Dill Pickles????

[Southpole]

What can cause the metallic taste.
Salt can cause aluminum to pit and vinegar will react with both metals and give the pickles a metallic taste. Reactive cookware includes raw aluminum, unlined copper, and cast iron, meaning they react to acidic ingredients and can impart a metallic taste into your pickles.

That’s for sure a reaction but who would use such things together?

[Badhabit]

I use Mrs. Wages dill pickle packages from Walmart. Sure is easy and good.

[Angry Perch]

Dill pickles are like a gateway drug - after making them you might wonder if I can make that why not other kinds of pickles, why not other vegetables and before you know it you are hitting garage sales for jars and expanding the garden space.

Do you use the same basic brine and process for everything?

[Twispriver]

The basic brine is really only used for the garlic dills. For a lot of other things the brine mix is:
Two quarts white vinegar
Two quarts water
3/4 cup canning salt
1/2 cup white sugar

For everything other than cukes I use a hot water bath but very briefly - the jars are placed in the water and then removed in five to seven minutes without waiting for it to resume boiling. I do this just to get the perfect tenderness on the vegetables (beans,asparagus, etc) - it's not about sealing the jars - I have found that hot jars with boiling brine, an adequate head space with a clean lid placement will seal every time.

[Angry Perch]

The basic brine is really only used for the garlic dills. For a lot of other things the brine mix is:
Two quarts white vinegar
Two quarts water
3/4 cup canning salt
1/2 cup white sugar

For everything other than cukes I use a hot water bath but very briefly - the jars are placed in the water and then removed in five to seven minutes without waiting for it to resume boiling. I do this just to get the perfect tenderness on the vegetables (beans,asparagus, etc) - it's not about sealing the jars - I have found that hot jars with boiling brine, an adequate head space with a clean lid placement will seal every time.

That makes sense. Thanks.

[Angry Perch]

Keep your cukes fresh and cold - wash thoroughly in cold water.
Start by placing your clean jars in the oven at 200 degrees and your lids and rings in a pan of water over medium heat.
Combine one quart of white vinegar and three quarts of water with 3/4 cup canning salt and bring to a full boil.
Remove two jars at a time from the oven using tongs and as quickly as possible fill them with:
1 large head of dill or 1 teaspoon of dill seed
2 or 3 (or more) whole garlic cloves
1 dried red pepper (add another if you like them hot)
As many cukes as you can fit leaving at least an inch at the top of the jar
Pour boiling brine over the cukes filling to an inch or inch and a quarter from the top. Don't over fill.
Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean wet cloth or paper towel to remove any salt brine residue.
Place the lid and tighten band and place the jar where it can cool, contract and seal, or;
When you have finished the batch of brine place in a boiling canner for ten minutes and remove to a cooling place.

For this recipe one batch of brine will make seven quarts of pickles
I don't use the water canner method as it will soften the cukes but the pickles are not considered pasteurized unless you do.
It will take approximately six weeks for the cukes to become pickled.

If you have any questions just send me a message - I'm happy to help

For a rookie canner, can you explain this?

[Southpole]

I don’t think you have to worry about pasteurization with picking with vinegar do you? Never heard of that.

[Angry Perch]

So do the finished jars go into the water bath for 10 minutes?

[Tenkara]

So do the finished jars go into the water bath for 10 minutes?

I used his recipe last year and did not water bath, every jar sealed.

[Angry Perch]

This was where my question centyers.

Place the lid and tighten band and place the jar where it can cool, contract and seal, or;

When you have finished the batch of brine place in a boiling canner for ten minutes and remove to a cooling place.

So all the finished jars go in for 10 minutes? I've only pressure canned, so know nothing (obviously!)

[Twispriver]

Hot water bath finishing for pickles is intended to bring the entire contents of the jar up to a temperature that will kill anything bad that might be in the jar. It is heat pasteurization and I don't do it because I don't like soft pickles. Some recipes call for using alum or calcium chloride to toughen the skin of the cucumber but  only the skin remains crisp. I wash everything thoroughly and trust that the low acid properties of the vinegar will kill off anything I might have missed.

Most published recipes will call for water bath finishing for liability reasons and if you ever wanted to sell them your insurance company would require either heat or UV pasteurization for the same reason.

[salish]

Hot water bath finishing for pickles is intended to bring the entire contents of the jar up to a temperature that will kill anything bad that might be in the jar. It is heat pasteurization and I don't do it because I don't like soft pickles. Some recipes call for using alum or calcium chloride to toughen the skin of the cucumber but  only the skin remains crisp. I wash everything thoroughly and trust that the low acid properties of the vinegar will kill off anything I might have missed.

Most published recipes will call for water bath finishing for liability reasons and if you ever wanted to sell them your insurance company would require either heat or UV pasteurization for the same reason.

This sounds similar to the "cold pack" method I used last summer. I got the recipe from the Duris Cucumber Farm, in Puyallup. It was easy and really simplified things, but only about 1/3 of the jars (12 total) came out ok. The others were either very "vinegary" or not done.
https://www.duriscucumberfarm.com/coldpack.html

[Twispriver]

Most cold pack recipes are what I would call refrigerator pickles and I've had poor results with that as well.

[salish]

Most cold pack recipes are what I would call refrigerator pickles and I've had poor results with that as well.

Yeah, I think I'll try a different recipe for spicy kosher dills this summer. Thanks.