Here are the recipes that Bobbie mentioned in a comment last week. She said she’s been making these for years and they’re always a hit.
Dill Pickles from Elfreda
Put dill in jar and stack as many pickles in jar as you can get. Place jars in water bath cooker to slowly heat..May add a clove of garlic if you like–(I also add hot fresh green peppers-haberneros, jalapenos, pueblo chilies or whatever you can find where you live.) My husband and boys like them really hot, so those jars for them get 2 or 3–I’m a “gringo”, so I only put one kinda hot one in.
Brine: 4 cups water, 4 tablespoons canning salt & 1 cup vinegar-(the regular pickling vinegar) Bring to a rolling boil. Pour over pickles and put seal and ring on jar-tighten by hand. Let stand in the hot water till color of pickles are completely changed. Remove and let seal. Sometimes they go ahead and seal while still sitting in the water.
Lime Pickles
Wash and cut cucumbers into chunks. I use about the same size an for dill pickles. Soak 24 hours in: 2 cups lime and 3 gallons water-I have a big crock and use that. Drain and wash 3 times. Soak in clear water for 4 hours. Bring to boil and pour over cukes–8 cups sugar, 2 qts. vinegar, 1 T. salt, 1 t. cloves, 2 tsp. celery seed. Let set overnight in syrup. Bring to a boil and simmer 30 minutes. Put in hot jars-I put my jars in the dishwasher and run them through a regular cyle-keep door shut after you take a jar out to fill, so the jars will stay hot. Put lids and rings on and set them away from a draft.
Note from Bobbie: Both pickles are much better when they are cold– crunchier and I always put a jar of each in the ice box a day or so before I go to use them and when the jars are getting empty so will always have cold ones.
Amy says
You could always just take the easy way out
Refrigerator Pickles
3 1/2 cups thin sliced cucumber
1 small sweet onion sliced/separated into rings
1/2 Tablespoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
Heat water and vinegar with salt and sugar until dissolved. Pour over veggies. Refrigerate 24 hours. Store in refrigerator for a week.
I sometimes like to add a tiny bit of turmeric for color and then whatever seasonings I’m in the mood for — celery seed, mustard seed, dill, poppy seed….
or (my grandma’s recipe)
Minnesota pickles
Don’t peel cucumbers.
3 cups thin sliced cucumbers
2 large onions sliced
1 Green Pepper diced
Mix 3 cups of sugar and 2 cups of vinegar and 2 tbsp salt and pour over cucumber onion and pepper mixture
Press down to 1” above top of cucumbers
Refridgerate for 12 hours before using.
I have 1 other recipe for this type of pickles – I like them a lot.
Deputy's Wife says
I am going to try this recipe Bobbie. Thanks for sharing it. I never have much luck with the other recipes.