Cooking Through Grandma’s Vintage Recipes: Dill Pickles

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My grandma has quite a few recipes for pickles, relish, green tomato relish, and Spanish pickles (pickles with tomatoes). But all of them, save one, are for sweet pickles. I could only find one straight dill pickle recipe in the bunch, and it was very unclear–it didn’t have any amount of cucumbers needed or any spices. Grace loves dill pickles and wanted to make some, so she modified my grandma’s recipe to make it her own.

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Here’s the bare bones starting point. Grace used my grandma’s recipe, plus the recipe (and canning instructions) from this website Tiaras and Tantrums Kosher Dill Pickle Recipe

She washed and cut the cucumbers

Then smashed some garlic cloves

Put two garlic cloves and some pieces of dill in each quart jar

Then combined the salt, sugar, and spices in a pot to make the brine

Put the cucumbers in the jars

Then fill the jars with brine. She did have to remake her brine three times to fill up her jars. I think it’s a learning curve with how much you will need.

Here’s the “after” shot.

Here’s a note: you don’t have to can pickles. They can be stored in the refrigerator for a few weeks. However, if you’re going to make a large batch like this one, you will likely lack room to store them in the refrigerator and canning allows you to keep them on the shelf for a longer period of time. You definitely want to do one or the other, it isn’t safe to leave non-canned pickles out on the shelf, they can develop bacteria and cause foodborne illness.

Dill Pickles

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

6-8 cucumbers
2 pieces fresh dill
2 cloves garlic
1 quart water (4 cups)
1 quart white vinegar (4 cups)
1/4 cup pickling salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon pickling spice coriander seed, mustard seed, bay, allspice
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

Method

Wash and sanitize your canning jars
Wash and slice cucumbers
Add garlic and dill to each jar
In a pot on the stove, combine water, vinegar, salt, sugar, and spices. Bring to a boil over medium heat
Pour hot brine over pickles, making sure to divide spices evenly between jars
Place a lid and ring on each jar
Place jars in a boiling water bath canner for approximately 15 minutes or until lids seal, or store in refrigerator for up to three weeks.

Notes

My grandma’s recipe also calls for red peppers, which I am assuming means red bell peppers. These might be a nice addition to pickle along with the cucumbers.