Dill Pickles
Ingredients
- 1 hand full of clean grape, oak or sour cherry leaves (optional)
- 3 lbs of pickling cucumbers
- 1 qt of water
- 1/2 cup of cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp sea salt or pickling salt
- 1/8 cup of dill seed or 2 handfuls of dill fronds
Directions
- Place leaves in the bottom of a clean crock.
- Slice blossom ends off the cucumbers and pack cucumbers into the crock, smallest ones first, adding garlic cloves throughout. Do not fill crock more than two-thirds full.
- In a separate container, stir together water, vinegar, salt and dill until salt dissolves. Pour this brine over cucumbers until liquid is an inch above cucumbers when you’re pressing them down.
- If your crock has weights, set them on top of the cucumbers to submerge them. If you don’t have special weights, fill a gallon-sized plastic bag with water and set it on top to keep cucumbers submerged.
- Cover crock with towel to keep out dust.
Ferment pickles for 1 to 4 weeks at room temperature, checking crock daily. Scum may develop on top; this is normal. Carefully lift off weight and rinse it to remove scum. Skim scum from top of container before replacing weight and towel. Don’t worry about getting every last bit, but do this daily.
You may notice bubbles after the first few days, indicating lactic fermentation is underway. After a week, begin tasting the pickles daily. Keep fermenting until you enjoy the flavor. Pickles should be translucent throughout.
To store, place crock in a cool, dry, dark spot (the basement, for example), or remove pickles to smaller, lidded containers in the refrigerator. (If using metal lids, place a piece of plastic wrap between the container and the lid.) You may rinse fermented pickles and cover them with fresh pickle brine and seasonings, or strain and reuse your original brine. Pickles’ flavor will improve after about a month in cooler conditions.
Note: The brine should develop a yeasty aroma that is pleasant, never putrid. If pickles become slimy or moldy during fermentation, discard them and try again.
