Crocked Dill Pickles

[Micah68]

Wash your cucumbers and leave a small bit of stem attacched (I don't know why, but we do it)

Prick each cucumber a couple/three times with a knitting needle (I guess you could use an ice pick, knitting needles are just handier for me)

Put a double layer of cucumbers in your crock, then cover with grape leaves (washed ones)

A small sprinkling of pickling spices, half a bunch of fresh dill (or dried if you don't have fresh), half a bulb of garlic, 1 t peppercorns, 1 t mustard seed, and 1/4 c. chopped hot pepper if you want spicy pickles.

(I generally also add a dash of tumeric and a quarter of a bay leaf)

Repeat those layers until you are out of cucumbers, or are about 5 inches from the top of your crock.

Bring to a boil in a non-aluminum pan:

1 pint vinegar (cider vinegar works best)
2 gallons of water
1 1/2 cups salt

Stir until the salt is dissolved and pour, hot, over the stuff in the crock. You need enough brine to cover the pickles--you may need to make more.

Cover the pickles with a plate that is large enough to hold them down under the brine, or a jar filled with water (I put in a plate with a jar on top of it). Cover the crock with a clean cloth.

The crock needs to be in a place that is about 60-80 degrees or so.

Check the pickles daily. After awhile a scum starts to develop. Keep it skimmed off and keep all cukes under the brine (much like making saurkraut). In 2-3 weeks, test a pickle by cutting it open. If it is the same color throughout, with no white spots, they are ready to use. (Although we usually start eating them after a week - just can't leave them alone.)

You can keep the pickles in the crock. If the brine gets cloudy, take the pickles out and rinse them, make new brine (without the spices - just the vinegar, salt, and water) and cover them with it.

Keep the jar in a cool place or in the refrigerator--they supposedly will keep for over a year, but ours never last more than a couple of months.

[SheWoff]

Thank you so much Micah. I planted pickling cukes this year, so when they are ready, I will start some of these. Just a question or two...Do you have to have grape leaves or can you use something else? You don't need alum for these? And last but not least...if your brine is still okay, can you just put more cukes in there and maybe use that crock last?

She

[patticakes]

what kind of cucumbers to you use (or does it really matter)?

have you ever made these slicing the cucumbers into spears - or are you supposed to do that after they've set in the crock for a while?

[Micah68]

SheWoff, I don't know what the grape leaves do, we just have always had grape vines, so used the leaves.

I THINK - not at all sure - that the grape leaves do the same thing as Alum does. I say I think that because I seem to remember one of my grandmothers using alum and she didn't have grape vines (she also used alum on cuts - OUCH).

I have reused the brine when I start early pickles and we get more cucumbers throughout the season. I also just add pickles as we make room in the crock by eating them - I just push them to the bottom of the crock.

Patticakes, I use pickling cucumbers, 4-6 inches long. I have cut them into spears and made them in gallon jars, with the same recipe, but they do not last near as long and would need eaten, canned, or refrigerated within a week or two.

[Ms. American]

Micah68,

Thank-you for your step by step pickle recipes. They are exactly what I needed. So many recipes assume that you know what the next step should be, and I don't always know.

For example, some recipes demand that you brine the pickles with boiling water over night. That's fine. But then, the recipe calls so all this salt...and doesn't always state if it's for quick pickles, or pickles that have already been brined. I don't always know if I'm supposed to desalt the pickles before jarring and canning...

Anyway, I've not done crock pickles before due to cloudy recipies. Thank-you so much for your clarity!

[momof23goats]

Thank you so much Micah. I planted pickling cukes this year, so when they are ready, I will start some of these. Just a question or two...Do you have to have grape leaves or can you use something else? You don't need alum for these? And last but not least...if your brine is still okay, can you just put more cukes in there and maybe use that crock last?

She

I make these, but I cover them with a cloth, a piece of cheese cloth. and it worked ok for me.
I do add a drop of alum to ,my crock, when they are through working. but usually, mine are gone fast.
these are wonderful pickles, for sure.
She I have done this, but yo ureally should start a new batch.
a nice food grade plastic pail works as good as a crock.

[momof23goats]

Micah68,

Thank-you for your step by step pickle recipes. They are exactly what I needed. So many recipes assume that you know what the next step should be, and I don't always know.

