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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.
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Thanks for sharing experience and I am glad that I have gone through such an post, Thanks for sharing!
You’re very welcome. We’re so glad you enjoyed the post.
In this article, you have explained the exact process of making dill pickle for canning in a different way.
This topic needed to be addressed. Thanks for shedding light on it.
You’re very welcome.
Thanks for the insightful recipe! I assume the pickle crisp goes into the jars with the spices? Its not in any of the recipe steps…
Yes, that’s correct. Sorry about that.
If I don’t use the pickle crisp will they be crispy in 6 to 12 months?
The pickles won’t be as crispy overall without the pickle crisp. You could experiment and do some with and some without to determine if it’s a big enough difference for you in the long run.
Very Informative, Thank you for sharing.
You’re very welcome. We’re so glad you enjoyed the post.
Great job on this article! I appreciate the effort and research that went into creating such informative and thought-provoking content. The insights and perspectives shared have been extremely valuable and have helped me gain a deeper understanding of the topic. Thank you for taking the time to write and share this with us. Keep up the excellent work!
You’re very welcome. So glad you enjoyed the post.
Forgive me if this has been asked or I missed it in your post, but have you ever added sugar to the brine. If so, do you have a recommendation?
Thanks
We don’t typically add sugar to the dill pickles but if you are wanting a sweeter pickle, you can check out the bread and butter pickle recipe.
Great job on writing such an insightful and informative article! Your attention to detail and thorough research really shines through in your writing. I appreciate how you presented the information in a clear and organized manner, making it easy for readers to understand and follow along.
Thank you.
All the words of gratitude in the world could not express how much you are appreciated!
Thank you so much. That’s very kind.
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You’re very welcome. We’re so glad you enjoyed the post.
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I was so excited to make pickles again this year, but something went wrong on my end! I did spears and made 2 batches tonight. For our first batch I noticed my husband over tigtened the bands and the lids buckled, but seem to be okay other than one bottom falling out. Are they still okay to eat even with the buckling? For the second batch I only finger tightened the bands. I still had two jars that had the bottoms break out cleanly in almsot perfect circles. Any ideas as to why they would do that? I had the rack in the bottom, immediately got them into the canner after getting the brine in the jars and they never touched a cold countertop. Am I able to salvage the cucumbers by pouring leftover brine on them and sticking them in the fridge for two weeks before eating?
I would be concerned about the seal on the ones that buckled. They should be ok to eat but I would refrigerate them to be safe. If you’re sure that there isn’t any glass in the cucumbers they can definitely be put in brine and then placed in the refrigerator.
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First time I saw the delicious and unique food.
I made these last night, really straightforward recipe! My first time pickling or canning anything and 13/14 seals popped. One didn’t so I put it in the fridge for eating. I know it says to wait 2 weeks for best taste but I tried one this morning and they’re incredibly sour and salty. I love pickles but they’re noticeably more potent then I feel they should be, they almost make you cough. I followed the brine recipe exactly. Do they get less potent over time maybe??
I would wait the full 2 weeks and then try them again.