Dill pickles

Bbq Jr. is big into the pickles. Whenever we're out at a restaurant, he asks if he can have a pickle with his dinner. So, to attract him to cooking, we've been making pickles together. We started with an old standard - dill pickles.

There are two reasons to pickle. One is long-term preservation. That's harder. You need to sterilize jars. Probably should hot pickle your veggies. The other reason is deliciousness. There, you need clean jars. And you need to keep your pickles in the fridge when you're done. They're good for a couple of months in the fridge. I pickle for deliciousness. If you need to learn how to store your pickles at room temperature, look to The Preservation Kitchen, or other pickling references. If you pickle for deliciousness, read on.

I used the recipe in The Preservation Kitchen, although most dill pickle recipes are about the same. Add a tiny bit of sugar to make it sweeter. Add a tiny bit of crushed peppers to make it hotter. But, basically the same:

5 ½ cups water
3 ½ cups champagne vinegar
2 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp sugar
5 tsp dill seeds
10 dill sprigs
10 garlic cloves
4 ½ lb pickling cucumbers

We picked a couple types of cucumbers, and chopped them together.



Knife skills are important to develop at a young age.



Pack the dill, dill seeds, garlic and chopped cucumbers into your pickle jars.



Boil the water, vinegar, salt and sugar, until the sugar and salt are dissolved and the liquid is boiling. Pour the hot brine over the packed veggies.



Allow to cool to room temperature. Cap, and place them in the fridge. Strictly speaking, they're pickles now.



But they improve with age. They peak at about 3 weeks. Eat as a condiment, or as a snack. Tasty.



By Bbq Dude