Pickles!

[B_BQ]

I've been wanting to make some for a few days now. When I want something I usually need to have it now!
Our weekend away got in the way, but today I got stuck in.

English Pickled Onions. I'll need to wait a few days before tasting, and if they're good then I will make lots more, as there are several people anxiously waiting for some:

I think it was Ven who started me thinking about pickling cucumbers. I picked some up at our favourite farm stand before we went away, so I had everything ready to get going today. I made 5 jars of dill pickles:

[Ron Evers]

Perfect dills, a clove of garlic & a hot pepper.

[DonnaZn2SK]

Your pickles look great, Brenda. You packed those cukes in perfectly. Next time I make pickles, I'm going to add a chili pepper to each jar too...do the pickles have much heat?

[B_BQ]

Next time I make pickles, I'm going to add a chili pepper to each jar too...do the pickles have much heat?

I don't know Donna! I've never made these pickles before. I read a lot of recipes, all slightly different. One of the recipes called for a chill pepper which appealed to me. Will be taking in about 10 days!

~BBQ

[Trailblaze1]

Looks good!

are these made with vinegar Brenda, or in a salt brine with no vinegar?

[Lulu]

I usually add two or three chili peppers and 4 or 5 cloves of garlic! Get tons of compliments on them. When we go to a potluck,,the hostess will usually ask me to bring my dill pickles. Just make sure they are refrigerated, before sampling! The cold intensifies the taste and calms the heat! Never had anyone complain they were too hot/spicy; even the kids here enjoy them

[B_BQ]

These were made with white vinegar, pickling salt, fresh dill, garlic and a dried hot chill pepper!

Lulu. I agree with you about eating these sort of pickles cold. I don't like room-temperature pickles. The onions are also so much better tasting just out of the fridge.

It's going to be hard to wait for these to mature before I can taste them. I do have a few of the dills in a bowl, immersed in the pickling vinegar, covered. I'm going to cheat in a couple of days and try one of those!

~BBQ

[Ron Evers]

I used to make dills every year & found much variation in the brine between recipes. I found the combination that most pleased me & made up a chart for easy reference year after year with no variation.

Take a point on the bold line, go left for the amount of water, right for the amount of salt & down for the quantity of vinegar.

example: 1500 ml water, 150 ml pickling salt & 1000 ml of vinegar.

No more guessing which recipe I used last year.

[Smitty]

I used to make dills every year & found much variation in the brine between recipes. I found the combination that most pleased me & made up a chart for easy reference year after year with no variation.

Dill Brine Ratios.jpg

Take a point on the bold line, go left for the amount of water, right for the amount of salt & down for the quantity of vinegar.

example: 1500 ml water, 150 ml pickling salt & 1000 ml of vinegar.

No more guessing which recipe I used last year.

first thing that came to mind when saw this was....'engineers..gotta love them'

great idea Ron!!!!
I have troubles gettting the brine just right too..gonna borrow this if'n you don't mind??

the more garlic the better in dills IMHO but never tried it with a hot pepper...hmmmmm

[davefrombc]

Dad made dill pickles ever year. They were fermented ones with vinegar in the brine Lots of fresh dill on the bottom of the jar. Garlic cloves and a chili pepper or two added; more dill on top of the pickles and then boiling hot brine poured in. Then the jars were lightly sealed and allowed to ferment. It made for some bite back pickles that everyone loved .. He also used the same brine, dill, garlic and hot peppers treatment to dill green and yellow string beans , celery and carrots.
Dill pickles don't need to be confined to only doing up cucumber dills . Ron's brine chart looks about the same ratio Dad used in making the brine for his dills.