DIY – Pickling Cucumbers (pickles) With Aaron’s Tuscany Pickle Recipe
Filed Under: Do It Yourself, Organic Gardening, recipe on August 23, 2009
We are right now, at my house, in the middle of cucumber season. On Friday afternoon, we went out to the garden and picked every cucumber off the vine that was more than four inches long. We got several large ones that we’ll eat outright and then we got enough for me to pickle 3 jars of them. There are more on the vine, so I may do a standard dill pickle recipe with the next couple of jars after this, but I wanted to experiment with the herbs we have growing and go for a more Italian or Tuscany flavor in the pickle brine.
The standard Dill Pickle recipe looks like this (assumes quart jar, recipe is per jar):
- 3-4 medium-sized cucumbers, cleaned, ends trimmed
- 1-3/4 cup water
- 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbs of sea or pickling salt
- 1 tsp of dill seed or 3-4 dill sprigs
- 1 tsp of mustard powder or (kosher) minced garlic
I’ve modified that by replacing the mustard/garlic with cilantro, basil, and chives. I also halved the dill seeds to about a knuckle’s worth. Note that for the most part, these numbers aren’t exact and you can fiddle with the actual amounts and guesstimate the totals. I measured only the water:vinegar ratio for each jar, since that’s the most important part anyway.
Pickling the Cucumbers
Now I’ll take you through step-by-step on the pickling process. The above recipe is our guideline. First, wash the cucumbers, the jars, etc. Use a touch of vinegar in the process to sanitize the jars (and lids) during this. We keep vinegar in a spray bottle and I used that here. Spraying the cukes is OK, but not really necessary. If yours are especially prickly, use a light scrub brush or rough sponge to knock those off.
Fill your canning pot (or a large stock pot) with water and put it on the stove to heat. Cut the bud ends off each side of the cucumbers, chop the spices (if needed) and mix the brine into the jars. I usually mix the water and vinegar in a measuring cup and then pour into the jars.
Now carefully place cucumbers into each jar of brine. Don’t stuff them, as you want their entire surface to be in contact with the brine as often as possible and they should “float” relatively freely. This is important as once cucumbers are pickled, they won’t float any more–then you know they’re done.
Check the water level in the jars and pour off so that you have a half an inch or so of space between the liquid and the top of the jar. I usually just pour off the liquid until it’s even with the bottom of the threads on the jar top. Then ad the spices and salt, pushing them in a little with your finger.
Put the lids on and loosely screw on the caps. By now, your water is getting hot, but isn’t boiling yet. If you have a tray like this one, use that to put the bottles halfway into the water and let them acclimate to the heat. Most bottles won’t break if you put them directly into boiling water, thanks to modern tempering, but it’s better safe than sorry. The loose lids allow the sudden creation of steam to escape unhindered.
Give the jars a few minutes to heat up, then screw the lids on tight and lower them all the way in. Once the water begins to boil, make sure your jars are completely under the water and then let them boil for 15-20 minutes.
Then remove the jars from the boiling water and set in a safe place to dry and cool down. During this process, you should hear the lids begin to “pop” as they seal. Give them half an hour or so and then press your finger onto the middle of each lid and see if it’s got any give. If it’s loose, you’ll probably need to re-boil the jar.
In that meantime, by the way, I took advantage of the hot water and put some eggs in to boil. All of my jars set, so I didn’t need to re-use the water again. So I poured it into the sink and used it as the hot dish water to clean up all the mess I’d made doing this.
Once your pickles are cooled, use a marker or stickers to label the tops of the jars with the date (month/year, at least) and any information you’d like to include. I labeled these “Experimental Tuscany Pickles, 08/2009). If properly sealed, these should have a shelf life of 5-8 years, depending on conditions. I doubt they’ll last one, though.
Let the pickles have at least a week for the brine and herbs to soak in and thoroughly pickle your cucumbers. Then you can enjoy!
If you have any questions about pickling (or canning in general, there will be more of these DIYs), just ask. If I know the answer, I’m happy to help.
Here’s an update on how my recipe turned out for these pickles.
