Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Dill Pickles

Two or three years ago I made pickled okra. Lots of it. For a number of weeks, I was pickling about every other day. 

This summer I acquired seeds for pickling cucumbers, I planted them in late spring, and this week I started harvesting. Yesterday I made my first couple of jars of pickles. 

Because it had been so long since I had pickled anything, I had forgotten my recipe, so I had to call my dad to see if he remembered it. He didn't remember it fully, and the recipe I'm providing below is about as close as I can get to what I did with the okra (with the help of Virg and the InterWebs). 

I'll probably experiment with ingredient ratios from time to time, but this is the base recipe, and I'm sharing it not only for my readers but also for myself. 

Pickling brine ingredients:

1 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup of white vinegar

2 cups of water

2-3 tablespoons of pickling salt

In the jars:

1/2 teaspoon of dill seed

Snip of fresh dill weed

1/8 teaspoon of hot pepper flakes

1-2 cloves of garlic

Pickling cucumbers, whole or quartered if they're bigger ones

Process:

Put the dill, garlic, and pepper flakes in the bottom of the jars and then assemble your cucumbers. Put the jars in a pot with water in it and heat on medium-high to temper the jars.

Bring the brine to a boil and let it roil for a while. Using some kind of dipper, fill up the  jars to the line and then cap.