Content

• Ingredients
• To step
• Warnings
• Necessities

Pickled gherkins are used as a garnish for sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers and much more. Fresh herbs such as dill, garlic and chili peppers are added to the pickles to give them a nice spicy flavor. People who pickle their own pickles often find it difficult to get the pickles crispy, like store-bought pickles. The canning process can be adjusted so that the pickles can still get crispy. Read in this article how you can do that.

Ingredients

• Preserving salt (salt without iodine)
• Gherkins
• Fresh dill
• Peeled garlic cloves
• Water
• White vinegar

To step

1. Buy preserving jars and preserving salt to prepare the pickles. Use 0.5 l or 1 l preserving jars, depending on your preference. This recipe is for 4 jars of pickled gherkins of 0.5 l. You cannot replace the preserving salt with table salt.
2. Wash the pickles thoroughly. Make sure they are firm and discard any flabby gherkins. You have to find another destination for that.Let the chunky pickles dry and put them in the fridge overnight.
   • If you want really crunchy pickles, pick them up within 24 hours of picking. And choose pickles that are up to 10 cm long. Do not use commercially washed pickles for canning.
3. Decide in which format you want to preserve the pickles. These 3 ways are usually used with home pickled dill pickles:
   • Whole pickles are best left crispy after the canning process, according to many people.
   • If you want to serve the pickles as a garnish with a sandwich, it is best to slice them horizontally. They then easily stay on bread, and you can serve them in small quantities.
   • If you want to serve the pickles in small quantities, for example as a side dish with a meal, you can cut them in half lengthwise in quarters. The pickles may lose some of their crispness due to this method of cutting, but they are convenient portions for most people.
4. Wash the preserving jars with soap and water, so that there are no food residues in them. Then rinse the jars well.
5. Sterilize the jars by boiling them in hot water in a large saucepan. Boil the pots and lids for 10-15 minutes. Take them out carefully with oven mitts and grippers.
   • At an altitude of 300 m or even higher, boil them for 10 minutes. From a height of 300 m, add one minute of cooking time to every 300 m.
6. Place the 4 preserving jars on the counter so that they can cool down. Put 3 peeled garlic cloves in each jar.
7. Place 1 top of fresh dill in each jar. Make sure the dill is fresh and dry before putting it in the jars.
8. You can optionally add ½ tsp (1.5 g) peppercorns and 1 tsp (3 g) mustard seeds to each jar. Some people also add 1 tsp onion powder or some freshly chopped onions per jar.
9. If you like spicy pickles, add ½ chilli or 1 tsp ground chilli flakes.
10. Prepare the brew before canning. Place 2.5 cup (600 ml) of white vinegar, 2 cups of water, and ¼ cup (60 ml) of preserving salt in a saucepan. Heat this until it reaches boiling point, then immediately remove it from the heat.
11. Put as many pickles or pieces of pickle in the jars as you can. Try to fill the pots all the way to the top.
12. Pour the brew over the gherkins into the preserving jars. Leave only 1.5 cm from the edge of the lid.
13. Place the lids and rings on the preserving jars.
14. Put them in your preserving kettle. Set the alarm for 5 minutes and take them out when the alarm goes off. Don't let them sit in the kettle for more than 5 minutes or the pickles will lose their crispness.
15. Dry the jars with a clean kitchen towel and let them cool before putting them in your pantry.
    • Many people make refrigerated pickles with dill. This means that they are not heated and are immediately stored in the refrigerator before serving. If you plan on doing this, make sure the lids are tightly closed on the hot pots, let them cool on the counter, then put them in the fridge.
    • If you submerge the pickles well, this will prevent mold and yeast from forming, which can spoil the pickles.
16. Wait at least 1 week before serving the pickles so that the flavors can soak into the pickles.

Warnings

• Never change the vinegar and water ratios in the recipe. The vinegar will keep people from getting infected with botulism as long as the mixture contains 4 percent acetic acid.

Necessities

• Weck jars
• Oven mitts
• Metal gripper
• Timer
• Weck kettle
• Saucepan
• Clean tea towel