Homemade Dill Pickles
This is an easy way to make dill pickles. It's great for using up all your garden cucumbers.
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 quarts water
- 3 pints cider vinegar 5 percent
- 1 1/2 cups canning salt
- 2 teaspoons powdered alum
- 2 teaspoons yellow food coloring
- Dill
- Garlic cloves
- Cucumbers peeled and cut into spears
Instructions
- Bring first five ingredients to a boil in a large pot. Peel and put raw cucumbers in jars. Add one clove of garlic and one sprig of dill to each jar. Pour enough of the boiling mixture into jars to cover cucumbers. Screw on jar lids. Jars don’t have to be sealed.
- Let jars sit for 10 to 14 days before serving. Refrigerate before opening so pickles will be crisp.
Notes
This makes about 6 quarts of liquid. It depends on how full you make your jars as to how many jars you will get from the recipe. I have never tried making them without peeling them. They will keep on the shelf for at least 3 or 4 months. I usually get about 8 or 9 quarts. You can keep the liquid in the fridge and reheat if you don’t have enough cucumbers to use up all the liquid. You could also cut the recipe in half to see if you like the pickles. The food coloring just makes for a prettier jar of pickles.