Regular dill pickles take about 10 minutes to make. Up to a half-hour if you’re going to can them.
Sweet pickles take a minimum of 7 days.
Day 1: Trim the ends off your cucumbers.
Then pour boiling water over them and let them sit overnight. I think people used to do this in a crock of some sort, but I just used one of my stainless steel pots.
Day 2: They now look like this:
Not as pretty as they used to be! Pour boiling water over them and let them sit again.
Days 3 and 4: repeat day 2.
Day 5: Big excitement! We get to mix up the brine.
It takes nearly a full bag of sugar! And some vinegar. A little salt, and the pickling spices. It smells like Autumn!
Also, it’s time to cut up the cucumbers into whatever size pieces you want. I decided to cut mine into chunks.
Pour the brine over the cucumbers, and let them sit for 2 days. I gave them a stir each morning and night.
Day 7 (or day 8 in my case since we weren’t home on day 7): It’s finally time to can them! Bring everything to a boil, and then pack in hot jars. Can in a boiling-water bath.
I got 6 pints out of my batch. No one else in the family likes them (they all tried one and made faces and icky sounds). My father-in-law has been begging for sweet pickles, so he has a few jars heading his way.
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I’m with the rest of your fam — I’m not a fan of the sweet pickle. Definitely prefer dill. But, I’m loving that you’re making your own pickles! Maybe someday I’ll give dill pickles a shot…
Refrigerator pickles are super easy! And you can do it with everyday grocery-store-bought cucumbers. Even the ones that aren’t “pickling” cucumbers.
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