A Pickle....or 23 pints of pickles.

I'll warn you in advance, I have no pretty pictures for you, not even any ugly ones, just no pictures. Sorry. I wanted to update you on the pickling adventures of 2010. I went to the Farmers Market yesterday with the plan to get a cucumber for a salad and instead I got 12 lbs. of picking cucumbers. I turned in a full draft of my dissertation last week and so this week-end is decidedly a non-school-work weekend! And so what better to do than PICKLE!
I decided to use the same bread and butter pickle recipe as last year because I loved those pickles! I sliced up about 5 lbs. of the pickles into 1/4 inch slices and 2 lbs. of vidalia onions. I salted these and covered them first with a towel and then with ice and refrigerated them for several hours.
In the mean time, I let the afternoon heat dissipate and waited 'til about 6 or 7 pm before I fired up the canning pot. I got a new canning pot! I've been using a stock pot and a round cake cooling rack. Let me tell you that a real canning pot for $17.87 at Walmart was already worth every penny after one round of canning! The rack that hooks on the side of the pot for easy removal of the jars is awesome and reduces my chances of steam burns by about a million percent!
I then went to work on the dill pickles. I wasn't pleased with how my dill pickles turned out last year and so I decided to try a new recipe. I went for this garlic dill recipe. I'll let you know how they turn out...
But I sliced the cukes in chunks rather than slices or spears per the recipe's suggestion. I placed cloves of garlic, peppercorns, dill seed, and hot pepper flakes in each jar and then tried to stuff the jars with the chunks of cukes. That was easier said than done and it requires about twice as many jars because the chunks don't pack as well as thinner slices might. In about half the jars I used 1/2 as much dill seed (1/2t rather than 1t) and used a few sprigs of fresh dill too. I poured the hot brine (4C apple cider vinegar, 4C water, 6T pickling salt) over the cukes, put on the lids, and processed them for 10 minutes in my new canning pot!
Then even though after my dinner break and hang out time it was now 10 pm, I decided it was time to finish the bread and butter pickles too. I got the brine ready (1 1/4C white vinegar, 1C apple cider vinegar, 2 1/4C sugar, hot pepper flakes, cloves, allspice, mustard seeds, celery seeds, and turmeric) and let it reach a boil. I rinsed off the salted cucumbers and onions and tossed them in the boiling brine. I let that all ready a boil again and then filled the jars first with the pickles and then with the brine, put on the lids, and processed them in the hot water bath too.
15 jars of dills....only one didn't seal, so I guess 14 jars of dills and 8 jars of bread and butters.
And that should be enough pickles for a while!

Pickles!

Over the weekend I made 9 pints of pickles. On Saturday, I went cucumber picking at one of the three farms that produce our weekly farm share. I hadn't been to that particular farm yet and I took a friend on the adventure. I missed the turn several times and then we wandered around the field for a bit before we found the plants. The cucumbers seemed to be at the end of their season so many of the cucumbers were quite large. I brought them home and sampled one and it was tasty and not tough, as I'd feared.

I made two varieties: dill and bread & butter. I used the recipe in The Vegetarian Epicure: Book 2 for the dill pickles and one from Simply Recipes for the bread and butter pickles. The bread and butter chips wanted to be chilled for a few hours before canning so I prepared them first. I sliced up about 2 1/2 lbs. of cucumbers with 1 lb. of onion and tossed them with 1/4 Kosher salt. I layered ice on top of the mixture, covered it with a towel, and put it in the fridge for about 4 hours. Meanwhile, I made the dill spears. I sliced up the cucumbers, made the brine, and sterilized the jars. I put fresh heads of dill in each of 6 pint jars and then put in the spears. I filled the jars with the hot brine to within 1/2 inch of the rim, sealed them, and put them in a water bath for 20 minutes.

Then I finished the bread and butter chips. I mixed up the brine, put in the chips 'til just boiling, and then filled the jars. First, I filled the jars with the pickles and then I filled the jars with the brine to within 1/2 inch of the top. Finally, I put the jars in a water bath. I can't wait to try them!