Refrigerated Dill Pickles

Jen and I love pickles.  Jen a little more than me, I think, but we both like the Claussen brand refrigerated dills.

We set about trying to find a good homemade substitute and came up with one that's pretty close to the same taste and equally as good.  It's simple to make, costs less than store bought and requires no cooking or canning at all.  All the ingredients are cheap and if you don't have them you can find them all at your grocery store for cheap and have enough left over to make tons of pickles.

We've tried this pickling liquid with carrots, onions, English (or hothouse) cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, garlic cloves and a variety of other stuff.  Get crazy and add fresh herbs or different spices or add some sweetener if you prefer sweet pickles (we do not happen to prefer sweet pickles).  You can also use this for any style of cut cucumber you like; spears, chips, whole, sandwich slices, etc.

The brine tends to last for 3-4 weeks in the fridge and can be reused several times if you happen to go through your pickles quickly, like we do.

I was in a rockin' mood when I made these and thought it was a little odd, and a tad remiss, that we hadn't had a Bad Brains song on here yet in the past 2 years so for your listening pleasure, Bad Brains and Hank Rollins covering "Kick Out the Jams", which happens to be on the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack.  An awesome 80's movie, incidentally.  Anyway, here's Bad Brains:

PICKLING LIQUID
Time: 5 minutes
Difficulty: Simple
Serves: 6-8

• 1 tbsp salt
• 1/2 tsp brown mustard seed
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorn
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 tsp dried dill
• 1 tsp pickling spice
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar.

Add all ingredients to a 1qt mason jar.  Stuff full of cucumbers, or whatever you like, and fill the remaining space with water.  Seal tightly with a lid and shake to dissolve and infusilate all the spices and seasonings.  Place in fridge and let it pickle.  For cut veggies, it only takes a day or two to pickle.  For whole cucumbers and such, 3-4 days are required and the bigger the veggie, the longer the time.

I like to slice some ribbons of onion, some carrot sticks, and toss some whole garlic in with the cucumbers and then you've got all the fixins for a good salad or a relish.