Canning Pickles - Putting Food By 2013

This weekend, we were gifted a surplus of cucumbers. What to do? Pickles! While ideally I want to ferment cucumber pickles (mmm...half-sours!!), I an "not there yet" kitchen-wise. My schedule is too erratic, and I do not have a proper fermenting crock - combined this could be a disaster. So, while fermenting is still the long-term goal, short-term I made 3 pint batches of classic vinegar pickles.

1 - Put spices of choice into bottom of sterilized pint jars. I used about 1/4 tsp black peppercorns, a pinch of red pepper flakes, a pinch of dill seeds, and 1-2 cloves of peeled garlic per jar for some garlicky goodness.

2 - Wash cucumbers well. Cut into desired shape. Stuff into sterilized pint jars.

3 - Make "brine" (1/5 cups cider or white vinegar, 1.5 cups water, 2 Tbs pickling salt), and bring to rolling simmer.

4 - Carefully pour brine into the jars, covering the cucumbers and leaving 1/4" head space.

5 - At this point, you can either water bath process the jars for long-term storage (which I did), or you can pop on the lids and let the jars cool for a day and then pop into the fridge for refrigerator pickles.

Either way, wait a few days for flavor to develop before eating!