Use those fresh garden cucumbers and make these Super Easy Dill Pickles from scratch for your own crunchy, dill, pickle treat!
I LOVE pickles. Like adore them. These Super Easy Dill Pickles from scratch, they make me love them even more!
When I was a little girl after church on Sunday when we would go to the grocery store so my dad could buy onion rolls to make a bacon breakfast sandwich out of the bacon my mom was inevitably frying up at home, my brother and I would get a treat. And my treat was either chocolate doughnut holes or a massive dill pickle from the huge jar on top of the deli counter. Although 8 year old Tracy usually picked the chocolate doughnuts over the pickles, 29 year old Tracy now would choose pickles over chocolate any day. I just generally love cucumbers.
This year, I planted a ton of cucumbers and they are just exploding, which is awesome and surprising. The last cucumbers I planted did terribly, but I think I planted them this year over what the previous tenants used to use as compost, so this year I have some super duper happy cucumber plants. So I know most pickles call for Kirby cucumbers, which I did not plant. Does it matter? I don’t think so. I planted Japanese cucumbers, which are long and thin kind of like an English cucumber but just with a bumpier / pricklier skin.
These super easy dill pickles had super simple ingredients and required minimal work. Sold. We’ve been so busy all the cooking we’ve been doing is just that, easy. 5 cucumbers, some yellow mustard seeds, peppercorns, red pepper flakes, garlic, dill, and also sea salt and some coriander I forgot to include in the picture.
I halved and sliced those little guys up,
packed them into 1 quart mason jars,
Tossed all the spices and flavor goodness on top and mixed a couple of cups of water with the salt and filled the jars.
Sealed and ready to sit out and ferment for a few days.
That same night I pulled all of these beauties out of the garden! My dad is seriously smiling down on me right now; he loved raw fresh out of the garden cucumber salads almost as much as I love pickles.
After 3 days of fermenting, I had little bubbly happy jars of pickles! It’s been super warm out lately, so I only let them ferment for 3 days. If it were cooler out I’d let them sit for 3-7 days.
Yuummm. Great dill, briney flavor, with just the right texture. Not too crisp like a raw cucumber but just enough. Definitely not a limp pickle, which no one likes 😉
So. Easy. Even better, it’s almost truly from scratch since I grew the cucumbers myself!
Super Easy Dill Pickles
Ingredients
- 5 medium to large fresh cucumbers
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 sprigs of fresh dill
- 1/2 teaspoon of coriander seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon of yellow mustard seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon of whole peppercorns
- 1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
- 2 Tablespoons of sea salt
- 2 cups of water
Instructions
- Slice your cucumbers to desired size / shape.
- Pack them into a quart jars, super tight.
- Toss in the garlic, dill, mustard, coriander, peppercorns, and red pepper flakes in on top.
- In a separate bowl, mix 2 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of sea salt until salt dissolves. Pour in water over cucumbers and spices into jar (or as much of the water that fits). Be sure that the cucumbers are completely submerged in the water - this can be done by having them super super packed in and filling the jar to the brim with the salt water.
- Sit in a dry place to ferment for at least 3 days. If there is a white film or mold that forms just skim it off. It's not harmful, but can affect the taste of the pickles.
- After 3 days test your pickles for flavor and crunch. If to your liking, put in fridge to stop fermentation process.
This brings me back to my childhood. I remember those large jars of pickles at the corner store! Yum! We would have one of those gigantic pickles with some local deer jerky! Wow, I forgot all about it until I saw your amazing recipe.
So fun!! 🙂
We all love pickles too! I have had my share of failures in the past. This year I finally managed to make some good ones using our itty bitty Mexican gherkins. Meta sty and cute!
Oooh Mexican gherkins?? Yum!! I kind of wish I had some smaller cucumbers coming out of our garden so I could pickle them whole. I’ll have to keep an eye out for gherkin plants next summer!
Drool! I soo love pickles. 🙂
😀
Love pickles:-) yum yum
I second that yum yum! 😉
I grew up eating these …so good! My Dad use to pickle cucumbers, fresh out of the garden. I never got his recipe. Now I can use this one! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
So happy to share it! 🙂
I have some of these on the go right now. It’s good to see how others do them, as I find fermenting is fun, but there is always something more to learn about flavours and slightly different techniques. Thanks.
Yum! It is fun to see all the different recipes! There are so many flavor and techniques; I’m excited to try more 🙂
I am a big “pickle” fan and your recipe will be added to my list of “to do” before the summer is over 🙂
Oh yay!! 😀
Tracy, what a beautiful post, and gorgeous pickles! I, too, would have picked chocolate doughnuts when I was nine, but would go for dill pickles now. Since we live in an inner city apartment I can only imagine how satisfying it would be to grow your own cucumbers and make pickles from them. Thank you for such a sunny, summery post for this week’s Fiesta Friday!!
You’re so sweet! Thank you so much!! Having a garden in our rental, even though it’s a house with a yard, still makes me so happy since the house has a temporary feel- but nothing feels more like home than veggies from a garden 🙂
They look tantalising, but I tried some made by Hungarian migrants once, and no. Not for me. Maybe yours have more taste and less salt? Should I draw up the courage to try again? Hmmm. Bookmarked this, just in case I ever do.
Aw, I hope you do try it! These definitely have more than just a salt taste. The dill and coriander really come out with them, and you can always add a little more of something and less salt 🙂
How lovely to be able to jar and ferment produce from your very own garden! This is definitely something I need to do put thought into in the spring (not too far off now, in Australia) when I decide what veggies to plant. Thanks so much for the inspiration Tracy and thanks for bringing such a delicious fresh treat along to Fiesta Friday #27! Cheers, Margot
Thank YOU, Margot! Fermenting produce from my own garden is something I didn’t think I’d ever do but am so thrilled we’re able to! Garden planning is so fun- I hope you have a short winter and early spring over there 😉
These look great Tracy, and I concur with you regarding the goodness of pickles! Yum! Awesome that you can grow your own pickles.
Thanks, Ngan! I love that- growing my own pickles!
YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!! AH Dill pickles are THE-BEST. Yours look like those expensive ones at the grocery store, I want one! I like eating dill pickles and American Cheese at the same time, weird right!? I want some nowwww. Mail me that pickle! Love the pics too, as alwaysssss 🙂
Hahahaha omg I love you but American cheese and dill pickles?!?! Ok ok, I won’t knock it ’til I try it… But omg I’m sure we will have soooo many cucumbers this year and (hopefully) so many jars of pickles, I just might have to send out a care package! 😉
woah dill pickles- sounds interesting and looks amazing Tracey. just droooling by the name pickles.. Happy FF..
Thank you! Happy Fiesta Friday to you too! 🙂
Mmmm – so good – I can almost hear it snap as I bite into one! Happy Fiesta Friday!
😀 Happy Fiesta Friday! 🙂
I always wondered about these… you just got bookmarked!!
Awesome!! Thanks!
BIG TIME !!
Ummmmm yummmmm….Tracey..gorgeous recipe and beautiful pictures x
Thank you! 🙂
So fun!!
Thanks Lori! Fermenting used to scare me but it’s definitely a ton of fun!