Quick Fresh-Pack Dill Pickles

Gather

Ingredients

• 8 lbs of 3- to 5-inch pickling cucumbers
• 2 gals water
• 1¼ cups canning or pickling salt
• 1½ qts vinegar (5 percent)
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 quarts water
• 2 tbsp whole mixed pickling spice
• about 3 tbsp whole mustard seed (1 tsp per pint jar)
• about 14 heads of fresh dill (1½ heads per pint jar) or 4½ tbsp dill seed (1½ tsp per pint jar)

Preserve

Instructions

1. 01

   Wash the cucumbers. Remove a 1/16-inch slice from each blossom end, but keep ¼ inch of stem at the other end.

2. 02

   Dissolve ¾ cup of the salt in 2 gallons water. Pour this brine over the cucumbers, let them stand for 12 hours, and drain.

3. 03

   Tie the mixed pickling spice in a spice bag. Pour 2 quarts water into a pot; add the sugar, the final ½ cup salt, the 5% vinegar, and the spice bag, then heat until boiling.

4. 04

   Pack cucumbers into hot pint or quart jars. For each pint, add 1 teaspoon mustard seed and either 1½ fresh dill heads or 1½ teaspoons dill seed; use twice those amounts in each quart.

5. 05

   Cover with boiling pickling liquid, retaining ½-inch headspace. Remove air, recheck the fill, wipe the rims, and apply lids.

6. 06

   Boiling-water process pints for 10 minutes or quarts for 15 minutes at 0-1,000 ft. Use the elevation tool to add time above 1,000 ft.
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