Garlic Dill Crock Pickles

When we got home from a week in New Hampshire, we found the garden overflowing and picked, literally, a wheelbarrow load of vegetables, including a large crop of cucumbers.  Time to make pickles.

I start with the recipe from Kanga's book, "The Herb Shelf".  She attributes this recipe to her mother, so for those reading this who are my children, your great grandmother.  This is also the recipe that we used every summer on the farm when you were growing up.

The pickle crock

"Put a layer of grape leaves in the bottom of a one gallon crock.  These provide the alum necessary for a crisp pickle.  Next add three stalks of dill, seed heads and all.  Next put a layer of cucumbers, then a layer of dill and a layer of cucumbers until the crock is almost full.  End with a layer of dill and another layer of grape leaves.

In the meantime, bring to boil one gallon of water, let it cool a little and add one-half cup of salt and one cup of apple cider vinegar.  When the salt has dissolved, pour the mixture into the crock.  Place an inverted plate on the pickles, and a rock on top of the plate to keep the brine level above the cucumbers.  Tie a clean white cloth over the whole thing and wait a week before you sample the pickles.  This produces a delicious pickle unlike any I have found on the grocer's shelf."

Jar of large slices

Dill is in the garden now, of course, and we are lucky to have a fox grape vine invading the thorn bush at the top of the property, so I picked leaves from that for the alum.  We use our plastic "crock".  I like to seal it with a plastic bag full of water floated on the surface to keep air out rather than using the inverted plate concept.  Air feeding aerobic microbes is what causes the scum that can form on the top of a pickle crock and eventually ruin your pickles.  I also used a 50/50 mix of apple cider vinegar and distilled white vinegar.  Kanga does not mention garlic in her recipe, but I always peel and add several cloves of garlic to the brine, this year fresh home grown from our inadvertent garlic crop.  I also like to add at least one hot pepper (but not too much!) for a hint of excitement.  And while cucumbers are the main actor here, nearly any vegetable can be pickles in the brine.  So far, I have added some yellow beans and some carrot slices.  Cauliflower florets work well also.  Because of our week long absence, many of the pickling cucumbers had grown larger than ideal size.  For the over sized cucumbers, I slice them into thick slices, maybe 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick and put the slices in the brine.  These pickle quickly.  Since we had so many over growns this year, I set up an additional container of just slices to pickle and they were done in two days.  They are now in jars in the fridge staying crisp.  In the July heat, the salt and acid make these pickles amazingly refreshing.  And as far as I am concerned there is no better topping for a summertime burger on a kaiser roll.