Affiliate disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our Privacy Policy.
Some days I just want a pickle, and nothing compares to a perfectly crisp home-canned pickle. They top my burgers and hot dogs all summer long, but more importantly, in the wintertime, they remind me that summer will come again.
The very best pickles cant be bought in a grocery store. If you want a good pickle, you’ll have to ask grandma for a jar or learn how to make them yourself. I kick myself every time I don’t can quite enough for a full year. In those years, I find myself scanning the supermarket shelves, hoping for anything that might qualify as a real pickle.
I’m always disappointed. How can they get away with charging $8 for a jar of wilted, slimy excuses for pickles? On top of that, they’re loaded with preservatives that have no business in pickles. Every time I reach this point I vow that next summer there will be more pickles.
My secret to the perfect pickle is to select small cucumbers, about the size of your pinky finger. Whether you’re making slices of whole dills, the size of the cucumber is key. Anything bigger is best suited to pickle relish or hog feed. (If you have really super tiny baby cucumbers, try making miniature gherkins (cornichons), which are made with a very different recipe.
When you select cucumbers for canning pickles, the seeds should be barely visible. The picture below has a cross-section of 3 different cucumbers. The top one has fully formed seeds, and they’re already beginning to fall out a bit. If you can this cucumber, the center would fall out and the outside would never be crisp. If all you have is giant cucumbers, try making refrigerator dill pickles.
The bottom two cucumbers are both acceptable for canning but choose the smaller slices on the left for best results.
If you have very large cucumbers and your heart is set on canning, you can also try making either dill pickle relish or bread and butter pickles. Both of those recipes are designed to accommodate large overripe cucumbers. The cucumbers are layered with salt for about 2 hours before canning, which draws out extra moisture and removes bitterness from the overripe cucumbers. Added sugar in both recipes also helps mask any residual bitterness, and a bit of turmeric makes up for the fading color as the cucumbers are past prime.
Jar size also makes a big difference for home canned pickles. You can have the best pickle recipe in the world and the freshest tiny cucumbers, but if you can in quart jars they’ll be overcooked. Always can in pints rather than quarts. Quarts require longer processing times and are liable to produce mushy pickles.
There’s an old-school practice of soaking pickles in pickling lime before canning, and this helps keep them crisp during the canning process. It’s a complicated process, and involves a lot of time and mess, soaking and rinsing. Not to mention a lot of lime.
These days, most canners substitute something called pickle crisp. It doesn’t have anything funny in it, just calcium chloride. The calcium helps to reinforce the cell walls in the cucumbers, and that keeps them from popping during the canning process. The end result is firmer pickles without a lot of extra work.
It doesn’t take a lot of calcium chloride to get the job done. Roughly 1/8th tsp per pint or 1/4 teaspoon per quart. Just spoon it into the bottom of the jars along with the spices. Pickle crisp is optional, but it will help ensure crisp home-canned pickles.
Making pickles at home is simple, assuming you have the right ingredients. I include fresh dill, mustard seeds, dill seeds, coriander seeds and black peppercorns. If for some reason I can’t find fresh dill, extra dill seed will work. Fresh dill tends to come in large bundles from the grocery store or farmers market, and if you have extra, try making dill pickled green beans, known as dilly beans here in Vermont.
Start by packing spices, cucumbers, onions and garlic tightly into jars, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Cover with hot brine, and water bath can. Wait at least 2 weeks for flavors to infuse, and ENJOY!
If you’re giving them out as gifts, consider some cute labels. Chalkboard labels are all the rage these days, but I stick to ball canning’s dissolvable labels because they’re easy to remove so that you can reuse the jar once it’s empty.
If you really want to save money on pickling, buy your canning supplies in bulk. While rings and jars can be reused, lids should be new each time to ensure a good seal. We buy our canning lids in bulk online and bring our canning unit costs down considerably. If you’re looking for a quick fix, you can also try a pre-made dill pickle spice mix, just make sure your cucumbers are fresh and tiny.
Pickle Canning Recipes
Looking for more ways to preserve cucumbers in a jar?
