Cucumbers and Pickles

Today was and is crazy crazy busy, so Hubby wrote this blog. He’s a much better writer than I am:

I don’t want a pickle. I just want to ride on my motor-cicle.

-          Arlo Guthrie, The Motorcycle Song (the Significance of the Pickle) 

I love ol’ Arlo as much as the next baby boomer, but I’d rather have good pickles than any motor cycle ever made. Pickles are the stuff of county fairs. Food from the heartland, food your grandma used to put up in a steaming kitchen. But there’s a reason she did that. Pickles are just plain good. We went for years without them. Not anymore. 

Great pickles start with great cucumbers. Be selective about what variety you plant. Good salad cucumbers get big. Good pickling cucumbers are a lot smaller, but they bear like crazy. That’s what you want – a profusion of 2-4 inch cucumbers. The good news is that cucumbers thrive on a trellis. We start them from seed in a raised bed at the bottom of a 6-foot trellis, and they grow nearly to the top. We plant the dill that will eventually give these little pickles their characteristic flavor right next to them. They make great companions.

Usually, both are ready to go in mid-August, depending on the year. The problem is that the cukes don’t all come ripe at the same time. So you may have to make multiple small batches of pickles, rather than one great big batch because you need to make the pickles the same day you pick them. Pick the cucumbers and scrub them together under running water to clean them up and get the rough spots off the outside. Don’t peel them. And don’t feel like they’re the only things that make great pickles.

The beauty of the following recipe is that you can use nearly anything from the garden: sliced carrots, sliced radishes, sliced turnips, hot peppers, and dill are suggestions. 

FRESH REFRIGERATOR PICKLES

3 large cucumbers
1 bell pepper (green or red)
1 onion
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons celery seed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar 

Wash and scrub cucumbers. Slice into a medium sized bowl, leaving peel on, about 1/8" thick. Wash and remove seeds from pepper; remove skin from onion and scrub well under cold running water. Finely chop the onion and pepper; add to cucumbers. Sprinkle with salt and celery seed. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour.  

In a small saucepan, bring vinegar to a boil then remove immediately from heat. Stir in sugar, stirring until dissolved. Allow to cool, then pour over cucumbers (after they have been sitting for 1 hour, as above).  

Mix well; cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving.

But the best pickles are dill pickles. I’ve tried a variation of these in the past, but like this recipe this year.  

CRISP DILL PICKLES

4 lbs. cucumbers (freshly picked)

2 cloves peeled garlic for each jar

1-2 fresh sprigs of dill for each jar

4-5 peppercorns for each jar

Or 1 tsp. mustard seed for each jar

Slice of onion for each jar

1 small fresh hot cayenne or jalapeño pepper for each jar

2 qts. water

2 qts. white vinegar

Scant ½ c. canning/pickling salt

Soak freshly picked cucumber in tub of ice water overnight. Bring 2 qts. water, vinegar and salt to a boil.  Wipe cucumbers dry. Either slice or pack whole. Pack into sterilized jars with dill, garlic, onion, pepper and cayenne. Pour vinegar solution over pickles. Seal with sterile lids. Process in a boiling water bath 10 minutes.  Store in cool, dark place for 3 weeks for pickles to mellow.

Have fun with your own variations and enjoy!