I never rate or review anything so this must be a great recipe. I've been canning pickles for over 30 years and wanted a new recipe, I tried this one and if you are a beginner or a pro and you want a great recipe then you should try this one! I made 30 pints in July 2009 and gave them as gifts, as well as ate them, they were a hit. They were too salty after much rinsing so I cut back the salt to about half after the first batch. I started making double the recipe. I mixed them in a large cooler to have enough room to blend everything real well. I added 2 red and 2 orange peppers to the recipe to give it color and just chopped it instead of diced because the peppers are just as good to eat. I put ice on the top while the mix stands so the cukes and peppers get crisp. The cooler helps keep the ice from melting too fast. I packed the pint jars with the cukes then ladled in the brine, this works fine. I put them in a 10 minute 'bath' since I made so many and wanted them to last. I opened the last jar a few weeks ago and it is just as fresh as when I made them last year. I just finished making 45 pints today. They're ready to eat right away. Fantastic pickles! Thank you, David. Another pickle tidbit: when storing pickles, turn them upside down, so that the top pickles are soaking in the brine, since the pickles will rise. Then as you eat them the bottom soaks.
The salt draws water from the veggies, thus they need to be drained. By removing some of the liquid from them, they turn out crisper as pickles. I do, however, like to mix a quart of cracked ice into the mixture, to keep it cold. It melts, and everything is well drained at the end of 3 hours. My family loves these!
The combination of spices make a great tasting pickle but when it says use a large bowl they should have said a tub...I used three large bowls and then poured it all into a tub to mix the cukes with the salt. I also covered the salted cukes with ice and a loose cover (I think the ice gives the pickles a little more crispness)
Very good pickles. I would definitely rinse the cucumbers well after sitting in the salt, as they were awfully salty. I also processed them for 10 minutes in a hot water canner so I could keep them in the pantry.
My family loves these! They are less sweet than grocery store b&b and crunchier. My husband who is not usually a fan of b&b likes these almost as much as dills now. :) I made mine in lengthwise slices so that they could be used along with the onions and bell peppers as sandwich dressings. Some things that I wanted to touch on that will clear up some of the confusion about the recipe, you MUST save the juices that come out of the cucumbers when soaking in salt and you cannot reduce the amount of salt because what you are doing is creating a balanced brine. If the brine is not the correct volume of salt/sugar/vinegar and water they will not cure or be safe for canning. The reason that some are finding the recipe too salty is that it is CRITICAL to use canning salt. Canning salt has a different volume per measure than table salt or any other. So you if you use the recommended measure in table salt instead, you are adding WAY more than you need. I did hot water bath can my pickles, you can find the instructions for how long on pick your own.com How long you do it for depends on your size jar and altitude. Hope that helps someone!
Best ever even better than mine. Nice addition with the garlic and cloves. I think the recipe should read 25 pickling cukes. Some folks who never made pickles before used regular cukes which were to big and made them come out soggy. Thanks David for a great recipe!!!
I love these pickles! I soaked my cukes for 7 hours in ice water before cutting them and mixing them with the salt garlic and bell pepper. I didn't let them sit as long as suggested. I only let them sit for 45 minutes drained the liquid and mixed into the brine. They still came out very well. Very crisp delicious pickles. The best I've tasted. Thanks for sharing!
These are pretty good. One thing I would change is after draining the brine rinse the vegetable mix and drain again. It was a bit too salty. If I make them again I will definitely do this.
These were a great success! Loved them. I steralized my mason pint jars in a hot dishwasher first and they all sealed so they do not need to store in the fridge. Made 9 pints. I think I'll make another batch!!
