pressed down with a heavy rock. If you are going to pickle vegetables twenty-four hours after putting them in salt, let them lay in fresh water for two hours, so as to get the smell of the old brine off them. Take them out of the water and put to drain on a sieve made for that purpose of galvanized iron, square, three by four feet, or larger, if needed. Let them drain two or three days, then put in a clean keg or barrel and cover thoroughly with vinegar. Sprinkle over a keg of pickles two ounces of powdered alum while under the vinegar. Let them so remain twelve or twenty-four hours, then pour off the vinegar from the pickles into a large kettle and put to boil. Season while boiling, to five gallons of vinegar, one teacupful of allspice, one-fourth pound of ginger root, two ounces of cloves, one-half teacupful of black pepper, two tablespoonfuls of cayenne pepper. If you do not like pickles very hot, use one-half the quantity of peppers. When it boils with the seasonings twenty minutes, pour the boiling vinegar over the pickles. Make enough vinegar from these directions to cover well your pickles. They will keep a long time if under vinegar. Sprinkle over a five-gallon keg, when you put the vinegar on the pickles, two or three ounces of powdered alum, if you like pickles brittle.”
The above recipe can be found free online in Mrs. Fisher’s antique cookbook "What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking" which is now public domain. Highly recommend it as a read for adventurous cooks:
The first recipe in today’s blog was modified from a modern one I found at the following link (so mine makes a smaller batch than the original). I added fresh dill herb instead of only using the dill seed spice, because they both have their own unique flavor contribution. Lastly I found the conversion so that I could use my sea salt instead of just the weirdly-colored, pre-flavored pickling salt. Recommend you visit this talented lady’s fine blog if you like canning recipes & techniques.
http://foodinjars.com/2009/08/garlic-dill-pickles/
Give pickling a shot, adjust the spices if something Mrs. Fisher suggested sounds interesting. Make your pickles something tasty...
Thanks to Amanda for donating the cucumbers from her garden that I used today and Misty for blazing the pickle trail and leading me to pickling salt & encouraging everyday slow cooking. Gratitude to my grandmother for teaching me to can in mason jars years ago and my mom for giving me a quick refresher course over the phone today.
Garlic Dill Pickles
Yield: Approximately 2 quarts (or 4 pints)
1 heavy quart of pickling cucumbers, whole or sliced
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
2-1/2 tbsp. pickling salt (or substitute coarse sea salt)
4 garlic cloves per quart jar, peeled & slightly bruised
4 springs of fresh dill per quart jar
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper per quart jar (adjust spicy to taste)
1/4 tsp black peppercorns per quart jar
1/2 tsp dill seed per quart jar
- Clean your jars and lids in hot, soapy water. Dry them completely (dishwashers are simple method too, but true sterilization means boiling the jars & lids first.) Arrange jars on counter and dole out the spices to each.
- Wash and slice the cucumbers.
- In a large saucepot, combine vinegar, water and salt. Bring this brine to a simmer.
- Pack the cucumber slices firmly into the jars. You don’t want to damage them but you do want them packed tight. Pour the brine into the jar, leaving ½ inch headspace.
- Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath (quarts for 10 minutes, pints for 5 minutes). When 10 minutes are up, promptly remove the hot jars from the pot and allow them to cool on the countertop. When the jars are cool, check to see if the seals are airtight (by pushing/tapping the lid to test). Processed pickles can be stored unopened out of the fridge in a cool, dry place for up to a year.
-OR- this recipe also works as quick refrigerator pickles, if you want to skip the boiling water process. Simply put the jars into the fridge after they have cooled to room temperature. Pickles canned this second way must be kept in the fridge. (I made one fridge style and a 2nd jar in the boiling water method with the same recipe, they definitely look different).
[If you'd prefer a sweet pickle, my bread & butter recipe is my blog by clicking >here<.]
ER for Picklemaking-
#1 If for some odd reason your jars didn’t seal, even after letting them cool completely down, just keep them in the fridge & consume within 2 weeks.
#2 If you lose some brine (or accidentally spill your jar before sealing), mix another batch of the simple salt/water/vinegar brine, set the liquid to simmer, then add it to your jar so you reach about 1/2" down from the lip of the jar.
