I firmly believe in the power of pickles. A few slices of pickled beets can elevate a basic salad into something worthy of the word dinner. Lay a couple of dilly beans alongside your hot dog and and suddenly it could pass for something far more gourmet. Couple cheddar with some pickled garlic scapes (chutney is also good here) and your party guests will praise your cheeseboard abilities to the heavens.
Here in the US, pickles are inextricably linked to cucumbers and so that’s where I’m starting. However, there’s no rule that cucumbers are the only thing that can be pickled. This basic technique can be applied to green beans, okra, asparagus*, cauliflower, carrot*s and all manner of summer squash. Make a promise to yourself that you’ll expand your pickle horizons this summer. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
Many of my local farmers sell their kirby cucumbers by volume and so a single quart was my starting point for this recipe (I did weight them and had almost exactly 1 1/2 pounds of perfect, pickling cukes). I started by washing the cucumbers well, cutting off both ends (the blossom end has an enzyme that can contribute to limp pickles) and slicing them into wedges.
Once my cucumbers were sliced, I combined 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar with 3/4 filtered water and a two teaspoons sea salt. While that came to a boil, I prepped two clean pint jars. Each jar received one teaspoon dill seed, two peeled garlic cloves and one tablespoon chopped spring onion. Finally, I packed the cucumber spears into the jars. The quart of cucumbers fit perfectly into the two jars (makes sense since two pint jars equals a quart).
When the brine reached a boil, I slowly poured it into the jars, leaving a 1/4 inch headspace. Because these are refrigerator pickles (this means that they aren’t shelf stable and must be kept in the fridge) this is the point where the work is done. Once the brine is in the jars, you pop the lids on and tuck them into the fridge. Give them at least a day or two to cure and then nosh away.
*These vegetables need a quick bath in some boiling water before they’re able to be pickled. Spend the time and dirty the pot in order to blanch them for 30-60 seconds. The extra step will pay off in flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 quart kirby cucumbers (approximately 1 1/2 pounds)
- 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 cup filtered water
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 2 teaspoons dill seed
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled
- 2 spring onions (whites only), chopped
Instructions
- Wash and dry kirby cucumbers. Chop ends off and slice into spears. Set aside.
- Combine vinegar, water and salt in sauce pan and bring to a boil.
- Equally divide the dill seed, garlic cloves and chopped onion between the two jars. Pack the cucumber spears into the jars as tightly as you can without crushing them.
- Pour the brine into the jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Put lids on the jars and let them cool on the counter top. Once they’re cool, put them in the refrigerator. Let cure for at least a day before eating. Pickles will keep in the fridge for up to a month.
Notes
*Your jars may seal during the cooling process. The USDA will tell you that this doesn’t mean that your pickles are then shelf stable. However, there are people who flout those rules. Use your best judgment.
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Looks like this will be my first summer canning project. I love a good refrigerator pickle
The spring onions are a good idea! We’re looking at doing more refrigerator pickles too. Just canned (via pasteurization method) some pickled asparagus, and we’ve got some last-of-the-garden beets that are about to be pickled too.
Couple of other pickling resources I’ve found droolworthy
Pickled pink | Oregon Life | The Register-Guard | Eugene, Oregon http://special.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/living/food/25200156-44/jars-pickles-brine-goes-pickling.csp
Linda Ziedrich http://www.lindaziedrich.com/ (we’ve been having great results with her pickling and jam books)
Seriously?!?! I LOVE YOU!!! I know almost nothing about pickles other than I love them and eat the hell out of them. Can’t tell you how happy I am to get inspiration from your blog and finally get the courage up to do some real canning this summer (I hope!). Thanks for this pickle recipe – it’s my favorite and now I know what to do! xoxo
I see in the recipe “filtered water” – should I use distilled water or bottled water – do I need the minerals in the water? I’m on city water – will that work?
I made some fridge pickles last week. I put them in whole into a large jar (5 liters) with a vinegar/salt/water brine. I haven’t tested them yet, figured they’d need at least a week? I wish now that I had cut off the ends, I didn’t know about that enzyme. Oh well. My next batch of fridge pickles, I’ll try this recipe!
How much do I love your new Urban Preserving series? It’s great for those of us who live in small spaces, but also for those of us that are new to canning and preserving. Sometimes the prospect of five pounds of fruit and eight jars can seem overwhelming, I know this is one of the barriers I’ve faced in the past. But I can manage one quart of cucumbers or three jars of jam. I’m just waiting for a free afternoon to tackle your strawberry vanilla jam. Now I’m adding these pickles to the list too!
