Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Adventures in Gardening: Making Refrigerator Pickles

After being gone for the long weekend two weekends ago, I went to my garden on Tuesday night and had quite a bit of picking to do! Besides picking a big bag of green beans, some red peppers and some carrots, I picked lots of cucumbers.


While I use a lot of cucumbers in salads and have been giving some away to friends, I wanted to do something with the 6 smaller cucumbers I picked. Pickles are one of my most favorite foods, so I decided to make refrigerator pickles. My older sister makes them every summer so she sent me her recipe and I gave it a whirl. The nice thing about refrigerator pickles is that they are super easy to make! There are lots of recipes out there, but here is the one I used, which yields about 2 quarts:

 1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. pickling salt
1 1/2 c. vinegar
1/2 onion, sliced
6 garlic cloves
6 sprigs of dill
6 small cucumbers (or enough to partially fill 2 quart jars)

1. Slice cucumbers and distribute between 2 1-quart jars. Add 1/4 sliced onion, 3 cloves of garlic and 3 sprigs of dill to each jar.
2. Mix together sugar, pickling salt and vinegar. Distribute between the 2 jars (I put it in a measuring cup after mixing it so I knew how to evenly distribute it).
3. Add water to fill to about 1/2" below the top.
4. Let the jars sit on your counter for 48 hours, then refrigerate.
5. ENJOY!!

The finished product! 1 jar is a 1.5 pint jar so a little bit small but I didn't have another quart jar on hand.
The nice thing about refrigerator pickles is that they are a quick and easy thing to make! I tried a couple last night and they are delicious! And even if you don't have a garden, farmer's markets always have the small pickling size of cucumbers or you could use an English cucumbers. My cucumbers were borderline too big (you can tell from the picture that they have seeds) but they still taste great.

Do you like pickles? Have you ever made or eaten refrigerator pickles?

13 comments:

Marlys said...

That recipe works great with all sizes of cucs, and they are so delicious! You could even have cut them into spears, but chunks work well, too.
I have a 2 quart jar in my fridge that I received from a friend for my birthday. Yum yum!

Nora said...

I am not a pickle fan (though I do like pickle juice which is different, I guess?) but my bonus kiddos LOVE them. Well, the big one likes relish. Little one will eat pickles all day, everyday. this would be a fun thing to do with them next summer, so thanks for sharing!

Betsy Enger said...

I love pickles too! I make a super easy recipe that is more like a bread and butter with a kick. Onions, jalapeƱos,carrots, cauliflower, and Pickles in a gallon jar. Very yummy. Let me know if you'd like the recipe.

Betsy Enger said...

I love pickles too! I make a super easy recipe that is more like a bread and butter with a kick. Onions, jalapeƱos,carrots, cauliflower, and Pickles in a gallon jar. Very yummy. Let me know if you'd like the recipe.

Jeanie said...

Thanks for the recipe, Lisa. I love pickles, too. Quick question -- how is pickling salt different from kosher salt? Is it worth buying special or can I substitute?

Abby said...

I made these this summer! I love putting jalepeno and peppers in there too! My favorite! I bet yours are SO good with your garden fresh cucumbers!! Mmm

Carolina John said...

My mother makes homemade pickles every year, and puts up relish as well. They are both sooooooo good. Hope you guys enjoy those!

Charbelle said...

I'm loving the garden posts!!! My mom makes bread and butter pickles, she loves them. I'll eat them but my favorite are dill pickles.

Stevie said...

I loooooooove pickles! We have a local guy at our farmers market who sells the best pickles, but they're $10 a jar. We buy them every once in awhile but I've always wanted to make them. Thanks for the recipe - I think I'll make some this week!

Amber said...

I LOVEEEEE pickles but I have never tried making them before! This recipe does look super easy though so I'm going to have to give it a try!!

San said...

I loooove pickels, but have never tried to make my own.

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

I looooooove pickles, but have never made them. I've eaten people's home-jarred pickles though, and they are always amazing.

The Many Thoughts of a Reader said...

Yum! We made some too. Sometimes we throw in some jalepenos from the garden too. We didn't really like the pickles after we canned them but refrigerator ones have been a winner.