Garlic Dill Pickles Recipe - Weekend at the Cottage (2024)

FAQs

What is the best vinegar to use for dill pickles? ›

Most pickle recipes call for distilled white vinegar. This is the clear, colorless vinegar made by fermenting grains. It has a mellow aroma, tart acid flavor and does not affect the color of light-colored vegetables or fruits.

Crispness can also be lost if cucumbers are stored longer than 24 hours in the refrigerator from harvest to pickling. Thoroughly wash each cucumber, especially around the stem area, where soil can be trapped. Any remaining soil may be a source of bacteria and can cause a soft pickle.

The best way to keep your pickles crisp is by taking an extra moment to remove the blossom from the end of the cucumber. By adding this extra cut, you have a crisper pickle. Other ways to ensure a crisp pickle is by adding grape leaves to your jar. I tend to cut off both ends of the cucumber as I quickly process them.

Add a Source of Tannin

Tannins work against softening enzymes and help keep pickles crunchier. They can be found in various sources, such as grape leaves, oak leaves, raspberry leaves, black tea, etc. Add some directly to your jars!

Using apple cider vinegar to make homemade dill pickles

Many recipes online call for using white vinegar and when I first started out in my homemade dill pickle making journey I did use white vinegar as well. White vinegar works just fine and you can use that in this recipe instead of ACV.

Because apple cider vinegar is made from apples rather than barley, corn rice or wine, it gives pickles a mellower taste. Using a white distilled vinegar, for example, will create a harsher flavour. But as well as being gentler on your palate, using apple cider vinegar also adds health benefits to pickles.

This means that they have spent too much time being exposed to extreme heat conditions during the canning process. The secret to making sure you end up with crispy pickles is to properly can them in a hot water bath canner. We use the Ball Water Bath Canner and Tool Kit to make our pickles.

For a quick and easy way to help ensure crisp pickles: soak cucumbers in ice water for 4 to 5 hours before pickling. This is a safer method for making crisp pickles. Using lime, or calcium hydroxide, in solution for soaking cucumbers changes the amount of acid in the cucumber tissue.

To make pickles more sour, you can add more salt to the brine. Many foods can be pickled. Commonly pickled foods include cabbage (called "sauerkraut") and pigs' feet. What we all know as a pickle, though, is a pickled cucumber.

If left in jars for extended periods, your pickles will eventually begin to get mushy. That's why it's important to get the canning process right and leave the cans airtight. Here are some tips to ensure you get that perfect crunch every time.

Why do you put alum in pickles? ›

Alum will increase firmness of fermented pickles when used at levels up to ¼ teaspoon per pint, but greater amounts will decrease firmness.

Calcium Chloride is a generic firming agent that can be used in pickling. Many people like it and swear by the results; a few still say that nothing will ever replace the crispness of an actual limed pickle.

The taste of your pickled vegetables can be greatly changed by toasting spices. This is because toasting spices cause the natural oils of a spice to be released, which in turn amplifies the flavors.

It replaces pickling lime, which home picklers have long used to firm cucumbers into pickles . Calcium chloride aka pickle crisp is easier to use: you add 1/8 teaspoon along with the fruit or vegetable pieces and the pickling liquid to a pint jar, or 1/4 teaspoon to a quart jar and voila! Your done!

Alum – at one time alum was added for crispness; however it is no longer recommended by the FDA and most modern, science-based recipes no longer include it. Scientifically, alum has little effect on quick-process pickles but may add firmness to fermented pickles when used at a rate of ¼ teaspoon per pints.

“Pickling vinegar” is a term that is usually used for vinegar PLUS spices and flavorings that are ready for use to pickle a vegetable. White vinegar is a component of pickling vinegar, as is salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, etc. Pickling vinegar is more acidic than regular vinegar.

Distilled white vinegar is the most commonly used, because it has a clean, crisp flavor that retains the produce's original taste and color best. Apple cider vinegar lends a milder, sweeter flavor if you don't mind the darker color. White wine, red wine and champagne vinegar all are great to use with pickling.

No, there are other methods for pickling, including quick pickling and refrigerator pickling. But this pickling method does call for boiling the brine. This process helps bloom the flavors of the ingredients and help speed up the pickling process when it's added to the fresh vegetables or fruit.

Now, don't confuse distilled with basic white vinegar, which is stronger and has up to 25% acetic acid. That vinegar is sold exclusively for cleaning purposes and is not a good idea to ingest. However, beyond cooking, distilled white vinegar can be used for many of the same household chores.