August 6, 2011

Fridge Pickles

In the last couple of weeks multiple friends have been kind enough to give me pounds of vegetables from their gardens. I have been using the squash to make pasta (post to come later in the week) and the tomatoes to make pasta sauce and a tomato tart. However, my family can only eat so many fresh cucumbers, so I decided to make fridge pickles.

Fridge pickles are very easy to prepare and take little effort. Everyone I know has different spices which they like to include in their pickles or a particular dill packet mix which is their favorite. The recipe I choose to follow involved the following spices:
  • dill weed
  • dill seed
  • mustard seed 
  • garlic
  • red pepper if I want to make them a little kick
I used a 50/50 water vinegar ratio and made the pickles in wide mouth jars. I had five pounds of pickles total, which I sliced into spears and soaked in boiling water with a teaspoon of turmeric for three hours. Then I added the spices to the jars, added the cucumbers to the jars, boiled the vinegar, water, sugar and canning salt and then poured into the jars. Since I don't own a dishwasher I always boil my jars and lids for ten minutes before using. Stick in the fridge and your done. I normally wait about five days before tasting, to make sure the full flavor of the pickles comes out.

Fridge pickles are a great way to save money, especially since my two boys eat a large amount of pickles. They are easy to prepare and you need no previous canning experience since they don't need to be water bathed. Pickles are a great way to use extra garden veggies before they go bad and taste delicious.

8 comments:

  1. I love home canned pickles. My grandmother used to open a jar every time I came for dinner because she knew how much I liked them. Store pickles just don't cut it. I can't wait to read about the squash.

    I hope your Sunday is full of joy,
    Pamela

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  2. great idea! I've never thought about doing this!

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  3. I love pickles. And I tried making pickles a couple of years ago and nothing happened. The cukes didn't pickle. It was a bummer to say the least!

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  4. @pamela I agree that store bought pickles arent the same, the homemade kind are so much better! What a great story about your grandmother :)

    @simply life They are really easy and taste delicious!

    @E Did you use store bought cucumbers? If so they have a wax on the outside that the vinegar can't penetrate so they won't pickle. Canning can be hit or miss sometimes, I bet if your tried again with a better recipe they would turn out yummy!

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  5. Loving the DIY attitude you have! All of the recipes look amazing!

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  6. Looks great. Sadly, I think a lot of my garden fell victim to the heat last month. I hope I have generous friends

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  7. @Inspired I've been lucky that I have lots of generous friends and family :)

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