Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post

enchant · August 28, 2013

With my pickling cukes coming in strong, I've created a recipe that I like that makes great (imo) kosher dills. I've made a few batches and put them in the fridge, and after a couple weeks, they're still very crisp and tasty.

So I tried putting them through the canning process, and the result after a week of sitting on the shelf was a batch of very mushy pickles. I'm tossing the whole batch.

While the cukes are still coming in strong, I'd like to come up with something that will give me crisp pickles for storage outside the fridge. Here's what I did for the last (mushy) batch:

Cut off the ends of the cukes and sliced them in half or quarters, depending on the size. Put Ball pickling crisp in the jars. Put the jars into a boiling water bath, wait for the water to come to a boil again and leave them in for 15 minutes. Then take them out and leave them on the counter.

A couple of ideas come to mind, but I'm not a canning expert, so I don't know what might be ill-advised.

Shorter boiling time (like 5 min, instead of 15)
Cool the jars of pickles quickly after they come out of the bath
Don't slice them before canning (I'd prefer not to do this, because they're fairly large, and there's only so much pickle I can eat at a sitting)

Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

August 28, 2013	#99
enchant Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 142	Mushy pickles With my pickling cukes coming in strong, I've created a recipe that I like that makes great (imo) kosher dills. I've made a few batches and put them in the fridge, and after a couple weeks, they're still very crisp and tasty. So I tried putting them through the canning process, and the result after a week of sitting on the shelf was a batch of very mushy pickles. I'm tossing the whole batch. While the cukes are still coming in strong, I'd like to come up with something that will give me crisp pickles for storage outside the fridge. Here's what I did for the last (mushy) batch: Cut off the ends of the cukes and sliced them in half or quarters, depending on the size. Put Ball pickling crisp in the jars. Put the jars into a boiling water bath, wait for the water to come to a boil again and leave them in for 15 minutes. Then take them out and leave them on the counter. A couple of ideas come to mind, but I'm not a canning expert, so I don't know what might be ill-advised. Shorter boiling time (like 5 min, instead of 15) Cool the jars of pickles quickly after they come out of the bath Don't slice them before canning (I'd prefer not to do this, because they're fairly large, and there's only so much pickle I can eat at a sitting) Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.