Let's Make a Dill

Today I prepared and processed six pints of dill pickles. I make at least one batch of pickles each summer about this time.

I love to make pickles. In fact, I love to can anything. I’m not sure why. My mother never canned, nor did my grandmother – at least not to my knowledge. I’ve been convinced for some time that I lived as a pioneer woman in a former life. In fact, I used to think that I would love to live out in the country on a farm. But then I started thinking about how I hate bugs (particularly grasshoppers), run to the grocery store about three times a day, and love living near my grandchildren. Good sense prevailed.

Last weekend I went to the farmers’ market after church and bought several pounds of pickling-sized cucumbers. I spent half a week just looking at them before I finally went to Whole Foods and got some dill.

And speaking of my Whole Foods-dill adventure, here’s a shout-out to the nicest produce man in the country. Marcus not only went in the back to find me some dill, but when he came back with it, he gave it to me for nothing! Said he loves dill pickles! Maybe I’ll take him a jar.

But back to canning….. Pickles are particularly pleasurable to make, because they smell so darn good. The smell of fresh dill combined with the smell of the vinegary brine just makes me think of late summer.

I used pint jars instead of quart jars (which all the recipes told me to use), and this resulted in me having to cut my cukes into quarters in order to fit them in the jar. That’s okay. I prefer a pickle spear over a whole pickle anyway.

Don’t be afraid of canning. It’s the simplest thing ever. It just requires that you are careful about using sterile jars and lids. Once you have the jars filled with whatever the content is, add the liquid to the top (or about a quarter of an inch from the top), wipe the rim, and put on the lid. Then you just boil the jars in a big pot (I have a canning pot that I got years ago from Ace Hardware) for the required time (remember to add 10 minutes if you live above 5,000 feet). Once the jars have processed for the required length of time, remove them from the boiling water and set them on the counter to cool. As they do so, the lids make a cheerful popping sound, which tells me a vacuum has been created. Yay!

I said don’t be afraid of canning, but I must admit that I don’t can fresh vegetables unless I pickle them. There’s more of a trick to preserving them – I think it requires pressure cooking, which terrifies me. Maybe some day I will get up the nerve. In the meantime, I stick to pickles, tomatoes, and jams and jellies.

Here’s my recipe for pickles:

2-3 pounds of small pickling cucumbers
Fresh dill
Garlic
Peppercorns
1 qt. water
1 qt. white vinegar
¼ c. pickling salt

In the bottom of six pint mason jars, place a garlic clove that you have peeled, six or seven whole peppercorns, and a sprig of fresh dill. Place your cut cukes into the jars, as many as you can fit in.

In a pan, boil the mixture of water, vinegar, and salt for five minutes. Pour the brine into the jars right over the cucumbers, filling the jar to about a quarter of an inch from the top. Place another sprig of dill (and another peeled garlic clove if you like your pickles really garlicky) on top of the cucumbers. Put the lids on, and process for 10 minutes (I process for 20 minutes because I live in Denver). Remove the jars, place on the counter, and wait for the pop.

They say you should wait three weeks to eat the pickles. That rarely happens. Here’s a true story: While I said my mother never canned, she did make pickles. She made what she called her 3-day pickles. She would cut up her cukes and place them in a bowl. It was always the same green bowl – it came from a set that she got as a wedding present. She would pour her brine over her cukes, put a plate on top, and put a heavy can of some sort of vegetables or fruit on top to hold the cukes down into the brine. The goal was to wait three days for delicious pickles. But we never waited. Almost immediately my dad would sneak into the kitchen and take a pickle from the bowl. All of the kids would follow suit. Little by little, the cucumbers (you could hardly call them pickles) would disappear. By time the three days passed, there wasn’t a pickle to be found. Yum.

Here’s my mother’s recipe for 3-Day Dill Pickles, just as she dictated it to me:

4-6 cucumbers
Dill
2 pints water
1 c. vinegar
¼ c. salt

Clean and wash cucumbers – cut in quarters and place in open bowl. Cover with fresh dill or dill seed. Bring liquid mixture to boil and pour over cukes. Cover with a plate so liquid covers cukes.