Best Homemade Pickles Recipe (Garlic Dill Pickles)
Delicious garlic dill cucumber pickles that have all the crunch and none of the soggy. Tested safe canning recipe for shelf-stable pickles for year round garden goodness!
Equipment
- 1 Water Bath or Steam Canner
- 4 quart-sized canning jars with lids
Ingredients
For the Ice & Salt Water Soak
- ½ cup pickling salt
- 4 cups ice water to cover cucumbers
For the Brine
- 5 cups vinegar 5% vinegar
- 5 cups water
- 5 Tablespoons salt
- ¼ cup sugar optional
- 2 Tablespoon pickling spices see recipe in the notes
For the Pickles
- 7-8 pounds pickling cucumbers
- 8 cloves crushed garlic 2 cloves per quart jar
- 8 teaspoons mustard seed 2 teaspoons per quart jar
- 4 grape leaves 1 grape leaf per jar.
- 8-12 heads fresh dill 2-3 heads per quart jar (or 2 Tbs dried dill seed, or chopped dill weed)
Instructions
Prepare Cucumbers
- Prepare your cucumbers by cutting off ¼ inch of the blossom end and placing them in a salt and ice water bath for at least 12 hours.
Make Brine
- While your cucumbers soak, add all brining ingredients (vinegar, water, salt, sugar and pickling spices) into a large heavy-bottomed pot. Pro Tip: Use a tea infuser for your pickling spices so you don't have to strain the brine!
- Bring the brine mixture to a simmer and let steep for 10 minutes.
For the Pickles
- Before preparing the pickles, set up your water bath or steam canner by adding water and bringing it up to just under a boil.
- Add to each clean Mason jar the garlic, mustard seed, grape leaf (or other tannin) and dill.
- Fill jars with cucumbers. Leave a generous one-inch headspace with the cucumbers. Pro Tip: I like to start with the largest cucumbers first, then fill in the gaps with smaller cucumbers.
- Place jars on a towel-lined counter and carefully ladle the hot brine into each jar, leaving ½ inch headspace.
- Use your jar de-bubbler and measure your headspace again, adding more brine if needed.
- Wipe the rim of the jar clean with a damp towel.
- Add the two-piece Mason jar lids and tighten to fingertip tight.
- Place jars into your water bath canner and make sure they're covered by one to two inches of water. Bring water to a boil and process quart jars for 15 minutes and pints for 10 minutes.
- After the processing time, turn off the heat and remove the lid of your water bath canner. Let your jars sit for five minutes before removing them from the canner. (If using a steam canner, turn off the heat and leave the lid on for five minutes before removing the lid and proceeding to the next step.)
- Place jars on a towel-lined counter and let sit for 12-24 hours, undisturbed.
- Check the seals of the jars, remove the bands, and wipe any residue from the jar with a damp towel.
- Finally, label each jar with the contents and the date and store in a single layer on the pantry shelf.
Notes
Melissa's Pickling Spice (Makes 2 Tablespoons)
- 1 Tablespoon celery seed
- ½ Tablespoon whole black peppercorns
- ½ Tablespoon allspice
- Pick cucumbers in the morning. Cucumbers will be their firmest in the early morning. Try to avoid harvesting cucumbers in the afternoon when their water content is the lowest.
- Pick cucumbers when they're ripe. If your cucumbers grow too large, they can get bitter or have off flavors. Plus, they'll be hard to fit into the jar, or you'll only be able to fit a couple of cucumbers per jar. Pick cucumbers when they still have their prickly spines and are light to dark green in color. A cucumber is over-ripe when it turns pale yellow, loses its spines and gets bloated.
- Use a good pickling variety of cucumbers. There are countless varieties of cucumbers available to grow in the garden, but not all cucumbers make good pickling cucumbers. Choose a variety that's known for pickling (more on this below).
- Preserve them as soon as possible after harvesting. If you harvest cucumbers and let them sit at room temperature, they tend to get soft. Once a cucumber has gone soft, it won't ever firm up again. So get cucumbers straight into the refrigerator after harvesting if you don't have enough for a batch of pickles.
- Remove the blossom end. The blossom end contains enzymes that can cause soggy pickles. If the stem and blossom are both already removed and you're not sure which end is the blossom end, look for the end that's lighter green (watch the video for an example).
- Use an ice water/salt-water bath prior to canning. The ice water and salt help keep the pickles firm. The salt will actually help draw out excess moisture in the cucumber, which will result in a crispier pickle. You can soak cucumbers for up to three days in the refrigerator and keep adding more as you harvest. Allow them to soak for a minimum of 12 hours.
- Can the cucumbers in their whole form. I love a good pickle spear or sliced pickle, however I've noticed that my pickles will stay much more crisp when canned in their whole form. So if I want pickles spears or slices, I'll just slice it at the time of eating.
- Add tannins! Tannins will also help keep pickles crunchy during the canning process (grape leaves are used in the recipe above, other options are listed in the article under ingredients needed section).
Nutrition
Serving: 1pickleCalories: 46kcalCarbohydrates: 6gProtein: 2gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0.1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.2gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 3054mgPotassium: 239mgFiber: 1gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 214IUVitamin C: 6mgCalcium: 36mgIron: 1mg
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