I need a really good pickle recipe. STAT!

Cafe Society
1

My cukes are coming in and my dithering to find a perfect pickle recipe is obvious.

I haven’t one.

I like my gherkins sweet and garlicy.

I need help.

(should I mention I’ve never done canning or pickling before either?)

2

Tomorrow. It’s at home - I’ll have it for ya tomorrow.

3

I don’t know if you’d call this the perfect recipe, but everyone who’s tasted it ravers about it.

I take two recipes, and mix. Instead of one batch of each, I make one double batch made from simply adding the ingredients.

(From, of course, Alton Brown and Good Eats)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_12383,00.html

and

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_12383,00.html

Oh - one more thing: the secret ingredient that I add: I stick one dried red chili pepper down the center of each jar. It does not get too spicy at all. Just a little tiny bit of heat to wake everything up.

Also, i don’t “can” them - that is, they’re only “refrigerator pickles.” They’re not preserved by much of anything except the cold of the chill-chest. If you wanted to can the jars to keep them over the winter, you would need to adjust the recipe. That I don’t know how to do.

Good luck!

4

Do not attempt to “adjust” a refrigerator pickle recipe into a shelf-stable canning recipe. If you screw up and eat it anyway you can die.Here is the beginning of a decent overview of canning technique. Pickles are a high acid food. Don’t attempt to can low-acid foods at all without a pressure canner.

I don’t have a specific sweet garlicky gherkin recipe, although my bread and butter slices turned out pretty good.

5

Ok, here ya go. It’s from my friend Pat - she doesn’t use garlic, but she said you should add it with the cucumbers and onions if you like.

Pat’s Pickles
Wash and scrub cucumbers - cut up - set aside.
Slice up a few onions into rings - set aside.
At this point, you can slice up some garlic cloves if you like too.

Mix the following syrup in a bowl:
3 C Sugar
3 C White Vinegar
1/3 C Salt
1 T Celery Seed
1 T Mustard Seed
1 T Tumeric

Alternate sliced cucumbers and onions in a large container. Pack them in tight. Pour the syrup over and seal the container. Wait 10 days - stirring or shaking the pickles every few days. Refrigerate after ten days. I put the pickles and onions in smaller jars. These pickles will last up to one year, but they must be kept in the refrigerator - never store them on a shelf or in a cabinet.