Farmer’s Spicy Garlic Pickles
"A burst of spicy in your mouth"
It’s about time to get ready to plant the garden so I thought I’d throw up my world famous Pickle recipe… Ok, not world famous, but I get tons of requests for these every year from friends, co-workers, family, etc.
This recipe is based on the recipe my Mom and Dad made when I was a kid. It was always great and we did tons of pickles every year. They used a water bath method of pickling which is great for storing these and preserving for a long time. But in my opinion, they’re not as crisp and delicious as just doing refrigerator pickles. Don’t forget, keep these in the fridge!
Once you jar them up, they’re ready to eat in about 3 days and will store very well for a month, pretty well for two months and you’re pushing your luck after that. You won’t get sick, but they’re past their prime after 2 months and won’t be as good… REALLY. Date the bottom of the jar with a sharpie to keep track.
You’re going to need to make your pickling spice mixture. Below are the ingredients. This will make a large batch. I make it up and keep it sealed in a plastic bag and use as needed. Do yourself a favor and go to a spice store. The grocery store will kill you. Penzey’s Spices are everywhere and have good prices. If you have a spice rack, you probably have most of this stuff.
Pickling spice Recipe:
2tbs Mustard Seed (I sometimes go yellow & brown… your choice)
3tbs Peppercorns
2tbs coriander
2tbs Crushed Red Pepper
1tbs whole allspice
1tbs whole juniper berries
½tbs cloves
1tbs fennel
1tbs Dried Dill Seed
½ tbs Dry Dill Weed
½ tbs ground Coriander
1-tbs Caraway Seed
4-5+ whole bay leaves – crushed
(if you leave off a few of these items, the world won’t end, just understand everything brings something to the party)
Next, you will need to make pickling brine from the above pickling spice mixture & some other goodies…
Initial Brine:
8tbs Pickling Spice (recipe above)
3-4tbs Fine Sea Salt or pickling Salt (if you don’t have these, just throw sea salt in the food processor for 2 minutes- Done.)
DO NOT USE IODIZED SALT. Have some self respect.
I used to go 6 tbs, but maybe go 3. Err on the side of less salt and you will probably be happier… oversalted pickles are nasty
2.5tbs Sugar
3 cups Water
Heat this up a bit in a saucepan so the sugar and salt dissolve. Remove from heat and cover the saucepan so the other spices can steep in the water. Give it an hour or so. Little more or a little less won’t hurt. This doesn’t need to boil. You don’t want to kill the spices, just get them to blend a bit.
Time to add the brine to the rest of the goodies and the cucumbers…. You’ll need the following:
5-6 cups White Vinegar
8clvs Chopped fresh Garlic
And the above brine mixture (3+ cups) that has been steeping
20 or so small cucumbers split in half. I prefer Boston Pickling Cucumbers. I grow them in my garden, as well as the dill. 4-6 inch cucumbers are best. maximize what you can fit in a jar.
Brine cucumbers for a few hours in mixture. This mixture should be about 1.5 parts white vinegar to 1 part water total. You already used 3 cups of water making the initial brine so 5 cups of vinegar is about right. I put this entire mixture in a large bowl and cover with foil. Set it in a warm area for a few areas to let the Cucumbers take on some of all the brine’s flavors as a whole. If you need to add some more liquid to this to cover the cucumbers that’s no problem. Just watch the ratio of water and vinegar. No need for more spice, salt or sugar… trust me.
Time to jar these babies….
Line each jar’s perimeter with Cucumbers and add a heaping teaspoon of the items below this paragraph to the jars. Add in more cucumbers to fill the center of the jar. Fill the jars with the brine mixture from the bowl, making sure you spoon a good amount of brine AND spices into each jar when you fill. Be careful as mustard seeds will be at the bottom of the bowl, don’t miss those. Also, you’ll want to spoon some of the spices that float on top in as well. The Allspice, Juniper berries, Bay Leaves etc. Pace yourself here… it is key to get a little of everything in each jar for consistency.
As mentioned above, add a heaping TSP of each to the jars
Fresh chopped Garlic - Yes, there is some in the brine but more is needed
Fresh chopped Dill weed – (slightly less of this)
Crushed Red Pepper - See the above note on the garlic
Watch for air bubbles on the side of the pickles pressed against the side of the jar. Use a steak knife to get rid of those. Pack the pickles in well but don’t crush!
One last thing to mention… I like to also add a fresh Dill Umbel (this is the seed plume at the top of the dill plant) to my pickle jars as well for taste. I really think it helps. The tricky part is that fresh BRIGHT GREEN dill weed is best for pickles and usually the umbel doesn’t develop until the dill weed starts to darken and turn slightly gray & brown. Once the fresh dill weed is no longer bright green, it really doesn’t taste as good. So if you can stagger your growth of dill to get the best of both worlds, you’re golden. If not, leave out the umbel and you’ll be fine.
You can do full uncut pickles do but they take 3-4 weeks to be ready, even if you slice the edges to help brine penetration. halves are best, in my opinion.
If you want sweet bread & butter pickles… move along. This ain’t for you! If you have little children, these will likely be too spicy for them. Maybe ease up on the red pepper in a few jars for the little ones. 9-10+ years old? no prob.
These are spicy, garlic-y and wonderful! No room for sweet pickles here… You will not hate these, I promise. I have fine tuned this over a few years as it took some time to get it to remind me of exactly what my parents did when I was a kid. I have a wait list of friends who want these every summer and now have to grow Cucumbers in two batches just to meet the demand. I hope you enjoy as well.
Don’t forget!! These are refrigerator pickles! Store in the fridge immediately and always.
Several hours out is no problem but they stay fresher longer this way and crisp
Side note, if you like Bloody Mary’s and you grow green beans, use this recipe with a heavy dose of crushed red pepper and pickle green beans in a water bath. The resulting spicy pickled green beans are AWESOME! Those need a month to be ready.
By the way, this is the first thread I’ve started… moderately interesting…
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