How To Make Dill Pickles

Cool and crunchy, delightfully sour and capable of going from snack to sandwich without a hitch — that’s what I call a good pickle. Did you know they’re a cinch to make at home? You don’t even need to set aside the afternoon; you can make a few pint jars in less than 30 minutes. Here’s everything you need to know to make your own batch of homemade dill pickles right now.

Kirby cucumbers are the classic pickling cucumber — they hold up better than English cucumbers during pickling, remaining firm and crunchy instead of becoming overly soft. I’ve also found that Persian cucumbers make very nice pickles — they have thinner skin and are the perfect size for packing into pint jars. Persian pickles are what I used in the tutorial today.

You can also use this recipe as a template for pickling other vegetables. Okra, green beans, garlic scapes, and even carrots all make delicious pickles if you’re feeling like branching out into other parts of the garden!

No matter what cucumber or vegetable you use, make sure they are ripe and feel firm — avoid limp or wrinkly vegetables. Wash the vegetables before pickling and cut away any bruises or blemishes.

The main flavoring for dill pickles comes not from the feathery dill herb fronds we use in so much of our cooking, but rather from the dill seed. It’s not something that most grocery stores carry, but you can find it at Whole Foods, many smaller co-ops with bulk herb counters, and online at places like Penzeys.

→ Find It: Dill Seed at Penzeys

Aside from dill seed, a few smashed cloves of garlic and a pinch of red pepper flakes help round out the flavor of the pickles. You don’t have to stop there, either! Play with mustard seed, celery seed, black peppercorn, or any other spice that tickles your fancy.

These pickles are made with a very basic brine of equal parts cider vinegar and water mixed with salt. This brine gets poured over the cucumbers — whole cukes, spears, or sliced coins — and transforms the vegetables into pickles. While you can certainly eat the pickles right away, they get even better after they’ve had some time to soak in the brine.

Keep the ratios the same, and you can make more or less brine to suit the amount of pickles you want to make. You can also swap out the cider vinegar for rice vinegar, white wine vinegar, or another vinegar to suit your taste.

These pickles can be processed in a hot water bath for 5 minutes, which makes them shelf stable for around a year. The downside is that the hot water processing will cook the cucumbers a bit and can sometimes give the pickles a softer texture. If super-crunchy pickles are your aim, skip the processing step and just keep the jars in the fridge — they’ll keep refrigerated for several weeks.