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Making Fresh-Pack Dill Pickles

Source: University of Wisconsin

Fresh pack dill pickles are the most popular and easiest pickle to make at home. To make them, wash freshly picked cucumbers, trim 1/16 inch slice from blossom end, leave them whole and pack into clean canning jars. Add a head of dill or one tablespoon dill seed, dill weed, or dill juice to the jar. You can add a peeled garlic clove, if you like. Then, pour a boiling hot pickling solution containing water, vinegar and salt over the cucumbers and place lids on the jars.

After filling place jars in a boiling water bath canner with enough rapidly boiling water to completely cover them. Process pints for 10 minutes and quarts for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath--at altitudes above 1,000 feet. Start counting processing time when the water comes to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle boil.

There are many possible recipes for the vinegar-water-salt proportions in the pickling solution. If you want a flavorful, safe pickle, do not dilute the vinegar and follow an approved recommended method.

Salt substitutes may make the pickles bitter. The compounds that keep table salt free flowing will make the solution cloudy. Use canning or pickling salt. Most people use three-fourths to one cup salt per gallon of pickling solution. You can add small amounts of sugar to reduce the tartness, but this is not common in most dill pickle recipes.

Additional information on this topic is included in the Extension bulletin HE-189, "Making Pickles," which is available at your county office of the NDSU Extension Service.

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