Dill Pickles

Hey friends .

This is the wolf from our half acre homestead .

And today we're gonna make garlic dill pickles .

Now I went to the farmers' market and I got a nice big basket of these little small cukes and I'm soaking them for about eight hours in ice water with a teaspoon of aluminum sulfate or alum .

You do not have to use this folks .

I use this just to keep the skins crunchy before they're pickled .

They get washed off .

So I let these soak in ice water and for about eight hours , here are our cucumbers that soaked overnight .

Uh 8 to 12 hours is best .

Here is a beautiful braid of organic garlic .

I got from the farmers' market several fresh heads of dill , a quarter cup .

Of course , pickling salt .

And in this pot , I have two liters of water or two quarts of water to which I'm gonna add one liter or one quart of apple cider vinegar .

That's my secret ingredient .

Our jars have been washed , rinsed and put in the oven at 215 degrees for 20 minutes .

Ok ?

I'm going to put my salt in my water and vinegar , brine solution .

OK .

So our frying is almost boiling .

I'm gonna take a hot jar out of the oven and I'm gonna drop in two cloves of garlic .

These are big clothes or I'd use more and a good bunch of dill .

I'm gonna put two in and then we're just gonna start packing our rinsed cucumbers into the jar .

Now , folks , these are gonna shrink a little bit when the hot brine settles in .

So you want stuff as many ouch that's hot .

As many cucumbers in the jar as you can .

I recommend starting out with the bigger ones and then taking the smaller ones and stuffing them in the corners .

It's hot , hot , hot .

OK .

So we're gonna take our hot simmering brine and we're just gonna now pour it right over the top of our cucumbers and our dill and our garlic and you're gonna pour this all the way to the top .

Why ?

Because you want it like overflowing for one simple reason , folks , we don't , can this , this will , can all on its own and I'm gonna set it upside down like this on a towel until it cools .

Now , many people have asked me , why do I turn it upside down ?

That's just to make sure all the stuff gets in there that's supposed to , it's gonna happen in there and once you flip them back over it just , I don't know , it's just one of those things that I learned how to do and just never changed .

Really , honestly don't know the reason for it .

So we're gonna do one more jar again .

Start with the bigger ones because then you can shove all the little ones in and around because you want to pack this jar folks because they will shrink to a certain degree .

You just don't want it like that one .

You don't want them so that they're sticking up against the lid , which might prevent the lid from popping down .

So you don't want anything pushing on the lid .

I need one more little one .

See if I can get you down in there , turn him around and down .

He goes and ladling in our hot brine to full , to overflowing , it will still create a vacuum .

You do not need to boil bath .

Why ?

Just the amount of vinegar alone ?

Hot sterile jars , hot lids , hot brine means a sealed jar as soon as it cools down .

And there it is folks , five jars of Mrs Wolfe's secret weapon dill pickles , Papa's favorite .

He's tired and when you see what he's done to the barn , you'll know why .

This is the Mr from our half acre homestead saying sometimes the oldest tried and true recipes are the best .

Take care of .

God .