Dill Pickle Recipe for Canning
Ingredients
- 4-5 lbs Cucumbers, Small ones only
- 4 Cups Water
- 4 Cups Cider Vinegar or white vinegar, 5% acidity
- 1/2 Cup Pickling & Canning Salt
- 1 Large Onion , Thinly Sliced
- 10-15 cloves Garlic
- 5 large Dill Heads or fresh dill sprigs
- 5 tsp Mustard Seeds
- 5 tsp Dill Seeds
- 5 tsp Coriander Seeds
- 5 tsp Black Peppercorns
- 5/8 tsp pickle crisp optional – 1/8 tsp per pint
Instructions
- Start your water bath canner in a pot big enough to hold 5 one pint mason jars. The water (and the pot!) should be deep enough once the jars are added there is at least 1 inch of water above the top of the jars. Bring the pot to a boil.
- Prepare a brine by bringing 4 cups water, 4 cups vinegar and 1/2c salt to a boil.
- While the brine and canner are coming up to a boil, gently wash cucumbers to remove any dirt and nip off both ends. Either leave the cucumbers whole or slice into 1/2 inch slices.
- At the bottom of each wide mouth pint mason jar, add 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds, dill seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns and the dill heads or fresh herb sprigs.
- Pack tightly with pickles and a few slices of onion. Top 2 with 2-3 garlic cloves. Be sure to leave 1 inch of headspace above the pickles.
- Cover with brine to just submerge the vegetables, being sure to leave 1/2 inch of headspace above the top level of the brine.
- Cap and band mason jars to just finger tight and place into boiling water in your water bath canner. Process for 10 minutes for pints (or 15 min for quarts) below 1000 feet of elevation. (15 minutes for pints at 1,000-6,000 feet)
Notes
- This recipe makes slightly more brine than you need to can 5 pints of pickles, to make sure you have enough to properly fill all the jars. Store any extra in a mason jar at room temperature for later use.
- The spices can also be adjusted without affecting canning safety, based on your preferences.
- The salt is not necessary for preservation in this recipe, and can be adjusted to your tastes. Salt levels in pickles are a very personal thing, and I’ve seen recipes that use A LOT more salt, and just a few that use less. Around 1/2 cup is a good middle ground, but if you like them REALLY salty add 3/4 cup (alternatively, use 1/4 cup for lower salt pickles).
- DO NOT use table salt, it has additives that don’t work well for canning. Lacking pure canning salt, use kosher salt.
- DO NOT adjust the vinegar/water ratio to lower the amount of vinegar. The acidity in the vinegar is what preserves the pickles and makes them suitable for water bath canning. For a more sour pickle, you can increase the amount of vinegar (but never reduce it).
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Instead of buying the spices seperate, I bought Ball Pickling spice which contains mustard seed, dill seed, coriander seeds and peppercorns. How much of this already mixed spice would you add to your pint jars? Also could I reduce then size of my jars to 8 oz? (First time canner here)
Yes, you can reduce the size of the jars to 8oz, though you’re going to find that you’ll only get maybe a dozen pickle slices in jars that small. Great if you live alone though. The total spices in this amounts to 4 tsp per 16oz jar, so I’d do 2 tsp of your mix for an 8oz jar. Best of luck with your pickles!
I can’t find coriander seeds anywhere. What could I use instead?
You can just skip those, no worries.
Can u double this recipe? When ur making quarts? Or do u use the same about of ingredients?
Yes, you can multiply this recipe as much as you want (double, triple, etc). I’ve only made these in quarts once, and I just added slightly more spices and they came out about right. I’d suggest adding 1 1/2 to 2 times the amount of dry spices to quart jars.
I forgot to add the water to the brine, what should I do? I’ve already canned them and they have sealed.
Not adding water to the brine is just fine for safety, and honestly, that’s how I make my Gherkin pickles with no water. If it was all vinegar then it’s totally safe for canning, but they’ll be a bit more sour. I enjoy them that way too, just a bit more bite to them. If you find they’re too intense for you when you open them, you can add a bit of sugar syrup to the jar and then store them in the fridge or a few days. I bet that’ll make them taste a lot like bread and butter pickles or sweet dills, and the sugar will help balance the vinegar.
Let me know how they go when you open them.
I don’t have fresh fill. How much dill seed per pint jar?
I’ve been there. I usually toss in 1 tsp per jar. Make sure they’re fresh though, dill seeds lose their flavor pretty fast with storage and after a year or so it’s barely there. Give them a smell to make sure they still have some flavor left.
Thanks!
Can you use organic apple cider vinegar with pulp for canning pickles?
