My wife took a pickle canning class a few months ago. We opened the dills yesterday and what a huge revelation: they were miles better than any pickle I’ve had in my life, including deli pickles. Garlic, dill and a few hot peppers added to the mix. Fresh, bright and crisp. Now if we can only find gherkins to make more (not as easy as one might think). I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on this for the last 60 years.
I love some of the things that run through my head reading just the thread titles.
Killer Pickles :from outer space!:
Me, I thought this thread would be about a sequel to this classic…
Jealous!
I’ve been thinking I need to learn how to can forever, and I’d looove a whole pile of homemade pickles around. If I remember right from my childhood (when my Mom made them), the cucumber variety is key? Is that right? You can’t just use any old pickle, or they get mushy.
Next year, try bread and butter pickles. Or lime pickles (I can’t remember if the recipe called for chemical lime or lime juice).
Gherkins work best, but they’re hard to find. One can grow them from seeds, however.
Lynn Bodoni: She also made a jar of bread and butters in the class, which we haven’t tried yet. I’ve never been a big fan of sweet pickles, but if the dills are any indication, I could be a convert.
We got into canning pickles because our cucumber plants were over-achievers. And if you thought that the dills were great, just wait til you open the bread and butters. The homemade stuff is SO much better than commercial offerings, it’s like they are two different categories of foodstuffs.
I’d love to make my own dill pickles. I’ve tried home canned sweet pickles and while they’re good, as sweet pickles go, they’re still sweet pickles. Dill pickles are where it’s at. Basically what I’m saying is… recipe? 
Chemical, pickling lime. Makes for a crisper pickle.
As for recipes, I canned a few jars of these garlic dill pickles not long ago. There’s a little spicy zing to them from the red pepper flakes, and you might find that you like it better with white vinegar rather than cider (which does discolor the pickles a tad).
This is the base recipe they used, but of course cut it way down, as this makes 24 quarts:
Mavis Olson’s Kosher Dill Refrigerator Pickles
25 lbs gherkins
48 garlic cloves
24 tsp pickling spice
24 red hot chili peppers (or Thai hot peppers)
Dill flowers in the bud stage
Water
White vinegar
Kosher or Pickling Salt (no iodine)
24 wide mouth quart jars & lids
Brine (mix until salt dissolves):
4 quarts warm water
1 quart vinegar
1 cup salt
Clean gherkins with washcolth and water, removing spines if present and trimming soft spots. Pack cukes tightly in jars, adding 2 cloves garlic, one pepper, one teaspoon spice and 2 good-sized sprigs of dill. Pour brine over contents of jars to within 1/4 inch of jar mouth. Refrigerate for 10-14 days minimum before consuming. Will keep in the fridge for up to one year.
I thought it might have something to do with this.
Nah. More of a kind of combination of Killer Clowns from Outer Space and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.