How To Make Crispy, Crunchy, Dill Pickles

Back in the day I published a community blog for JSOnline.  Readers from all over North America and beyond visited WauwatosaNOW to learn about how to make crispy crunchy sweet pickles.  Lest you doubt that claim Google How To Make Crispy Crunchy Sweet Pickles.  That blog post from 2011 is still cached out there on the interweb.  Further evidence that you should never post something on social media that you don't intend to last forever.  For as long as the website was hosted I enjoyed the brief notoriety of one of the World Wide Web’s foremost authorities on crispy crunchy sweet pickles.  But I digress.

A big backyard garden, a green thumb and space in the bunker for canned and frozen vegetables means that the staff here at The Platz rarely sleeps.  Garden harvests = good summer eating and a busy time in the kitchen putting-up the fruits of my labors for future use or sharing with friends, family and visitors.  Product development, refinement and an occasional foray into a dangerous kitchen experiment is also our motto.  After years of floundering around the pickle universe with season after season of mediocre dill pickles the light went on with what might possibly be the gold standard of home-grown, home-canned, crispy crunchy dill pickles.

Just the right balance of salty brine, dill and garlic. Tangy, with a refreshing crunch!

The secret ingredient?  Ca(OH)2 – calcium hydroxide – commonly known as Pickling Lime.

Here’s the recipe -

Start with a sink full of freshly-picked, scrubbed and rinsed pickle cukes.  I grow my own organic cukes but you can purchase them at your local Farmers Market.

Fetch your pickle barrel. Everyone should own at least one five gallon bucket. They are indispensable.  My bucket might have originally held cat litter.  Nevertheless, it also appears to be food-grade since it doesn’t stain or absorb odors.  I use it to brine meats and fish, haul butchered venison and assist in pickle-making.  I even made sauerkraut in it once.  In a pinch you can sit on it in your deer stand and keep your thermos, lunch and toilet paper inside where it won't get wet.   Like I said - they're indispensable.

Slice your cukes and toss into your plastic bucket. I like to make spears and cut my cukes accordingly.   I also use a mandolin because you can make slices of a uniform thickness with cool-looking ridges on them. 

Be careful with this device and don’t do like I do and slice-off part of your thumb with the first use.

The secret to really crunchy pickles is liming them. Combine one cup of pickling lime with two gallons of cold water and mix thoroughly in your bucket.  Add your sliced cukes making certain they float freely.  Cover with a dinner plate, snap-on the lid and let it sit overnight.  

The following morning drain your limed cukes in the sink. They'll be nice and crispy because the calcium reinforces the cellular structure of the cucumber.  But you have to soak them to remove the excess lime.  This is an exceedingly important step.  Lime is alkaline and if you have residual lime in your pickles it might neutralize the acid of your brine causing your pickles to go bad.  Be diligent about the chemistry and you probably won’t die of botulism.

Fill the sink full of slices with cold tap water and let them soak for an hour.  

Repeat this step of soak and drain two to three more times. For a total of three to four hours.  Sure, this is tedious but you can waste precious bandwidth on Facebook while you're waiting.  Although I recommend reading a real book or, weather permitting, working in your garden.

Following the rinse cycle drain in a colander and start your brine.

Basic brine. In a non-reactive pot combine one quart of white vinegar with two quarts of water with ¾ cup of canning salt. (Canning salt is not iodized). This should be sufficient for a dozen quarts of pickles.

Bring your brine to a boil.

While the brine is heating pack your jars.

Into each jar place at least one peeled and sliced garlic clove.  If you really like garlic - do not skimp.

Add dried dill seed.  I am partial to Penzeys dill seed but any will do.  At least 3 t of seed for quarts and 1½ t for pints.  If you like dilliness - do not skimp.  Pack the jars with your pickles. Pack tightly but don’t force the slices. 

Fill the packed jars with the boiling brine leaving a half-inch of head space. Add your lids and bands and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool. When the lids pop your jars are seated properly.

Dill pickles are a versatile tidbit and go with just about anything from a grilled burger, brat or dog, smoked ribs or a Bloody Mary. You can even make a scrumptious dill pickle dip with them as well.

Crispy, crunchy, sweet pickle recipe to follow.

Cheers!

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*A word about the jars and lids. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.  Sterilize your jars by immersing them in boiling water or running them through the dishwasher on the 'sanitize' cycle. Lids are easy - heat a Pyrex measuring cup of water to a boil in the microwave and drop the lids in the hot water to sanitize them.  Fish them out with a tongs.