Yup. That’s all high acid, even with the pulp in there. The only thing to watch is it needs to be standardized to 5% acidity (which most commercial vinegars are). Homemade vinegar might not be strong enough to pickle the cucumbers and acidify them enough for canning.
Can a pressure canner be used with this recipe? What would be the directions? Thanks!
You could pressure can these, but the cucumbers would probably come out as pulp. These are actually recommended for low temp pasteurization (180 degrees for 30 minutes) for best results.
That said, if you really wanted to pressure can them, I’d can them at 5 pounds pressure for 1 minute. That’s not a tested recipe or anything, but it should be more than sufficient to pressure can pickles.
have you tried using grape leaves for crispness i found the recipe i used was quite salty
Yes, just put a grape leaf in each jar.
Your cooking them to long for a quart jar you process them 5 minutes, you won’t have soft pickles, heck my mom, never used a canner for her pickles, she just had everything pipping hot and the lids sealed but for me 5 minutes in the canner is just right. Thanks for a new recipe… I agree on tbe store bought pickles, I rather go without…
I’ve heard many people that don’t actually “can” their pickles and just seal the jars after boiling brine is poured over the top. While that works fine most the time, there is a small risk of contamination using that method.
Hi, I have been making pickles for over 40 years and I never use the amount of vinegar to water. The pickles never spoil. I pack my cucumbers in hot boiled jars. With garlic and a sprig of dill in bottom of each jar and a sprig on top. 1/2 inch head space. Pour hot brine over them and then sterilized lids and cap and a 5 minute bath with water already boiling before put jars in. The brine is 8.5 cups of water and 2.25 cups of vinegar with 1/2 cup of Kosher salt. These are crispy and the best pickles you will ever taste. Not mushy and stay crisp for at least 6 months. To stop garlic from turning blue in the jar I blanch garlic for a few minutes in in boiling water. Try these and if you are paranoid put in refrigerator, But, I assure you if you use sterile process in jars and cooking you will not have any problems. Enjoy!
That’s so interesting! I’m glad you’ve had good luck with those and haven’t had any issues, but at least by modern canning guidance that’s nowhere near enough vinegar for a safe pickle. It’s all about your comfort level, but I always use at least half vinegar because I’d rather be safe than sorry. I actually use all vinegar in my bread and butter pickles, and they’re some of my favorites.
Have a question. I have enough brine left over for another couple of pints or a quart. Can I save the brine and reheat it the next time I have another batch of cucumbers?
Of course! The brine will keep just fine at room temperature for quite some time. I had an extra jar hanging out on my counter for almost a month before I made another batch with it and it’s just fine. Really, there’s no reason for it to go “bad” since it’s just spices, vinegar and salt.
Would everything in the recipe be the same if I cut the cuts lengthwise for long pickles? Also I use pickling lime for bread & butter pickles and really like how crisp the pickles are would the dills
be just as firm?
Yes, that works just fine. I do that from time to time as well.
Would the processing time be different if I’m doing quart jars?
The processing time is 10 minutes for pints or 15 minutes for quarts. I recommend using small cucumbers in pints because they’ll be crisper pickles, but quarts will also work too.
Do they need to be refrigerated or kept out for the two weeks?
If you water bath can them as instructed, they do not need to be refrigerated. Water bath canned pickles are shelf stable, until they’re opened. Once you open the jar, they’ll keep in the refrigerator for months. While you’re waiting 2 weeks for the flavors to infuse, keep them at room temperature out of direct sunlight (i.e. in your pantry).
How long are the pickles shelf stable before opening?
It’s generally recommended to consume canned products within 12-18 months for quality reasons but they are safe to consume for much longer than that.
How long until the pickles are ready?
In theory, they can be eaten whenever, but they’ll taste best if you give them at least 2 weeks for the flavors to infuse into the pickles.
Where do you add the dill heads? Did I just miss that direction?
Oops, thanks for catching that, I’ve updated the recipe. Add them in to the bottom of the jar with the dry herbs. The pickles will help hold them down and keep them submerged.
Just made the recipe. But afterwards I realized you have blackpeppercorns listed in ingredients but no step to add it. Hopefully they will still turn out good :/
Thanks for catching that, all the dried herbs go in together into the bottom of each jar. I’ve corrected that in the instructions. Likely you won’t notice much difference in the finished pickles, the peppercorns give them a very mild pepper flavor that’s nice but not essential. A lot of the stronger flavors come from the dill, mustard and coriander seeds.
