Cooking with Collin: Homemade Pickles
Today is my second attempt at my new weekly post called Cooking with Collin that features a favorite frugal recipe of mine (or a favorite of a Hip2Save reader). This next recipe I am going to feature is something that I LOVE so very much and something that I was obsessed with when I was prego! Any guesses?!
Well, pickles, of course!! 😀
Today, I am going to show you how to easily make your own homemade pickles… and these pickles taste a heck of a lot better than store bought! I can guarantee making them will get you feelin’ like quite the kitchen diva! You also may have to keep opening your fridge just to see your beautiful pickles displayed in the jar. I smile proudly every time I glance at my pickle jar! Oh the confidence I feel from making homemade pickles! 🙂
Besides that fact that making homemade pickle boosts your status in the kitchen, they also taste fabulous! And you can use them in so many dishes. From deviled eggs to tuna salad to a peanut butter pickle sandwich. Yes, there is such a thing. And this “thing” is delicious. I’m not strange… I’m just a perfectly proper pickle poppin’ princess who enjoys the finer things in life and you will too! 😉
Before telling you how to make your own homemade pickles, here are couple pickle facts:
*Asia consumes more pickles per capita than any other region.
*Americans consume more than 2.5 billion pounds of pickles each year – that’s 20 billion pickles! And since it takes almost 4 billion pickles to reach the moon, all the pickles we eat would reach the moon and back more than 2 times!
*If it weren’t for pickles, Christopher Columbus might never have “discovered” America. In his famous 1492 voyage, Columbus rationed pickles to his sailors to keep them from getting scurvy. He even grew cucumbers during a pit stop in Haiti to restock for the rest of the voyage. Source credits: I Love Pickles and Pickle Facts , Recipe adapted from Food Network.
Homemade Pickle Recipe
Delicious and easy recipe for homemade pickles!
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
- 2 medium cucumbers, thinly sliced
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- Pinch kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon pickling spice
Directions
1
Slice onions, thinly.
2
Slice cucumbers, thinly.
3
Combine onion and cucumber slices in a clean jar. You can re-use an old pickle jar (if you have one on hand).
Combine all the remaining ingredients in a non-reactive saucepan (made from stainless steel, glass, or ceramic materials) and bring to a boil. Simmer for 4 full minutes to wake up the flavors of the spices. Slowly pour the hot pickling liquid over the onion and cucumber slice, completely filling the jar.
Allow the pickles to cool to room temperature. Once cooled, refrigerate. I let my pickles sit in the refrigerator for about 24 hours before enjoying them. So if you have the patience, I would wait at least a day or so.
I can’t wait to hear how you much enjoy making and munching on your own homemade pickles! 🙂
The sandwich looks really good too!
Oh my gosh. That sandwich is making me drool. I want to go to there. (From 30 Rock. Ha, ha, ha)
Like!
Oh, I’m so gonna try this! My 4 year old LOVES pickles!!! I have to get one of the large ones out of the barrel every shopping trip! My question is… do I have to cut the cucumber up in slice’s. What do you think will happen if I just cut in half??
OOOPS “my 5 year old” yesterday was her big day 🙂
For refridgerator pickles like the recipe posted, I would recommend slicing them, or at least quartering them into spears. You may have ok luck leaving them halved if you get the smaller pickling cucumbers. I’ve had better success with halves when I can them.
thank you!!
Ooops, “my 5 year old”, yesterday was her big day 🙂
Oooh, I’m gonna make pickles – they look delicious.
I made pickles last summer with cucumbers from my garden. It was amazing! And…so easy.
is this going to make sweeter or more dill?
I was wondering the same thing!?!?
It tastes like a mix of both dill and sweet… if that makes any sense! 🙂 If you want more of the dill taste maybe add more vinegar and less sugar?!
THANKS!
Sweet, there isn’t any dill in the recipe…plus, that’s a lot of sugar!
LOL! Oh ya and add dill!! I am a dork! 😀
HOw much dill do we add, and do we boil it with the other spices or just put in the jar? Thanks
I only eat bread & butter pickles….any tips on making that?
I think these are what you call bread and butter pickles and they are more sweet, but not like a sweet pickle you buy at the store! I really like these and actually my recipe has you cook them in the microwave and then they are ready to eat right away! I have found that these are pretty good on hamburgers and I think alot of resturant use bread and butter pickles on their burgers or sandwhiches too!
