Pickle question

[Rosyrain]

My husband wants me to make homemade pickles, but I am not sure what kind of cucumbers I should get. I know that you are supposed to use small ones, but what are they called? Any other pickling advice would be helpful too

 

[MICHELLE K]

I tried to make kosher pickles and they came out tasting like bread n butter pickles. What did I do wrong?

 

[Chuck]

My husband wants me to make homemade pickles, but I am not sure what kind of cucumbers I should get. I know that you are supposed to use small ones, but what are they called? Any other pickling advice would be helpful too

You should use varieties named as pickling cucumbers. There are two types of cucs, pickling and slicers. You can use both types but picklers are the best for what you want. Now, what kind of pickles do you want? Sweet gerkins, sour pickles, hamburger dills, bread and butter pickles, lime pickles, dill spear pickles or whole dill pickles? What you want is determined by the size of the cucumber. Making pickles is easy and safe as the main ingredient is vinegar. There are multitudes of recipes out there for every type of pickle you can imagine. Ball Canning Jars has a little booklet that has a bunch of good recipes

 

[Chuck]

My husband wants me to make homemade pickles, but I am not sure what kind of cucumbers I should get. I know that you are supposed to use small ones, but what are they called? Any other pickling advice would be helpful too

I don't know if you can even buy pickling cucs at the grocery store. Personally I have only seen the slicers. Slicers work fairly well for Bread and Butters and only marginally for dills. I suppose you will have to placate your husband with slicers in balsamic vinegar until you can grow your own next spring

 

[claudine]

I think that all cucumbers can be pickled. My mother buys lots and lots of them in the nearest farmer's market and then we put them in jars with salty water, garlic, fennel and horseradish.
I love pickles

 

[Kansas Terri]

I once cheated: I took a jar of leftover pickle juice and I put sliced cucumbers in it. Then it sat in the fridge for a week.

They actually tasted like milder pickles! I really liked them, though my family preferred the regular pickles!

 

[marlingardener]

The fresher the cucumber, the better the pickle. Grocery cucumbers are often waxed so they don't lose moisture while being shipped, and on the shelf. Also, most are slicers--it just doesn't pay the farmer to pick all those little cucumbers for pickling. If you don't grow your own, a farmer's market is the next best thing.