For example, some recipes demand that you brine the pickles with boiling water over night. That's fine. But then, the recipe calls so all this salt...and doesn't always state if it's for quick pickles, or pickles that have already been brined. I don't always know if I'm supposed to desalt the pickles before jarring and canning...

Anyway, I've not done crock pickles before due to cloudy recipies. Thank-you so much for your clarity!

this is a great recipe, my boys love this, I have used this for many years, this is a good one.
and yes, grape leafs do have an alum effect. but I use alum, instead of the leaves.
thank yo u for posting this recipe, this is an old recipe, been around allot of years, but it is sure good.

[SheWoff]

BTT

I did make a crock of these today and can't wait to dig into them! We love dill pickles around here and canned ones just can't get as good as the ones out of a crock. Oh, and I figured out what to use for a crock lol. I got an old crockpot that the element had died and am just using the crock part for the pickles!

She

[Ms. American]

I thought I'd update on my brined pickle efforts.

One of the recipes I had said to dip the cuke into boiling water for a few seconds, that it did something that maintained the crisp in pickles. So, I did that. And then, I added the water, salt and spices, but I only used dill and garlic in this batch. Well, my cukes sat in the brine for weeks and they didn't ferment so I thought something was wrong, but I left them in the jar just the same. So, I tasted one...it was yummy, but gosh was it ever salty! But, i felt encouraged so when I had another bunch of cukes I decided to try a second batch.

I treated this batch differently. Some recipes said to scrub the cukes, some said to dip them into boiling water, some said..just rinse them, don't scrub. Well, it takes me a little while to gather up enough cukes to make a batch so what I do is put them into a bowl of water in the fridge. This keeps them crisp and they don't go limp while I'm waiting for a batch to grown.

I also learned that it is best NOT to scrub the cukes. You do need to rinse them with water to remove any dirt/dust/bugs etc, but don't scrub them.

You do NOT need to emmerse them into boiling water first. What happens when you scrub, and dip is you kill the natural yeasts on the skin, and they take WEEKS to even begin to ferment!

My second batch only took a few days to begin the fermenting process. In the meantime, I threw in some new, unscrubbed cukes into the first batch. They sat for a month with no fermenting! The addition of the new cukes sparked them to go to work.

In the second batch, I did go ahead and add a some actual pickling spice. Well, the second batch tastes better.

I'd used a 2 gallon jar for the first batch so I'm glad they didn't ferment because skimming would have been a problem. Eventually, I combined both batches into the 5 gallon bucket so I only have the one batch to worry about.

Every now and then I take one out and check it..and they ARE good.

Another thing that confused me was whether or not to keep adding salt! That first batch was so dang salty, and still are, that If I'd of kept adding salt, they would be inedible! They almost were as it was.

So, then I think I realized that some of the recipes get confused because they combine a plain salt brine, with a seasoned pickel.

So, apparently you can brine your cukes in a 10% brine for 6 weeks, then you desalinate them, and there's a process for that. After desalinating them, THEN you put them into a seasoned brine for a couple of weeks that calls for very little salt.

I've avoided making barrel pickles for years because of this confusion, and I only had a set amount of cukes to work with, and couldn't afford to throw them away if they didn't come out right. This year I have a fair crop of cukes to experiment with, and so I took the chance.

Mistakes are good. They help you learn.

I thought I'd put this up just in case others out there were having the same confusion issues that I was having.

I'm going to try the plain brine (just salt and water) for the 6 weeks, and then put them into a seasoned vinegar brine and see how they do compared to what I've got going now. Once that process is completed, I'll try to remember to come here and report on those results.

[Ms. American]

Something I forgot to address: Don't use table cukes for making dill pickles. They have thicker skins than pickling cukes so it's hard for the brine to penetrate. They sog easier, too.

I HAVE used table cukes sliced for bread n butter pickles and that works ok, but the pickling cuke works better for maintaining crisp.

Also, if you do have to store cukes in the fridge before pickling, make sure they don't freeze! I almost lost an entire batch because they froze. Mine's a brand new fridge, so I wasn't expecting that. But do check them just in case. The ones in the water were ok, but the ones that stuck out, froze.