I also use a simular recipe to make relish which I absolutly love! When I was young I did not like sweet relish from the store, but I loved the sweet relish my mom made!
i LOVE peanut butter and pickle sandwiches!!! 🙂
My 5 year old made a pb and pickle sandwich and my 7 year old and I were looking at it with disgust, but then I got thinking…………….I am sure when someone started making pb&j sandwiches others thought that sounded gross as well and now we all love pj&j… Anywho, I guess I can’t judge until I try:)
That is my mom’s favorite sandwich ever! I thought she was the only one who eats that. LOL
I love Peanut Butter, Miricle Whip, and Pickle sandwiches!!!!!!! MMMMMMM. Its okay, everyone thinks Im crazy, but I guarantee if you like MW and PB Pickle sandwiches you WILL like this. now i totally want one hahahaha
peanut butter and pickles!? i want to make my own pickles 🙂
Thank you for a new idea of what to do with a bumper crop of cucumbers next summer.
Looks soooo yummy. I love pickles. Cant wait to try to make em.
Oh MY!!!! A peanut butter pickly sandwich!! That’s just crazy but really does sound like it may be tasty….Awesome post! =)
Duh..I meant PICKLE not pickly LOL
how long do they last?
hmmm… that’s a great questions and I’m honestly not sure. A jar in my house last maybe a few days! 😉
I have had these same kind of pickles in my fridge since I made them this summer! They still taste great! I did use canning salt instead of kosher salt. Not sure if that makes a difference!?! You could also seal the jars and then they should last even longer!
I make a similiar recipe with canning salt and the recipe said to consume within 3 months.
Canning salt has something removed (I forget what) that clouds liquids when you can with regular salt. Also kosher salt is not as fine, so equal amounts won’t have equal saltiness. Alot of recipes sub half the amount of standard table salt for an equal measure of kosher. So unless you’re actually canning them I don’t think it makes a difference 🙂
oh im giving this a try later. i love pickles
Do you have a recipe for dill pickles that can be made this way?
Here’s one recipe I found:
https://www.food.com/recipe/blue-ribbon-dill-pickles-241139
Here’s a recipe for refrigerator dills – https://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spicy-Refrigerator-Dill-Pickles/Detail.aspx.
I used that recipe last summer. I reduced the sugar as some people had posted, and thought they were still a little too sweet for me. I made another batch and used even less sugar, probably a quarter, and I thought they were just right – for a Claussen style garlic dill. If you’re used to buying the reg dill, these will border on bread and butter flavor with garlic (eww) haaha.
I still have a jar in the fridge from July/August that are good. I did notice that the more mature pickling cukes (got them at farmers market) went soft and translucent much faster than the smaller ones with less developed seeds. I used quart wide-mouth jars and sealed them with my Foodsaver. Foodsaver claims things marinate faster in a vacuum (not an Oreck), so I dunno if it really affected them much. If you like onions, dig them out for your sandwiches! I’ve been known to pop a couple of the garlic cloves in my mouth too :o)
Also, I sliced them with a ripple cutter (Pampered Chef one) at about 1/4″. I can’t wait to grow some for myself this year!!- cucumbers, not ripple cutters…
Claussen style garlic dill. is my favorite kind ever. I will have to try to make them.
Yeah! From the pickle queen herself. Ha, ha. Thanks for sharing. Now I know what to do with all those cucumbers my mom gives me from her garden…Thanks so much!!! I think you have started a pickle revolution in my family. I will share this recipe with everyone I know. (And there are so many people in Utah with gardens). Can’t wait to try it.
I starting pickling last summer and LOVE them! I use the sun pickle recipe and they’re amazing!
What is the sun pickling method? Can you share your recipe? Thanks
Collin,
I’m with you on the Peanut Butter and Pickle sandwich… I used to work at a radio station and we had a call-in day where listeners told us their favorite wierd concoctions and the next day we brought everything in to make said wierd concoctions. Well I got adventureous watching the DJs eat some VERY wierd things and made my own strange combo. A Goober and Pickle sandwich. Goober is the peanut butter and grape jelly mixture and then I used sliced Valasic pickles. YUMMY! Everyone thought I was crazy.
