Refrigerator Pickles
I love pickles of all kinds. Many times I’ve tried canning pickles, and they always come out soft and mushy – yuck!
I had tried other recipes for refrigerator pickles before, but they always tasted like refrigerator cucumbers in vinegar – which I still like, but they didn’t taste like pickles.
I found this recipe a while ago and after many adjustments I’m now really pleased with how well they turn out. My DILs Cailee and Aimee are pickle lovers, and it gets their thumbs up too.
While you can eat them in as little as three days they will take 2-3 weeks before they really taste like pickles. They also stay nice and crisp. I include the optional spices and they end up tasting a lot like those really good pickles in the refrigerated section at the grocery store. All of the internet recipes I’ve seen say they are good for a couple of months in the fridge, but I think they are being overly cautious. With the amount of vinegar in this recipe, we’ve had them in the fridge for over a year until the new season comes around. They will get softer over time, so if you like them crispy eat them within 2-3 months.
Ingredients
- 3 cups water
- 2 cups of white or cider vinegar
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 3 Tbsp kosher salt
- Per Quart
- 2 large cucumbers, sliced into rounds or spears
- ½ tsp dried dill weed, 1 ½ tsp fresh dill weed, or 2 sprigs
- ½ tsp dill seed
- ½ tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp mustard seed
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes or whole pepper corns
- ¼ tsp celery seed
- 2 cloves garlic, halved, sliced, minced or crushed
- 1/4 white onion, sliced
Instructions
- Mix the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar. Bring to a low boil, then remove from heat and cool completely. You can set pot in a 9×13 pan with ice water to speed cooling. You can easily make more as needed.
- While the brine simmers, slice the vegetables and mix in a bowl.
- Add the vegetables to your glass jar. Add the spices to the jars, preferably in layers.
- When the brine is cool, add it to the jars.
- Store in a glass jar in the fridge, at least 3 days and preferably 3 weeks before serving.