Kosher Style Dill Pickles

Well, Erma, since we seem to be an a preserving kick this week, I’ll talk up my Kosher Style Dill Pickles. Since you can use larger cucumbers than for some pickles, after all you need cucumber wedges that stand up in a quart jar, this is a pickle to make later in the summer. Plus you need big full dill heads which are later also.

These Dill Pickles are like the ones that we used to get in the meat market. You know the ones–the pickles in the gallon and half gallon glass jars that the butcher would fish out with a fork (if he was clean, some just used fingers).

I thought they were so special, and then I found out how easy they were to make. Duh. Any idiot can make these dill pickles. They are just about fool proof. No cooking. No standing around. No chopping, grinding, slicing. Just cut big cucumbers into thick wedges and push into a jar. True, you have to wait 6 weeks to eat them, and they must be stored in a really cool cellar. If they get warm, they turn mushy. Six months is about the shelf life. After that they start to soften. Taste is fine, but not the texture.

Yes, I know, Erma, today all the home economists say you must Boiling Water Bath all pickles, relishes, and tomato products. Well, my neighbor makes fresh dill pickles, and follows that recommendation, and what does she complain of? Her pickles are not nice and crisp and crunchy.

Think about it! If you subject a crisp cucumber to 10 minutes in a Boiling Water Bath, what do you think it is going to happen? Cooked cucumbers are limp. Duh! I can’t convince her. She is sure they will spoil without the Boiling Water treatment. For hundreds of years Poles, and Germans, and Russians, and other Eastern Europeans have been preserving pickles this way. Shoot, they often didn’t even seal the jars. They used open barrels and kegs. Those people knew how to preserve a cucumber.

Kosher Style Dill Pickles:

2 quarts water
1 quart white vinegar
1 cup canning salt
2 cups sugar
Slice of onion or clove garlic for each jar
1 head of dill per jar
Small red cayenne pepper (optional)

Fill 12 hot, sterilized quart jars with cucumbers packed tightly. Usually a tall cucumber needs to be cut into 6 to 8 wedges. Add a fresh dill head, pepper, onion or garlic clove.

Have water, salt, vinegar and sugar at a boil before packing jars with cucumbers. Pour over enough liquid to cover the cucumbers. Seal and set aside in a cool place. Wait 6 weeks before using.