Can’t wait to try these! We love pickles, but I don’t like buying them unless I can get them from Whole Foods bc of the artificial colors in them. Since I heard a recent study said there was an association bw several artificial colors, ADHD, and autism, I’ve been even more cautious.
This is so funny, my hubby says i will can anything that i can get a hold of, but when I was learning to do pickles this was a long version of dill pickles, I did all that hard work and omg they where nasty, my hubby said it reminded him of the Andy Griffeth seen where Aunt Bee was making pickles and they turned out so back, we have a laugh about it all the time, I sure will try these this summer.
One of my hubby’s favorite episodes.LOL. makes me scared to even try to make them.
Although I adore you Collin, I cannot see why anyone would want to take a perfectly good cucumber and turn it into a yucky pickle! Of course, my 3year old does not agree.
A pickle, yucky?! What?! I can’t bare to hear those words. 😉
I agree…love cucumbers but pickles…YUCK! I am going to try to make them for DH and DS though bc they do love pickles. I guess you either love them or hate them….one of those things that there is no in between. HEHE
LOL! Well, I don’t like pickles OR cucumbers! Ick!
I like both cucumbers and pickles!!! Yummy! I used to eat whole jars of pickles and drink the juice when I was younger! 🙂
Me too! I tried getting my almost 2 year old to drink some pickle juice and his daddy eww yucky, and Alex said YUCKY! Everyone thinks I’m crazy around here, but I LOVE IT!
Growing your own organic cucumbers for pickling is even more satisfying! I grew a whole bunch last year and pickled 30+ jars and am on my last 2 jars after giving a lot away to friends and family. The bread and butter pickles go like hotcakes in our household. Check out my “How does your garden grow” articles on The Freebie Junkie to see how my organic garden went. This year I’m excited to plan my organic garden and will kick off the season with some fun articles and giveaways! Come and check it out! I’m planning on growing edamame beans this year and excited for my first harvest already!
Yay! I just started my broccolli seedlings, so excited for gardening! We never have cukes left over to pickle in the summertime. Maybe I will plant more this year and try pickles. Not a huge fan of em though.
I am excited for gardening too! I can’t wait for it to warm up so it feels like summer is on its way!
Love edamame too! 🙂
The sandwich looks so yummy! I love pickles and I make Japanese pickles using cucumbers from our veggie garden, but haven’t tried American way yet. Can’t wait to try! 🙂
I save my dill pickle juice and the jar (usually from the store bought pickles) & just refill them with cucumbers…can’t always fill a jar, but hey, why waste good pickle juice!
First popcorn, now pickles?! My husband is going to think you’re a distant relative of mine! Seriously, he thinks my family is so weird for their popcorn and pickle/olive obsession.
Thanks for the recipe!
my mom and I are the same way! we love pickles and popcorn!
My crazy, eat-any-combination-of-food, 11-year-old son was standing over my shoulder as I read this post. As soon as he spotted the pickle and pb sandwich, he was off to the kitchen. That was one combo he had never considered! He says it was very good, but I’m afraid I have to pass on that one! Now for the real recipe involved here…can’t wait to give it a try!!! Thanks Collin!!! 🙂
For some reason it does sound good. I’ve known many people who swore by peanut butter and mayo sandwiches. I can’t stand the thought–I mean two fats on one sandwich?
One of my faves is still peanut butter and banana (you can get it fried at Elvis Presley’s restaurant in Memphis) and my daughter loves peanut butter and fluff (marshmallow creme).
I pickle green beans in the summer. I put some hot peppers in for my hubby… I grew up on “dilly beans” and my kids love them!
“*Asia consumes more pickles per capita than any other region.”
That may change now that us Hip2Savers have our hands on a good recipe 😉
My grandma used to gorw cucumbers and pickle them 🙂 – I love to learn new cooking, especially canning, recipies – unfortunatly, no one in my house likes pickles 🙁 But,hmm – maybe somethign fun to do with those extra cucumbers and store in the food storage panty for guests!
Hi, I know this isn’t the best place to be posting this but I was wondering if anyone had any $10 off codes they can’t use? It would really help me out. Thanks! marissa.1@hotmail.com
Sounds super easy, I’m going to have to try this out! I just had a tuna salad with chopped pickles, black olives and tomatoes, yum! And kosher dill spears on the side! I bet homemade would’ve been better though, are they crunchy? I love crunchy pickles!
