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Recipe

Cucumber, Pepper and Chilli Dill Pickles

current situation: pickling

A counter covered in sliced vegetables and a pan of brine on the stove. An hour of work and the fridge is stocked for a month.

Cucumber pickles go soft, and there is one reason: the blossom end. It carries an enzyme that breaks down pectin, and a single slice of it in a jar will soften the whole batch over a week. Cut a sixteenth of an inch off the end opposite the stem and throw it away. That is the entire secret and nobody is ever told it.

Everything else is cold. Cold cucumbers, brine poured hot but over vegetables straight from the fridge, and the jars into the fridge as soon as they are sealed. Heat is what makes a limp pickle.

Makes
4 quart jars
Hands-on
45 minutes
Ready
24 hours
Keeps
A month, cold

Forty-five minutes of slicing and a day of waiting. They are at their best after three days.

Cucumber, peppers and chillies prepped for picklingJars of pickles on a fridge turntable
Shot the night it was made. Open any picture for the full photograph.

What you need

The vegetables

  • 3 lb small firm cucumbers, blossom ends trimmed, sliced thick (from my garden)
  • 3 red bell peppers, in rings
  • 6 jalapeños, in rings (from my garden)
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 8 cloves garlic, smashed
  • A large bunch of dill, with the stalks

The brine

  • 4 cups water
  • 3 cups cider vinegar — at least 5% acidity
  • 1/3 cup pickling salt — not iodised, which clouds the jar
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp dill seed
  • 1 tbsp mustard seed
  • 1 tbsp black peppercorns
  • 1 tsp coriander seed

For crispness

  • A grape leaf, an oak leaf or a black tea bag per jar — tannin, and it works

How it goes

  1. 1 — Cut the blossom end off every cucumber

    The end opposite the stem. A sixteenth of an inch, straight in the bin. The enzyme in it softens pectin and it will turn a whole jar to mush within a week.

  2. 2 — Ice-bath the cucumbers for an hour first

    Sliced and sat in iced water. They come out noticeably firmer and they stay that way in the jar. An hour, and you can do everything else while they sit.

  3. 3 — Pickling salt, not table salt

    Iodine turns brine cloudy and grey and anti-caking agent does the same. Pickling or kosher salt only.

  4. 4 — A tannin source in each jar

    A grape leaf, an oak leaf, a bay leaf or a black tea bag. The tannin inhibits the softening enzymes that survived your trimming. It is an old trick and it is a real one.

    pro tip — A tea bag is the easiest and nobody tastes it. One per quart, taken out after two days.

  5. 5 — Pack the jars tight, cold

    Cucumber, pepper rings, jalapeño, onion, garlic and dill packed in firmly. Loose vegetables float above the brine and go brown.

  6. 6 — Boil the brine, pour it over, seal at once

    Brought to a full boil so the salt and sugar dissolve and the spices release, then poured over to cover completely. Lids on while hot.

  7. 7 — Cool on the counter, then straight to the fridge

    An hour to come down, then cold. These are refrigerator pickles, not canned ones — they are not shelf stable and they do not want to be.

  8. 8 — A day before they are pickles, three before they are good

    Edible at twenty-four hours, properly sour at three days, and at their best in the first fortnight.

Current situation: pickling. The jalapeño rings go first, every time. LFG.

More of what comes out of this kitchen on the food wall.

Every picture on this page is one of mine. I paint for a living the rest of the time — that is the gallery, and the originals are for sale.