Well, last year I accidentally planted pickling cucumbers. The cucumbers came in but they were unusually prickly with tough skins. I checked my seed packet, and sure enough, I'd planted pickling cukes instead of eating cukes. I hated to throw them out so I thought I'd try my hand at making pickles.
Turns out pickles are one of the easiest foods to make and can. I followed the recipe on the back of the pickling salt bag, processed the jars in the canner and put them in the basement for storage. Around Thanksgiving we pulled out a jar and, with much trepidation, I tried one. Surprise, surprise, it was actually not bad. In fact, it was good!
They were not as crisp as store-bought so I determined this year I would use alum. I had made a couple of jars of pickles earlier this summer with the cucumbers from our garden and when we were at the local fruit farm a week ago, they had pickling cucumbers on sale so I picked some up, put them in the fridge and promptly forgot about them. Luckily cucumbers keep well. I should have processed them immediately.
When I finally got around to making pickles, I pulled out the alum and realized I didn't know exactly how to use it. Do I add it to the jars of pickles? Dissolve it into my salt solution?
The label was no help. Basically it just said, "Follow the directions in your recipe." Well, my recipe didn't mention alum. So I turned to the Internet (What did we do before we had the Internet?) and found some alarming information about alum. I guess you're supposed to soak the pickles in alum then rinse very well before pickling. The "rinse very well" part was emphasized and there was a cautionary tale of people who had died from eating a very little amount of alum. Hmm. I think I'll pass. We are not able to eat totally organic but we do try not to eat known poisons!
I looked for alternatives and several sources mentioned soaking the cucumbers in ice cold water for 24 hours before pickling delivered the same results as alum. I put our cucumbers in cold water and put them in the fridge.
Okay, so it was two days instead of twenty-four hours but who's counting. These poor pickles. It will be a miracle if they're actually edible this winter. I gathered the stuff I needed; jars, rings and lids, fresh dill, garlic and white vinegar.
Then I cleaned my jars, rings and lids, put the lids in some warm water on the stove, cut the cucumbers into spears and packed the jars.
Next I made up the salt solution. Just mix water, vinegar and pickling salt and bring it to a low boil.
Pour the salt/vinegar solution over the spears, add the dill and the garlic, seal up your jars and process for 15 minutes in a water bath canner and you're done! My only issue is I always have a hard time estimating how much water to put into my canner. Seems like every time I can something I'm having to scoop out some of the boiling water so it doesn't overflow OR I have to add some water and let the whole thing come back to a boil. This time I estimated too low and had to add more water (it must be an inch over the top of the lids) so the jars sat in the water bath longer than the prescribed 15 minutes.
Only four jars of pickles today but, still, it's a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. If I do a little at a time then it adds up after a while. Gee, I sure hope these pickles are still tasty after enduring the abuse I heaped upon them.
Yesterday at the market I bought a whole new project. I must get to these sooner 'cause fresh, local tomatoes don't keep!
Happy Canning, everyone!
just a note - pickling cucumbers are good to eat plain. i got a bunch from my csa and i had them in salads. yummy. =) - carla
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