I know, I know. It's been more than a month. But seriously, it's been one giant poo-nami after another for the last two months straight.
I have declined from calling the pickles what my family actually calls them, as the two friends who taught us how to make them can't remember who taught who! We know them as Jana (named for my past BFF's Mum) pickles.
List of ingredients:
The first step is not pictured because I am an airhead.
Wash your pickles. There are two ways to do this:
Wash you jars. You can do this by hand (pictured below) or in the dishwasher as its own cycle
Sterilize the jars on a cookie sheet in a 200 * F oven for 15 minutes. I set my oven to 225 because it is colder than Pluto's sad, sad heart.
Peel all the garlic that your little heart desires, and blanch for 1 minute in boiling water, quickly placing them in an ice bath to halt the cooking process. You can either leave them whole, or slice the bigger ones into smaller sizes.
Recipe from Mum.
Brine. It will singe your nose hairs.
Boil your snap top lids for 5 minutes, and keep hot until you are ready to use them.
Dump the brine ingredients in the biggest pot you have (Not copper; it can react) and bring to a roiling boil.
As soon as you have everything in its assembly line, start your engines!
Take your jars out of the oven, and drop as much or as little garlic as you like.
Plunk down the dill heads, weed and chopped up stalks. (the stalks can be about 3-4 inches long, but just below the neck of the jar)
Chili flakes time! My Hubby and my co-worker's Hubby sit in the closet and eat hot pickles. Whatever makes you happy so that you don't have to share...right?
Now the crazy part. Trying to get the pickles in jars that are hotter than Satan's hot sauce.
Swearing is ok when you are in the process of losing your finger prints....I find that tilting the jar on its side and shoving them in that way leads to the least amount of angry digits.
Cram and keep on cramming until you literally cannot fit another teeny weeny pickle in. I like an assortment of large and smalls to fill in the gaps.
Grab your canning funnel (it's a super wide mouth funnel) and pour in enough hot brine so that it comes to just below the neck. You want the pickles covered.
I had to poke that sucker back down.
Wipe the rim of Each and Every jar with some damp paper towel to ensure that no grit or anything interferes with the seal.
Take the magnetic stick and grab a hot lid from the pot. If there is still water on the lid when it goes on the jar, that is perfectly fine.
Plop the lid on the jars, place the metal ring on and tighten the lid. You only want it finger tight (that means no cranking the lid on)
Rinse and repeat until you are done. Took me about 3 hours start to finish for about 25 lbs, and I got 23 jars.
Place the finished jars somewhere that they will not be disturbed, touched, bumped or breathed on.
Leave them along for 24 hours. You will hear random popping sounds, which are the leads doing their job and sealing.
A sealed jar no longer shows the circle on the lid, while an un-sealed jar has the circle bit popped up.
If after 24 hours there are any jars that didn't seal, put them in the fridge. They will still turn into pickles, but they can't be stored in a cupboard.
Walk away for 6-8 weeks. Resist the urge to open a jar and check. The longer they sit the better they are.
I have declined from calling the pickles what my family actually calls them, as the two friends who taught us how to make them can't remember who taught who! We know them as Jana (named for my past BFF's Mum) pickles.
List of ingredients:
- 25 lbs of local pickling cucumbers (henceforth referred to as cukes)
- 2-3 heads of garlic (you can totally add more)
- lots of fresh dill weed and dill stalks
- pickling vinegar (double check, it has a high acid content than normal white vinegar)
- Kosher pickling salt
- can you believe that THREE grocery stores were out when I was looking for it? Had to use the stuff that they sell in the canning section of Canadian Tire...)
- chili flakes (optional if you like it spicy)
- grapes leaves (optional, adds extra crunch)
- canning jars, lids and rings
- massive stock pot for making the brine
- lots of counter space!
The first step is not pictured because I am an airhead.
Wash your pickles. There are two ways to do this:
- wash by hand in the bath tub/sink by gentle rolling the pickles between your hands (like Play-Doh) until no grit remains
- Do Not Scrub or they will be ruined. You need the skin on them
- wash in the washing machine. Totally NOT Joking here. This only works if you have an upright (non-front loading)
- Run a rinse cycle with no soap. Put the pickles in after on the gentlest setting, and run through a rinse cycle again.
Wash you jars. You can do this by hand (pictured below) or in the dishwasher as its own cycle
Sterilize the jars on a cookie sheet in a 200 * F oven for 15 minutes. I set my oven to 225 because it is colder than Pluto's sad, sad heart.
Peel all the garlic that your little heart desires, and blanch for 1 minute in boiling water, quickly placing them in an ice bath to halt the cooking process. You can either leave them whole, or slice the bigger ones into smaller sizes.
Brine. It will singe your nose hairs.
- 2 cups of pickling vinegar (make sure that it says pickling as it has a higher acid content that you need to stop mold)
- 1./ cup Kosher salt
- 6 cups of water
Boil your snap top lids for 5 minutes, and keep hot until you are ready to use them.
Dump the brine ingredients in the biggest pot you have (Not copper; it can react) and bring to a roiling boil.
As soon as you have everything in its assembly line, start your engines!
- washed and air dried-ish pickles
- brine
- garlic
- dill
- jars
- lids
- rings
- funnel
- magnetized lid grabber
- hot jar grabber (optional but useful if they are smoking hot)
Take your jars out of the oven, and drop as much or as little garlic as you like.
Plunk down the dill heads, weed and chopped up stalks. (the stalks can be about 3-4 inches long, but just below the neck of the jar)
Chili flakes time! My Hubby and my co-worker's Hubby sit in the closet and eat hot pickles. Whatever makes you happy so that you don't have to share...right?
Now the crazy part. Trying to get the pickles in jars that are hotter than Satan's hot sauce.
Swearing is ok when you are in the process of losing your finger prints....I find that tilting the jar on its side and shoving them in that way leads to the least amount of angry digits.
Cram and keep on cramming until you literally cannot fit another teeny weeny pickle in. I like an assortment of large and smalls to fill in the gaps.
Grab your canning funnel (it's a super wide mouth funnel) and pour in enough hot brine so that it comes to just below the neck. You want the pickles covered.
I had to poke that sucker back down.
Wipe the rim of Each and Every jar with some damp paper towel to ensure that no grit or anything interferes with the seal.
Take the magnetic stick and grab a hot lid from the pot. If there is still water on the lid when it goes on the jar, that is perfectly fine.
Plop the lid on the jars, place the metal ring on and tighten the lid. You only want it finger tight (that means no cranking the lid on)
Rinse and repeat until you are done. Took me about 3 hours start to finish for about 25 lbs, and I got 23 jars.
Place the finished jars somewhere that they will not be disturbed, touched, bumped or breathed on.
Leave them along for 24 hours. You will hear random popping sounds, which are the leads doing their job and sealing.
A sealed jar no longer shows the circle on the lid, while an un-sealed jar has the circle bit popped up.
If after 24 hours there are any jars that didn't seal, put them in the fridge. They will still turn into pickles, but they can't be stored in a cupboard.
Walk away for 6-8 weeks. Resist the urge to open a jar and check. The longer they sit the better they are.
