We Made Pickles!

As you know, I love pickles.  So do my kids.  Well, on Pinterest (surprise, surprise) I stumbled upon a recipe for homemade pickles.  I've never made pickles before and was a little hesitant to try these, because we've made some Pinterest-recipe duds.  Then I saw that this recipe was based on a Bobby Flay recipe.  well, heckyes, I'm in!

The finished product!  They are not quite kosher-dill and not quite bread-and-butter, but just a mild garlic dill combination.

The kids and I went to Kroger and got a ton of groceries, including Kirby cucumbers.  And then we realized that we had all the requisite spices in ground form but the recipe called for whole-seed form.

Back to the store.

And ... disappointment.  Because neither Kroger nor Publix had what we needed.  (For the record, we needed whole mustard seed, whole dill seed, and whole coriander seed.  I had all three in ground form in my pantry, and I could buy the whole dill seed, but the other two were "specialty" items.)  Lucky for us, my friend Kristin happened to mention that she was heading to the DeKalb Farmers' Market!  (The DFM is a giant -- many times the size of a huge supermarket -- indoor farmers' market on the other side of Atlanta from us.  It's a really cool place to go and shop, but kind-of a project to go down there, especially just for two spices.)  I asked her to pick up the missing spices, and she was happy to do it.  She came by last week and dropped them off, and the kids and I were finally able to make our pickles.  HOORAY for Kristin!

The pickling process was remarkably easy.

You need the spices, some water and vinegar, and some chopped garlic.*  Mix it all up in a big bowl to make the brine, add fresh dill, put the cucumbers in, cover them with a plate to weigh them down and keep them submerged, cover the bowl, and then refrigerate overnight.

Whoops.  Forgot to buy fresh dill.  Fortunately, I had plenty of dried dill on hand, and so I made a little "tea ball" with cheesecloth and dill weed, and it worked like a champ!

Looks kind of like a jellyfish, no?

Sorry, I know the photo is a little on the gross side.  This is AFTER the pickles were done.  I just wanted to show you what I am talking about.

Anyway, the next day, we tested the pickles and went to Hobby Lobby to get a GIANT (okay, half-gallon) Ball jar.  And we've been snacking on delicious pickles ever since!

--Jen

*Here is the link to the original recipe, but if you just want to mix the brine and marinate (which is all you need to do), here are the ingredients:
1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup cup sugar
4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
3/4 tsp dill seeds
2 cups hot water
2 pounds kirby cucumbers, sliced
3/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh dill
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
If you want other pickle recipes, the link above will connect to a bunch of different recipes, not just this one.  I'm planning to try them, too, so stay tuned!

Pin It