Recipe(tried): Kosher Style or Garlic Dill Pickles

Hi,

I'm not familiar with that brand of pickles. The recipe posted below is one I found somewhere on the Internet...I'm sorry I'm not able to give credit where it's due. These pickles are really quite good. I did add canning instructions after running the recipe past a food technologist to make sure it was safe to do so.

Enjoy!


Kosher Style or Garlic Dill Pickles

No vinegar! That's the key to real, deli style, kosher dills. Use fresh, crisp pickles for best results. Water, coarse kosher salt or pickling salt, garlic, pickling spices and dill combine with cucumbers to produce a brine. The brine is formed when the salt draws acid from the pickles and combines with the other ingredients. 3-5 days gives you half sours, 12-20 days gives full sours. Refrigeration stops the fermentation process. You can taste them while they are fermenting and adjust spices. There is really no way to hurry them up. Double recipes as required. Just fill each jar you have until you run out of ingredients.

Per gallon jar:
8-10 cucumbers for pickling (a medium size)
1 large handful fresh dill with flower heads (or add 1/4 teaspoon dill seed, dried dill weed if flower heads are missing)
4-6 large cloves of garlic, flattened
water
1/4 cup coarse kosher salt or pickling salt
4 teaspoons pickling spice
1-2 large bay leaves

Note: Some recipes call for boiling the water (about 4 cups) with the salt and pickling spice, then refrigerating until icy cold. An extra step that works but is not necessary. DO NOT use warm water on the cucumbers in any case.

Pack each jar with cucumbers, sprinkling salt between each layer. Add pickling spice, salt, dill (dill heads) and bay leaves. Fill jar with water but leave two inches of room for brine to form. You may prepare this in large crocks (something non-reactive) and then transfer to glass jars when finished.

Weigh cucumbers down to keep submerged and cover. After 2-3 days, remove scum (if any has formed) and adjust spices. Let ferment 3 more days and check for doneness by cutting off a slice of one cucumber. Once they are fermented to the right stage (to taste), transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate. Ferment longer (12-20 days) for pungent sour pickles. (They will still ferment in the fridge but not quickly).

To process these pickles: Strain the brine through a paper filter. Fill jars with brine to within -inch of jar rim. Prepare according to manufacturer's directions. Apply lids. Process at 175 degrees F. for 15 minutes.