A good friend of mine got some cucumbers from a local farmer and decided they were a bit too bitter for her. So I was the lucky recipient of some free cukes. When I got them. I got excited, because I’ve had a lot of you ask about canning, which we’re going to learn how to do…WHEN WE MAKE PICKLES!!!! Seriously , how cool is it to serve your own pickles at a BBQ. I love the idea of telling Vlasic and Heinz “Nah, I got this covered”. This recipes is similar to my grandfathers pickled eggplant, with a few changes. The gist of this is to get you preserving your own food, naturally. This recipe made 4, 1 pint jars of pickles.
2 lbs. pickling cucumbers
1 whole head garlic, peeled
1 tbsp pickling spice
2 1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 1/2 cup water
Pickling salt (Not the chemical stuff. You can find it at hardware stores, if it’s not at your grocer)
1 bunch dill
1/2 bunch lemon-thyme
12 Serrano peppers (Optional)
- This step happens the day before. We need to purge some water form thee cukes, If we don’t they’ll get real soggy. Scrub and rinse the cukes well. While they’re still whole, lay down some salt on a sheet tray and stick the soon to be pickles on it. Cover them with some more salt. Rotate them every 6 hour or so.
- The next day, rinse the cucumbers off and dry them very well. Now slice them about 1/3 inch thick. (You can cut pears or keep them whole, I just like slices). Put these off to the side for a bit.
- Take your garlic cloves, and give them a light smash with the flat end of your knife. Drop them in the pot your going to use for heat up your vinegar and water.
- Add the vinegar, water, pickling spice, and 2 tbsp of sea salt, kosher salt, or pickling salt to the mix. Leave this off-heat until your ready to heat it up.
- NOW…..it’ time to get the jar ready. this is a SUPER important step, but it’s easy. Wash, rune and scrub the jars. Then drop then in a pot of cold water, and bring that pot to a boil. Let them boil for 10 minutes. We’re using the boiling water to sterilize the jars. If you need to do this in two round, let the water cool a bit, before you do the next set, so they don’t shatter. Drain and dry the jars. Oh, I like to do this with the lids too.
- Turn on your pot of vinegar and water, and start placing cucumber slices and the herbs in the jar. Jam them in there if you need to, jut don’t go all the way up. Add your peppers here too if you want them. (Really you can use any pepper you want, if you like it spicy). Be sure to leave the head room (where the jar get very narrow) empty.
- When your liquid comes to a boil, cut the heat and let the liquid steep for literally jut a minute. We don’t want it to cool too much.
- Cover the cumbers in the jar with the liquid, and throw the cap on.
- Take your jars, and put them back in the pot of water. Bring the pot to a boil and let that boil for 10-15 minutes. This will process the pickles and let them last longer. You can skip this step is you don’t plan on keeping them around very long.
- Put your jar right into the fridge. Don’t stick them in ice water, you’ll break the glass. (Trust me I’ve seen people do it). Let these sit for 2-3 days, then they’re ready to eat.
Do you really need serving suggestions for pickles? Really??? Fine. Blue cheese, burgers, BBQ, roasted pork, dogs, and cold salads. Add a bit of sugar, chop them up and you’ve got a wicked relish. If you want to change this up a bit, don’t be afraid to change the herbs, or the vinegar. I also like to do eggplant and zucchini in balsamic vinegar with some grilled onions. (Yup in the jar). The end of summer is coming, so don’t be afraid to can your own fresh vegetable, and tell the big canned food companies to shove it.
Happy Canning,
-The Doctor