I always can dill pickles but I make sweet&sour refrigerator pickles. I don’t know why?
Seriously, you are one of my blogging heroes. Everything you do and write about touches my heart and takes me right back to my grandmother’s farm. I cannot wait to make your chive flower vinegar. My flowers are a day or so away from their demise.
Valerie
I love your recipes! I swear by your garlic dill pickles and make them all the time. I like this small batch refrigerator version – it’s perfect for a quick snack for a weekend gathering. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much for your tip about the enzymes in the blossom end!! I’ve struggled with mushy pickles and this last batch I made were finally crisp. Now I know why: in my excitement for cucumbers, I had cut off the ends and eaten them since they threw off the geometry of the jars. They were the best pickles I ever made.
Can’t wait to try your version and the onion greens kimchi too!
I love the Urban Preserving idea–small batches are doable for me. Do you have any small batch tomato canning ideas?
If anyone has a recipe for pickled garlic scapes they’d like to share, I’d love to hear it! I have TONS sitting in my fridge right now.
Hey,
I just posted below about scapes! I’ll let you know how they turn out
How long do unopened refrigerator pickles last?
I think they are only *supposed* to last 3-4 months. However, I’m still eating a jar of refrigerator pickleds from last August. They are still crisp (I always add a fresh grape leaf for natural alum) and haven’t killed me yet. I’m just not much of a pickle person.
I just made dill pickles last night. I didn’t have any garlic on hand but I am growing some in my backyard so I used the scapes instead. I put 2 scapes in each jars. They look very pretty. I’ll let you know how they taste!
I remember reading a delicious refrigerator pickle recipe on your blog last summer. I returned just now hoping to refresh my memory and wouldn’t you know I didn’t even have to search. Thanks so much for writing about this again! Off to refrigerator pickle some jalapenos for my dad for Father’s Day
Funny that you mention the note about the jars sealing at the bottom – I just made a batch of roasted red pepper ketchup from “Put e’m up” and intended to keep the jars in the fridge and eat it up soon. They sealed anyway though. I don’t think it will really matter though, ketchup does not last long in my house!
Wow, you make it look so easy, Marisa!
Thanks for sharing and inspiring people like me.
I’ve never made pickles before, and now I am very tempted to try it this season.
You’ll pretty please post this to PD?
This is good stuff. I love refrigerator pickles and we are always knee-deep in cucumbers. I can hardly wait until we harvest! I always feel confident using your recipes.
i just made this with some foraged wild asparagus! just out of curiosity, why do you recommend cider vinegar? would you say apple cider vinegar? i tried one jar with regular white vinegar and one with apple cider. i’m anxious to taste the results.
I just like the flavor of apple cider vinegar more than a regular white vinegar. You’re welcome to sub in the white distilled variety.
How long do refrigerator pickles last? If you make as many as you can store, will they keep for months?
I just made these this weekend. I’m going to pop open the first jar this evening. They look yummy! Thanks for sharing…
I’m new to pickling and am very excited to try out this recipe. Pickling other vegtables intrigues me but I’m not sure what to do with them. Pickled squash, carrots, asparagus, so you eat them alone? Put them on burgers and hotdogs like cucumber pickles? any suggestions? I want to try them but have not idea how to begin broadening my horizons. thanks!
Amy, you can do anything you want this those pickles. Eat them alone. Put them on a sandwich. Offer them as part of a cheese plate. Have them as a snack. Pickled asparagus goes really well in a Bloody Mary.
[...] about 5 days now. I have been advised that patience is what I need to get the flavor I want. I used this recipe from Food in Jars and am [...]
do you have to use Kirby cucumbers? or can you use any kind that you have in your garden? I am new to pickling and am curious…thanks for the help!
Kirby cucumbers work best, but you can also use english (burpless) cucumbers. Regular slicing cucumbers contain a lot of water and don’t do quite as well.
Any ideas where I could find a kirby cuke this time of year? Maybe trader joes or whole foods? I have never heard of that variety.
Megan, kirby cucumbers just aren’t in season right now so you’re not going to find them easily. I’d suggest substituting English cucumbers for the kirbys in this recipe if you want to make it right now.