I enjoy making and canning pickles with cucumbers from my own garden. I make both dill and bread & butter varieties. I personally do not like pickles, but my husband and my dad are huge fans of them! I do it out of love 🙂
I would think if you would prepare your sliced cucumbers/onions into a hot jar, pour the hot liquid over it, and then put your lid on, you could do a water bath canning process of 10 minutes; and the pickles would keep for a really long time…if you can keep your hands out of the jar!
I thought I was the ONLY person who like pickles & peanut butter! My hubs thinks I’m nutso whenever I pull out that combo. I’ve been eating sweet gherkins & peanut butter since I was a kid (way before the monthly visitor) ha-ha-ha. Glad to know there are others who share the delicacy! Can’t wait to try your pickle recipe.
Thanks, Collin! I never knew it was so easy to make pickles! Cannot wait to try it!
Off subject but I’m so excited I had to mention – remember the candles from bed bath and beyond that were priced wrong? Well, I got a shipment confirmation today! Can’t wait to get them! 🙂
Thanks, Collin for everthing you do! LOVE this site!
Those pickles sound really good, sounds similar to my mom’s canning recipe. I’m going to try w/o the sugar. I make make my fridge pickles in the summer with apple cider vinegar, water, fresh dill, & sea salt and I reuse the “juice” a couple weeks. My cousin & I used to drink the juice right out of the jar, good stuff!
I thought I was the only one that enjoyed peanut butter and pickle sandwiches! Thanks for this post!! I can’t wait to try this.
I was looking for a good pickle recipe.. Thanks Colin! I love adding pickles to my cheese and crackers… YUM!
If you want a different twist on this recipe add a hot pepper to each jar yummy.
Yum! I make a recipe very similar every summer, but mine has more onion, so it’s really more cucumber and onion salad.
Tried this for the first time a couple of weeks ago and was totally surprised at how CRUNCHY they are! Love it!
Yummmm! Perfect timing! I was just thinking about the pickles my grandma used to make and was going to try to find a recipe! Can’t wait to try these!
Haha! I’m so glad to know that someone else likes peanut butter and pickles together. Loved the pickle facts.
These look good. I will try them. My family likes “sunshine pickles” which I made for the first time last summer. I found the recipe on line; these are dill pickles and have a fresh crispness you would not expect. They sit in their brine outside in the shade for four days before you eat them. YUm.
Collin, if you like pickles so much….have you made Pickle-sicles with the juice? Pour the leftover juice into ice cube trays, put in some popsicle sticks after they have started to freeze so the sticks stay up and then let freeze all the way through. YUMMY!!!
ooohhhh… I am so trying this!! 😀
Yum! and if you chop all of the veggies up really fine before you put the juice on…you will have the best pickle relish you ever tried!!! I made relish this summer with my garden cucumbers…we were quite sad when we finished off the last jar! This year we will be making lots more!
Until then, I will have to deal with the Vlasic relish I got with my coupons!
We have made this recipe and it works great with carrots and/or cauliflower as well as cucumbers or any combination of all three.
And you can keep “reusing” the brine for several weeks, which is another money stretcher!
I just can’t believe that I found other pb and pickle sandwich lovers!! I thought I was the only one who loved this sandwich. I can’t convince any of my family to try it but I know they would love it too if they could just get past how strange it sounds. Yummy!! Thanks for the recipe Collin!
“I’m not strange… I’m just a perfectly proper pickle poppin’ princess who enjoys the finer things in life and you will too!”
So if Piper would have been a boy would she be a Peter?….LOL… Either name and you can sing Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers (or in this case, pickles!). Just couldn’t resist after your description of yourself, first thought was Piper!
Yep… we are like 2 peas in a pod! 🙂
My mouth is watering. I must go eat a pickle.
Thanks Collin! I am so excited to make some pickles! I have always wanted to do that.
I can’t wait to try this as we have so many cucumbers from our garden every year! AND FYI, I grew up on Peanut Butter and Pickle Sandwiches! I do know it sounds weird but all I say is give it a try. Crunchy PB is the way to go with this one for sure!