Making Genuine Dill Pickles (2153)

The old-fashioned way of making dill pickles, fermenting cucumbers in a salt-brine, produces the type of dill pickle that commercial picklers call a "genuine dill pickle". While you preserve most other kinds of pickles by using acetic acid present in vinegar, this type of dill pickle is preserved by lactic acid produced during a fermentation process that takes place over several weeks.

Here's what happens. You place cucumbers in a glass or stoneware crock or heavy food-grade plastic container. You cover with a salt brine that contains dill, garlic, spices and a little vinegar. The cucumber's weight keeps them below the surface of the brine. You cover the container loosely and allow it to stand at room temperature, preferably between 70 and 75 degrees F.

Natural sugars from the cucumbers begin to go into the brine where salt-tolerant lactic acid bacteria cause natural fermentation. The amount of salt in the brine is very important if fermentation is to go well.

Too little salt lets undesirable bacteria grow rapidly. Too much salt slows down the fermentation process. Yeasts and molds can grow on the surface of the brine when air is present, so you need to skim off any surface scum each day. if you don't, the vegetables may soften, develop off-flavors, or spoil.

To make enough brine for about four gallons of cucumbers, use the following ingredients:

2 ½ gallons cold water

1 ¾ cups pickling or canning salt (not table salt)

2 ½ cups distilled vinegar

2 tablespoons mixed pickling spice (optional)

5 or 6 peeled cloves of garlic

2 or 3 large heads of fresh dill

Place thoroughly washed cucumbers in a clean five-gallon, non-metallic container and cover with brine. Use a plate and a weight, or a water-filled plastic bag to keep the cucumbers below the surface of the brine.

After about three weeks, the cucumber flesh will become a translucent olive green. At this point, you may pack the pickles in clean jars. Cover with the boiling hot brine that they were fermented in, and process the jars for 10 minutes for pints (15 minutes for quarts) in a boiling-water bath canner. This stops the fermentation and lets you store the pickles at room temperature without risk of spoilage.

You may make the popular deli-dills this way, but ferment for only about one week. At that point, store the dills in the refrigerator. You should use them within a few weeks.

For more information on this subject, Please visit the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Web site.

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