Old-Fashioned Dill Pickles
Author Katie Mae Stanley @ Nourishing Simplicity
Ingredients
- 6-8 small pickling cucumbers (about 3 inches long) or two large pickling cucumbers quartered
- 4 cups water
- 2 TBS salt
- 2-4 cloves garlic
- 1 head of dill plant
- 2, 4 inch long sprigs of dill
- 1 oak, grape or horseradish leaf or one organic black tea bag (optional)
- 1 tsp of black peppercorns (optional)
- 1 tsp yellow mustard seeds (optional)
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
Instructions
- Soak your cucumbers in a bath of ice water for at least 30 minutes. (If your cucumbers are fresh from the vine you may skip this step.)
- Pat the cucumbers dry. Cut off any of the vine that may remain attached to the cucumber.
- Pack them into the jar(s). If you are using larger cucumbers slice into spears (wedges).
- Add the spices, dill and leaf (tea) if you are using.
- Mix the salt and water together. (optional, heat the water on the stove and stir the salt in until dissolved. Allow to cool.) Pour the salt brine over the cucumbers.
- The cucumbers need to be submerged at least 1-inch bellow the brine. You can cover them with plastic wrap, fill a plastic zip-lock bag with small stones or marbles or a sterilized rock to keep the cucumbers submerged.
- Screw on a lid or loosely cover with a cloth depending on your jar or crock. If using a jar, burp the jar once a day.
- Leave in a dark place for up to one week. Taste after 2 to 3 days, the cooler your house the longer they take to ferment.
- Transfer to the fridge or cold storage like a root cellar (some day....sigh). They will last for at least 9 months if you have that much self-control.
Recipe by Nourishing Simplicity at https://nourishingsimplicity.org/old-fashioned-dill-pickles/