Can I make these without the coriander seeds? I only have the powder on hand. Also, is this enough vinegar to make them “canned” safe?
You can skip the mustard seeds all together (or use powdered if you want, either way). Yes, this is a canning recipe, and you need at least half the liquid in the recipe to be vinegar (5% acidity) for canning.
Just a heads up that cucumbers are technically fruit not vegetables. Had to point that out owning a nursery business and all.
Can you also add a step about adding the calcium chloride? I followed the recipe and forgot all about it!
If I read the instructions correctly, you add the jars to the canner after the water is already boiling. Is that correct? I have always had the jars hot, packed them, then put them in the canner, and brought to a boil. Putting jars into boiling water kinda makes me a little nervous!
Yes, I’d definitely suggest having the water already at a boil. I start the water boiling before I even think about prepping the vegetables. It usually takes at least half an hour for my canner full of water to come to a boil, and all of that time is extra cook time for the pickles. There’s a lot of time that the pickles would be in jars in the temperature range of 160 to 212, hot enough to cook the pickles, but not hot enough to can the pickles. That means that you’re pickles are being “cooked” for a lot of extra time that’s unnecessary.
The brine is boiling, goes into jars and then those nearly boiling jars go into boiling water. I’ve actually broken jars when the temperature inside the jar was too different from the water inside the canner. The thermal shock to the glass was too much.
So yes, long reply later, the water in your canner should be boiling before you load the pickles, to minimize cook time for the cucumbers and to prevent jar breakage from thermal shock.
Are you aware that it is now approved to can vinegar pickles at 180ºF for 30? Which does not destroy the pectin in the pickles? I learned this on the American test kitchen bread and butter pickle show ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDPsn5CRUtg )
Yes, but it does need to be carefully managed in order to avoid spoilage. Here is an article on it from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_06/low_temp_pasteur.html
Could I do that with an immersion circulator, though…hmm…
I was concerned about boiling since the jar packagine suggested 180 degrees in order for the jars not to break. I pushed the limit on that a bit. I also misread the recipe and added WAY too many spices. I will try again. I did make a jar of the refriderator pickles with larger slices and they are really good.
Can I use ground spices versus the seeds? Looking forward to trying this out!
Technically, you can use ground spices, but I wouldn’t. The whole spices season your pickles and then stay at the bottom of the jar. Ground spices will cover everything and the pickles you pull out of the jar will be a bit mucky from the spices. Same flavoring, but just shmutz everywhere. If you do for some reason use ground spices, use a lot less. They have so much more surface area they’ll flavor the pickles more strongly.
This is a great recipe! I love seeing people doing home canning, it really is a great project to start and be proud of once it is finished. I need to start pickling at home more – I usually just purchase mine from the store. I know I would save much more money doing it myself. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Hi! Any advice on how to get enough tiny cukes to can at once?. I always have them growing at varying sizes and have to wait a few days to save enough for a batch. By that time, I feellike the ones I picked the first day are soggy and maybe the reason I get soggy pickles. Also, I never heard the pint jar rule before. Doesn’t that mean there are only about 4- 5 pickles in each jar, though?
We’ve been lucky enough to find small ones at the farmers market from farmers who know how to pick picklers to make good pickles. If you grow 4-5 plants you should have enough for a small canning batch twice a week. Since they can up so fast I just do a few pints a twice a week for about a month. Yes, pint jars means you’re only getting 5 or 6 whole pickles to a jar, but they taste so much better that way!
For those who find it hard to find coriander…look in the Mexican food section. Coriander is the seed of the cilantro plant. They sell it in the Mexican spice section as coriander. I bought a large bottle very cheap.
Hey! I’m excited to try your recipe. With all the heat our cucumbers are somewhat bitter, especially with the peeling. Can I peel them and make this recipe or does the peel add to the crispness?
The peel really needs to be left on. I have seen a technique that you might want to try where you soak the cucumbers in salt water to remove the bitterness. Try 1 Tablespoon of salt for 2 litres of liquid and soak for 40 minutes before pickling.
Stagger your seedling times, as the plants mature the younglings for each plant set will match up as the first yield is always smaller than the last.
I put mine in an ice cream bucket with water and ice and keep in the fridge until I have enough to can, adding more ice as needed. This keeps them fresh and crisp.