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A few people have asked if I’d share my dill pickle recipe. This is the recipe my grandmother used for years, and she recently told me it’s the recipe her grandmother always used to use. She said she liked it because the ingredients are per jar – making it really easy to make pickles as your cucumbers are ready, instead of having to wait until you have a lot at once.
These pickles also have to age for a while. Mine will sit at least 6 weeks, but longer wouldn’t hurt.
Dill Pickles
Makes 1 Quart
1/2 to 1 Tbsp salt
1 cup white vinegar
1-2 heads dill
1/2 tsp. powdered alum
Put salt, vinegar, and dill in bottom of can. Add cucumbers and more dill, finish filling with boiling water and seal up.
Since I’d never made pickles before, I wasn’t convinced that the brine alone would be enough to preserve the pickles. We ran the jars through the water bath canner for 15 minutes (based on another pickle recipe we found). I’m still not 100% sure that’s the best way to do it, but I’m curious.
Makes sense.
No I haven’t tried it yet, I haven’t had enough to have a pickling yet but then again I haven’t had the per jar recipe you posted either.
Interesting. I’m so new to making pickles that even though I’ve seen the other products (like the lime), I’m not really sure what they’re for. I just follow the recipe. 😉 One of these days I’ll learn more about it!
I made some and they turned out a little mushy. I soaked the cucumbers in alum water for a day, before making them. After I was finished, my Mother told me I probably should have soaked them in pickling lime instead of the alum. Oh well, they are so sour you can’t help but ignore the mushiness. 🙂
That’s what the alum is supposed to be for. I saw the pickle crisp yesterday when I was at Walmart and wondered how it was different. Have you tried it yet?
I bought a new product this year, PICKLE CRISP, I am wondering if using it would help with the mushiness or is that what the powdered alum is for?
Just a quick update from a year later. The pickles tasted great but were too soft from being in the canner too long.
Tammy – I hope mine aren’t mushy then! Thanks for the info!
The recipe I have for pickles says to process for 2 minutes. That way the pickles are still crisp.