Recipe: Ultimate Dill Pickles

I love pickled foods! I'm not sure when it was that I discovered "pickles" were cucumbers, and that many types of foods can actually be pickled, but it blew my mind! Today I want to share a super easy recipe for homemade garlic-dill pickles. I must warn you- I like my pickles to pack a tart, mouth-puckering punch, so I use equal parts water and vinegar. For less of a kick, try 3/4 a cup of vinegar with 1 1/4 cup of water. For a sweeter pickle, add an extra teaspoon of sugar. But if you're like me and you're looking for a good strong pickle, use the recipe below and enjoy!

Ingredients: 

 

*Must contain NO additives!

 *About 1 TBSP (doesn't need to be cubed, I just think they're so cute!)

Directions:

1. Slice pickling/baby cucumbers into quarters and pack into clean, quart-sized mason jar, along with fresh dill (about 8 sprigs), fresh garlic cloves (6-10, depending on your love of garlic), chili flakes, whole black pepper, dill seed, and mace
2. In a small pan, bring water, vinegar, salt and sugar to a boil, stir to dissolve
3. Pour boiling liquid (also known as brine) over cucumbers and seal tight with a clean lid, store in refrigerator 
4. Voila! Pickles will be ready to eat within 24 hours and will last up to one month refrigerated

Heads up! If your garlic turns a greenish-blue color, fear not! It turns out that when pickled or cooked, some of the sulfur compounds contained in garlic can encourage the formation of molecules very similar to chlorophyll, the pigment that makes plants green. Perfectly normal and safe to eat!

Happy pickling!