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The quest for crunchy dill pickles

Posted in FOOD & DRINK to Local 365 by Anna Barnes on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 7:00 am

A couple of weeks ago my friend Nanda called me from California looking for a canned dill pickle recipe. "Do you have a good one?" she asked. "No," I replied. "I'm surprised; I'd thought you of all people would have one."

It's actually not that surprising when you think about it. Everyone says their recipe makes "the best" dill pickles or "pickles like your grandma's." They lie. A recipe that would produce pickles with the crunch of those you find in the refrigerator case would be worth millions. If the company that produces the leading refrigerated pickle could find a recipe for a shelf stable version with the crunch that its stork peddling competition claims to have, they'd be all over it. It would save them untold amounts of money to ship in regular trucks and not have to pay for refrigerated space in the store.

So it is that each year I find myself looking for canned dill pickle contenders and each year I find myself coming back to my old standby recipe for refrigerator dills. This is the recipe that I passed along to Nanda. I started with Marion Cunningham's Victory Garden recipe which makes very pleasant pickles if you're, say, having a Junior League Tea in Atlanta. But it doesn't produce anything anyone would recognize as a dill pickle on a Chicago dog. Not happy with Marion's version, I found myself picking the brain of former C-U resident and community studies professor, Sonya Salamon about her husband Myron's refrigerator dills. Sure, many of you may have known Myron as a physicist and engineering dean, but the man's culinary passion was and is refrigerator pickles-jars and jars of them. While Sonya never handed over Myron's recipe, she did give me a few hints. From there, I continued to play with the vinegar ratio, until last year, when I think I finally got it right.

These are easy enough that a child could make them, providing said child is allowed to play with stoves and boiling liquids.

Refrigerator Dill Pickles

Pickling Solution:

  • 4 to 5 pounds firm cucumbers (the smaller in diameter, the better)
  • 2 t dill seed, or 12 to 15 heads of fresh dill
  • 1 T of pickling spice (cloves removed)
  • pinch of red chili flakes
  • 4 cloves of garlic

Wash cucumbers. Cut in half lengthwise. Seed if larger, and cut again lengthwise or however many times to get desired spear width. Cut in half crosswise, if necessary, to create 4 inch long spears. Alternatively cut smaller diameter cucumbers into 3/8-inch thick slices (see photo). Layer cucumbers, garlic, fresh dill if using, in a 1 gallon glass lidded jar or divided among quart canning jars with lined lids.

  • 6 cups water
  • 2 cups white vinegar
  • 1/2 cup kosher salt

Bring ingredients for the pickling solution to a boil. Turn off heat. Pour hot vinegar solution over cucumbers. Use wooden skewers to keep cucumbers below brine. Let the mixture rest with lid open on kitchen counter for 3 or 4 hours covered with a clean flour sack towel. Close lid. Refrigerate. Pickles are ready to eat in 2 to 4 days and will keep for about a year.

5 comments

Rob McColley avatar featured_post

Rob McColley

07/22/09 at 07:43
#1

Heather—currently suffering through the late-July realization that balanced-calendar teaching has its drawbacks—will be ecstatic to know there’s a Home Claussening recipe.

Stef avatar

Stef

07/22/09 at 07:34
#2

My goodness, that sounds easy enough that even I could do it…. although I’m not allowed around stoves and boiling liquids. 
I love me some pickles. and I have to say, the Claussen ones freak me out because they are just unnaturally crunchy. Freaky crunchy.  Alien crunchy.

Seth Fein avatar featured_post

Seth Fein

02/08/10 at 02:47
#3

I made these this weekend, albeit without the Pickling Spice. They are fucking tremendous. Wish I had local cukes, but alas they looked good and crispy at the store the other day.
 
Here is more: they were ready within 12 hours. Now, I suspect they will get better with a little time in the fridge, but you can start enjoying them almost right after they chill.
 
Nice Anna!

username

Kimversations

08/09/10 at 08:32
#4

I made a few modifications but love this recipe. Thanks for the tip about removing the cloves from the pickling spice. The pickles cam out great and they don’t last long! I’m posting the recipe with my modifications on my blog with a link back to this page.
~Kim

 

username

Andy

08/29/11 at 08:04
#5

Thanks for the recipe!  I haven’t been paying close enough attention to my garden (between work, travel, and the hurricane this weekend, I just haven’t had time!) and suddenly needed a way to deal with a whole lot of cukes.  They’re a lot bigger than the probably ought to be for pickling, but I gave it a shot.  I’ll find out in a few days or a week how they worked out!

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