I’ve always loved pickles…the real kind, dill…not their disgusting cousins, the bread and butter. ::shudder:: When I moved to NYC, I discovered half sours and I’ve never looked back. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I bought bottled grocery store pickles, it has certainly been years. But now that I’m a full on Jersey resident, I had to learn how to make my beloved half sours (they aren’t pickled quite as voraciously or long as your standard pickle). Lightly sour, heavy on the garlic and dill with a delightful snap to them…I had to have them. And since I managed to pass my love of half sours to Mike, he was all for developing a PICKLE recipe.

This is easy. No canning equipment. Nothing special. Just fresh dill, garlic, a little vinegar, and fresh cucumbers. Ok, I lied…most of the recipes I saw called for “pickling spices”. It’s basically just a flavorful blend of peppercorns and assorted spices; you can pick it up in the spice section of your grocery store. But you know, I think I’ll make my own spice blend next time. I bought the McCormicks brand which has never failed me before…but their pickling spices, erm, a little heavy on the “sweet” spices (aka cinnamon and cardamom). Mike, as the resident sweet tooth, swore allegiance to these pickles. “Best ever” he said. Me? I wouldn’t push them out of bed but, eh, I need a little more kick and salt to mine. Never have I looked as forward to a work in process recipe as this!

Ingredients:
8 small to medium fresh cucumbers, not waxed
several handfuls of fresh dill
3 cloves of fresh garlic, peeled
1/2 tsp pickling spice
1/4 kosher salt
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 1/2 quarts of water

You’ll need a large bowl (large enough to hold all of the cucumbers AND pickling liquid). Layer your washed cucumbers, dill, garlic and pickling spices. Bring the water, vinegar and salt to a boil and let it boil for a few minutes. Carefully pour liquid over your cucumbers in the bowl and lay a few plates or bowls on top to keep the cucumbers under the liquid. Let these sit out of the way on your kitchen counter for 24-48 hours. Taste test time! They will continue to get more sour as time goes on. Any pickles that survive the taste test can be put into jars or containers in the fridge (we used plastic chinese take out containers for ours). Supposedly they last a month or two but that’ll never happen in this household!

*sorry no final picture of the pickles…trust me, they look pretty much like…uhhm…pickles… I’ll snap a few pictures next go round!