#3 Too busy for pickling? My mom says if you prep everything in advance & cap the jar reallllly quickly after adding the hot liquids that you can do this straight into the jar. She says she uses her electric teakettle to get the water really boiling. Then just adds the vinegar & salt straight to the jar & puts boiling water in then super quickly caps its so the heat will start the process of sealing the jars airtight. She says this method has worked for her, but I didn’t try it this time.
#4 Do you have a different kind of salt & want to know if you can pickle with it? The answer is yes but the amount may be different. Check out the conversion chart from Morton Salt to keep the chemistry right for your pickle recipe.
I’d next like to share a pickle recipe from the first African American cookbook published in 1880 by Abby Fisher who was an ex-slave who later lived in San Francisco & operated a successful commercial pickling business.
Her entire cookbook is free online & has amazing recipes for pepper relish, chow-chow, watermelon rind pickles, preserves, jams and sauces that are still tasty today. Its important to read the cookbook phonetically or even outloud because Mrs. Abby Fisher was illiterate & dictated her recipes to people who wrote them down for her in the making of this cookbook. Often the transcriptionist was not a chef & common ingredients and methods are often misspelled but understandable to those with patience. Fisher was an experienced and astounding chef, her recipes range from the simple to the highly complex. The following recipe is for her pickles, but she uses the word pickle like a verb and these instructions can be used to preserve cucumbers as well as several other types of vegetables. As an antique recipe, it does not have the modern recipe structure & is more of a word problem that teaches her technique that could be used by the aspiring modern cook in smaller batches.
Mrs. Abby Fisher's 1880 Recipe for “Plain Pickles" (yields a 5 gallon barrel)-
Any vegetable you want to pickle under this head (recipe), say small or large cucumbers, cabbage or green tomatoes-, have them fresh and put them into a barrel, one layer of cucumbers, or other vegetable, about three inches deep, covering thickly with salt, and repeating layers and salt until you have under brine all you desire to pickle. Let them remain under the brine, if you want to pickle right away, for twenty-four hours, which is long enough, but they will keep a long time by always having them well pressed down with a heavy rock. If you are going to pickle vegetables twenty-four hours after putting them in salt, let them lay in fresh water for two hours, so as to get the smell of the old brine off them. Take them out of the water and put to drain on a sieve made for that purpose of galvanized iron, square, three by four feet, or larger, if needed. Let them drain two or three days, then put in a clean keg or barrel and cover thoroughly with vinegar. Sprinkle over a keg of pickles two ounces of powdered alum while under the vinegar. Let them so remain twelve or twenty-four hours, then pour off the vinegar from the pickles into a large kettle and put to boil. Season while boiling, to five gallons of vinegar, one teacupful of allspice, one-fourth pound of ginger root, two ounces of cloves, one-half teacupful of black pepper, two tablespoonfuls of cayenne pepper. If you do not like pickles very hot, use one-half the quantity of peppers. When it boils with the seasonings twenty minutes, pour the boiling vinegar over the pickles. Make enough vinegar from these directions to cover well your pickles. They will keep a long time if under vinegar. Sprinkle over a five-gallon keg, when you put the vinegar on the pickles, two or three ounces of powdered alum, if you like pickles brittle.”
The above recipe can be found free online in Mrs. Fisher’s antique cookbook "What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking" which is now public domain. Highly recommend it as a read for adventurous cooks:
The first recipe in today’s blog was modified from a modern one I found at the following link (so mine makes a smaller batch than the original). I added fresh dill herb instead of only using the dill seed spice, because they both have their own unique flavor contribution. Lastly I found the conversion so that I could use my sea salt instead of just the weirdly-colored, pre-flavored pickling salt. Recommend you visit this talented lady’s fine blog if you like canning recipes & techniques.
http://foodinjars.com/2009/08/garlic-dill-pickles/
Give pickling a shot, adjust the spices if something Mrs. Fisher suggested sounds interesting. Make your pickles something tasty...
Thanks to Amanda for donating the cucumbers from her garden that I used today and Misty for blazing the pickle trail and leading me to pickling salt & encouraging everyday slow cooking. Gratitude to my grandmother for teaching me to can in mason jars years ago and my mom for giving me a quick refresher course over the phone today.