Easy Homemade Pickles

July 10, 2009  •  Uncategorized

I had a thought last summer that’s worth sharing – making pickles doesn’t have to be a cumbersome process involving canning equipment and water baths. When I was a little overloaded with small cucumbers from my CSA farm I decided to make a quick pickle – not sure this is technically correct, but it worked for me!
I simply save the picking liquid from a large jar of dill pickles over the winter, then when summer arrives, I immerse cucumber slices into a jar (I save spaghetti sauce jars as they are perfect for this) with some of the leftover juice along with some whole black peppercorns, a couple of whole cloves of garlic, and a sprig of fresh dill. Cover the jar and let everything stand in the refrigerator for a week or two and voila – you’ll have a quick pickle that’s slightly less acidic than store bought dill pickles, and infinitely more crunchy. I let some kids in one of my cooking classes taste test them last summer and they were a huge hit. Give it a try!