Mason Jars with snap lids and rings, if you can get wide mouth do. It makes it easier to get the cucumbers in.

Pickling cucumbers if you want 24ish jars of small and large size, 2 x 20lbs bags will usually suffice. Adjust the amount as you see fit.

Prep Work

Make sure your cucumbers are clean; I usually fill 1 side of the sink with cool water. Give them a quick wash; brush any dirt off and look for marks. Any that are a little soft or have large brown marks on them should be thrown away. Once all the others are clean then put them  on a dry towel on the counter.

Boil water and put about ½ a cup of the boiling water in the bottom of each jar. Once the jars are cool enough to touch, a couple minutes, swirl them around to get the hot water over the majority of the jar. Dump out when cool.

The prep work is the majority of the time, you can probably have 60% of your half stuffed before moving onto the brine.

Put all the snap lids and rings into pots of water, same pot or separate it doesn’t matter.

Stuffing the jars

Place garlic (how much is up to you 1-2 cloves is normal, more for extra garlic flavor, also depends on the size of the bulb, yes that’s vague sorry ) and dill to cover the bottom of the jars.

Generally with the dill 1-2 heads cut off the bunch with a small stem is sufficient.

Then pack the jars with the cucumbers. Use big ones and little ones to make them as packed as possible, you will want almost every nook and cranny filled as the cucumbers will shrink a little during the picking months.

Pack the cucumbers in tight!

Make sure you don’t have any cucumbers above the rings so they don’t float up when the brine is added, they can get in the way when you put the snap lid on and then they won’t seal.

Brine

I use the picking Jars for measurement, this is all based on the 1L size jars.

1 – 1L jar of Vinegar

3 – 1L jar of water

1 cup of Corse Salt (Pickling salt)

You will need to triple or more this recipe depending on how many jars you are making. More is better, there is nothing worse than being down to the last jar or two and not having enough.

Put all ingredients above into a large pot and put on a med-high heat. Do not start at max heat, the salt needs to dissolve first. Watch the pot, stirring occasionally to ensure the salt is not sticking. Once the Salt is dissolved turn the heat up and cover.

*while you are waiting for the brine to boil put the lids and rings on the stove as well. Turn those to a med-high heat. You are basically sterilizing them, plus the hot snap lids will help to seal. Do not turn off the burners until you are done.

Once the brine starts to boil, leave it at rapid boiling (not a slow rolling one) for at least 5 minutes. Note that this must be a rapid boil not a slow rolling one. If the brine is not hot enough the jars will not seal and the process will have to be repeated. Yes your house will smell like vinegar, and yes your eyes will burn a little when you take the lid off

Once the brine has been rapid boiling for more than 5 minutes you can start the last steps, do not turn the heat on the brine down. I usually do this 2 or 3 jars at a time. Using a large glass measuring cup (or something like that) scoop out some of the brine and poor it into the packed jars. Put a hot snap lid and a ring on it as quickly as possible. You don’t want it to start cooling down without that lid on.

Once all the jars have brine, lids and rings set them somewhere safe to cool down. As they cool you should hear a very satisfying pop as each jar seals.