We were moved to finally make our own homemade pickles (which we have been wanting to do for a long time now but just never got around to it) because we have a very generous neighbor who leaves bags of freshly grown and picked produce on our door at least once every couple of weeks throughout the summer. Case in point, we still have three gallon-size Ziploc bags of green beans in the freezer. Yum. He apparently grew a LOT of green beans this year. :) Anyways, there were also a lot of cucumbers -- too many for us to eat before they went bad. So....pickle time!!!
We searched the Interwebs for recipes, and surprise, surprise, settled on one from our favorite wacky mad-scientist chef: Alton Brown. It's called Ab's B and B's, which of course we amended given the ingredients that we had on hand when we finally got to work. For example, we didn't have Pickling Spice, so we Googled to find out what the various mixes would contain, and then concocted our own from there.
Here's how we did it....
INGREDIENTS
- 2 medium cucumbers, thinly sliced (I couldn't say exactly how many or how much we actually used -- we just chopped some of the cucumbers that we had until we were satisfied that it was enough to mostly fill the jars that we were going to use)
- 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
- Garlic cloves (however many you like - we like more than the "norm")
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- A pinch of kosher salt
- Bay leaves - 4
- Whole Cloves (see picture below for how much - we didn't measure)
- Whole black peppercorns (see picture below for how much - we didn't measure)
- Juniper berries (see picture below for how much - we didn't measure)
- Cinnamon Sticks - I think we used 2 or 3, broken into pieces
PROCESS
1. Combine the liquids (water and apple cider vinegar), the sugar, and all spices in a pot. Bring it to a boil, then allow it to simmer for about five minutes to "wake up" the flavors of the spices.
2. Meanwhile, slice up your cucumbers and onions.
3. Transfer the cooked pickling liquid (spices and all) to a container with a spout (such as a large measuring cup or a pitcher) for easy pouring. Fill your jars with alternating layers of cucumbers and onions, with a garlic clove thrown in here and there. Then slowly pour the still hot pickling liquid (spices and all) into each jar until everything is covered.
4. When the liquid is cooled, cover your jars and pop them into the refrigerator. (By the way, you could be using screw top jars, spring-top jars, or whatever kind of jars you like or have on hand -- you can see that we are using old salsa jars.)
5. This is the hard part -- Wait a whole week. (I took it upon myself to shake about the jars every few days, to make sure all the cucumber and onion slices were still completely submerged in the liquid, and that the spices were distributed all around and not clumped in any one area. This step wasn't in the recipe we worked from, so I doubt it's really necessary. But I got to feel like I was doing something and helping the process along.)
6. Finally, after you have waited the prescribed amount of time, bust open those jars and munch.
Your pickles will keep for a couple of months in the refrigerator.
THE REVIEW
I was surprised by how much sugar there was in this recipe, so much so that I even ask Hubby if he had forgotten to dump it in the pan (I didn't think that much sugar would have dissolved so quickly and easily). But they are, after all, sweet pickles. And have to say, for essentially winging it on the spices, they came out delicious. We will most certainly be making out own pickles again, if not every time, from now on. I mean, really, which ones here look better and would you prefer (plus contain no preservatives or other nonsense)?
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