Canning Dill Pickles – Grandma Ella’s Recipe – Insightful Nana (2024)

FAQs

How to can dill pickles and keep them crisp? ›

Soak Cucumbers In Ice Water Beforehand

If you're not canning your cucumbers immediately, leave them in an ice bath or in your refrigerator overnight to maintain firmness. Doing this before you start canning them will give you the crunchiest pickles you've ever had!

For a 3-5″ (8 to 12 cm ) sprig of fresh dill, you can substitute ¼ teaspoon of dried dill weed. The National Center for Home Food Preservation says, “For each quart, try 3 heads of fresh dill or 1 to 2 tablespoons dill seed (dill weed = 2 tablespoons).” Frequently Asked Pickle Questions.

Most fruit preserves and pickles are sufficiently high in acid to be canned via a method called water bath canning, where jars are submerged in boiling water for a prescribed amount of time. This destroys any pathogens in the food, and creates a seal, thereby rendering the jars shelf-stable.

Add a Source of Tannin

Tannins work against softening enzymes and help keep pickles crunchier. They can be found in various sources, such as grape leaves, oak leaves, raspberry leaves, black tea, etc. Add some directly to your jars!

The best way to keep your pickles crisp is by taking an extra moment to remove the blossom from the end of the cucumber. By adding this extra cut, you have a crisper pickle. Other ways to ensure a crisp pickle is by adding grape leaves to your jar. I tend to cut off both ends of the cucumber as I quickly process them.

Mason jars are made for canning food. You don't want that food to spoil. You seal the jar by sterilizing the jar, and by putting hot food in it and putting the seal on, then screw the lid on. As the contents cool, the air inside will contract causing the lid to seal tight.

You will need a recipe, most of which will tell you to salt your sliced cucumbers and let them sit for about 3 hours (more is better). This salt treatment draws water out of the cucumbers and flavors them, so it's critically important.

Add any spices into a jar and pour boiled water, vinegar, and salt into the jars until the produce is completely submerged. You then seal the jars with the water bath canning method. (Basically, submerging your jars in boiling water so bacteria will not grow on the food.) Boom!

It may be a normal reaction during fermentation caused by bacteria. If the pickles are soft, they are spoiled from the yeast fermentation. Don't use them. Using too weak a salt brine or vinegar solution may cause soft or slippery pickles, as can using moldy garlic or storing the pickles at too warm a temperature.

Can I make dill pickles without processing in water bath? ›

I have used an old German dill pickle receipe forever that doesn't use a water bath. I make brine and boil, pour over prepared jars, put on heated lids and leave them to seal on their own. These are yummy and SO crisp (because of no water bath).

Bouquet – Bouquet dill offers high seed and leaf yields. This variety turns out large flowers, long sturdy stems and large leaves. Many people use bouquet dill for cut flower arrangements. It's also favored for pickling and this variety of dill tends to be the most popular home garden choice.

In a water bath canner, your jars must be completely submerged in simmering water, which can be anywhere from 3-4 gallons. When using a pressure canner, you only need about 3-4 inches of water (there is usually an indicator line on the inside of the canner), which is about 1½ gallons.

If a jar did not seal, and the recipe has hot pack canning instructions for the food, it can be reprocessed within 24 hours. If reusing the same jar, check the jar sealing surface for tiny nicks. When reprocessing, follow the hot pack instructions, including reheating the contents, using a clean hot jar, and a new lid.

Place jars in a canner or large pot lined with a wire rack at the bottom. Once all of the jars are in the pot, add boiling hot water, to cover jars with 1-2 inches of water. Process/boil for 15 minutes. Carefully remove jars from the water using a jar lifter and leave at room temperature undisturbed for 12-24 hours.

One of the simplest methods of firming pickles is to use ice. Soak cucumbers or other vegetables in ice water or layer with crushed ice for 4 to 5 hours before pickling. Sometimes this step is combined with a salt solution indicated by the recipe.

Typically soft pickles are a result of boiling them too long in your hot water bath canner or from having the water too hot. The temperature for the hot water bath shouldn't be higher than 185° F (keep the temperature between 180F to 185F) or it may cause softening in your pickles.

Pickles are soft or slippery.

This can happen when the blossom ends of the cucumbers are not removed. Cut 1/16-inch off blossom ends of cucumbers. The blossom end contains an enzyme that may cause softening. This can also happen if the brine or vinegar was too weak.

If good quality ingredients are used and up-to-date methods are followed, firming agents are not needed. Alum has little crispness affect on quick-process pickles. Alum will increase firmness of fermented pickles when used at levels up to ¼ teaspoon per pint, but greater amounts will decrease firmness.