[...] Homemade Pickles! [...]
I just made two jars and only got the second jar about 2/3 of the way full before I ran out of cucumbers. I cut them into coins because I have a strange asian variety that curves and wouldn’t have worked well in wedges. I went ahead and filled both jars with the vinegar mixture, but want to make sure it is okay that one of the jars wasn’t full. Everything I see says “pack tightly”. Is it safe that the jar wasn’t full of vegetables as long as I filled it up with liquid?
[...] back from the store with two pounds of pickling cucumbers and a bag full of spices. She even found a recipe that looked [...]
My son and I just made our second round of these since you posted. We’ve eaten the first four jars this week and just put eight more in the fridge for next week! He loved the spring onions so much, we made him a jar of onions only. Thanks! Love your blog. Makes preservation not so scary for the rest of us!
[...] thought I’d surprise him by not eating it all myself and preserving it instead! I used the Small batch refrigerator pickles recipe and blanched the asparagus first. These are so much better than any store bought. I had [...]
[...] them. If I wanted to stay with that type of recipe. If you do, Marisa at Food in Jars has a recent refrigerator pickle recipe. Once spring hot, and the hope for fresh summer produce on the horizon, I purchased Wild [...]
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I am going to make these! Thanks!!
[...] of my own I decided this summer I would start. My first stab at canning was simple. I made some refrigerator pickles and some sour cherry preserves. Both turned out quite nicely. sour cherry preserves and spicy [...]
[...] Refrigerator Dill Pickles [...]
Hey Marisa– I finally got around to trying this. I love them! Just the right balance of garlic, onion, and dill. I used shallots from my CSA share, which worked out really well. I’ve already eaten almost a whole jar, it tasted so good!
I remember your jar of dilly beans that we had tried during your canning class on tomatoes a while back, so I will definitely be branching out and trying to pickle other vegetables very soon. I also bought my own Ball Home Discovery Kit, so I’m going to try to do some canning later on.
I’m really enjoying your Urban Preserving series. Thanks so much for imparting your knowledge on canning.
I am SO glad to hear that you like these pickles and that you’re getting more into pickling! Fantastic!
Hi Marisa,
I got some beets in my CSA yesterday, and am thinking it would be fun to make refrigerator pickled beets. Have you done this? I’m having trouble finding a recipe that doesn’t include a bunch of sugar, and would rather do something like this basic recipe and have a spicier rather than sweet result. I wonder if the strong flavor of beets requires something more. What do you think? Thanks!
I love pickled anything. I made a pickled jalapeno/onion/carrot mix once (escabeche) and they were to. die. for. Awesome on nachos.
[...] Refrigerator Dill Pickles with Syna (left out spring onion this time) (farm pickling cucumbers, garlic) [...]
Everyone that has tried these pickles love them. Can I put them in a hot bath canner and for how long??
[...] I can’t remember what recipe I used last year, so I am trying a new one. It is based on this from Food in Jars, but I modified the spices to what I had on hand. Now we just have to [...]
I LOVE these pickles and am curious if there’s any reason why they can’t be processed for shelf stability. Thoughts?
Also, any way to get the cleaner, crisper flavor of a refrigerator pickle like this in a regularly canned pickle? I tried your garlic dill recipe and despite following processing times and properly trimming ends, ended up with a not crisp enough yet overly flavored pickle
You will never get the texture of a refrigerator pickle from a boiling water bath processed pickle. The heat always (ALWAYS) softens the pickle. It is the trade off.
Such a shame. Keeping in mind that they will be softer, can this recipe still be used with a processed pickle method?
[...] Farmers’ Market to make 4 pints of sweet (by which I mean “just right”), crisp refrigerator dill pickles. This Saturday is the last of our local farmers’ markets; I am about to descend into deep [...]
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I have made two batches of these so far and they are fantastic!
Do you do the hot bath before you slice the cucumbers or after? I am going to try making these for the first time tonight!
Cucumbers don’t need to be blanched before pickling. Only the vegetables with the asterisk next to them do.
[...] recipe (step-by-step coming soon!) and the right one is a dill refrigerator pickle I modified from this recipe. The changes I made to that recipe include swapping the cider vinegar for white vinegar, using [...]
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why would they develop mold?
[...] LIKE to can/store/be domestic. I will be making these pickles this weekend. Sidebar: I love Marisa, even though I have never met her (obvi. I’ve [...]