Started off making Alton Brown's Bread & Butter Pickles, which are very good. But if you like your pickles on the sour side, you'll like this modification, which I've developed over the past couple of years.
2 to 4 cucumbers (depending on size, about 1 1/4 lb.), thinly sliced
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
4 tsp. minced garlic
3 Thai chilies (optional)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons pickling salt
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1/4 tsp. ground tumeric (or 1 tsp. fresh grated tumeric)
1 tsp. celery seeds
2 tsp. mixed pickling spice
Pickling cucumbers work best but regular slicers will do as well. Layer the cucumbers, onions, and garlic (and chilies, if used) in a quart canning jar. (Spring-top jars are ideal.) Pack them in fairly tight, or they'll all float to the top when you add the liquid.
Combine the remaining ingredients in a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 5 minutes.
Pour the hot vinegar mixture into the jar, filling it to the top. Let the jars cool to room temperature. Use any leftover vinegar mixture to top off the jar (some liquid will absorb into the cukes -- and that's a good thing.) Fasten the lid and refrigerate.
The pickles will be ready to eat in about 2 days, but the flavor will be even better if you wait a little longer. They'll should keep in the frig for 6 weeks, although they've disappeared long before that in my experience.
Other modifications. You like dill pickles? Replace 1/2 cup of the white vinegar with water. Increase the sugar to 1/2 cup. Reduce the pickling spice to 1 tsp and add 1 tsp of dill seed and 1 tsp of dill weed. It's won't be quite like a fermented kosher dill, but you'll get a hint of that dill flavor.
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
4 tsp. minced garlic
3 Thai chilies (optional)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons pickling salt
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1/4 tsp. ground tumeric (or 1 tsp. fresh grated tumeric)
1 tsp. celery seeds
2 tsp. mixed pickling spice
Pickling cucumbers work best but regular slicers will do as well. Layer the cucumbers, onions, and garlic (and chilies, if used) in a quart canning jar. (Spring-top jars are ideal.) Pack them in fairly tight, or they'll all float to the top when you add the liquid.
Combine the remaining ingredients in a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 5 minutes.
Pour the hot vinegar mixture into the jar, filling it to the top. Let the jars cool to room temperature. Use any leftover vinegar mixture to top off the jar (some liquid will absorb into the cukes -- and that's a good thing.) Fasten the lid and refrigerate.
The pickles will be ready to eat in about 2 days, but the flavor will be even better if you wait a little longer. They'll should keep in the frig for 6 weeks, although they've disappeared long before that in my experience.
Other modifications. You like dill pickles? Replace 1/2 cup of the white vinegar with water. Increase the sugar to 1/2 cup. Reduce the pickling spice to 1 tsp and add 1 tsp of dill seed and 1 tsp of dill weed. It's won't be quite like a fermented kosher dill, but you'll get a hint of that dill flavor.
