6478. Make pickles

 Back in June, Janis asked if we wanted to help make pickles since she was having hip surgery and couldn't do the pickling herself this year. I've never made pickles and neither have Danielle or Erin so we figured it was a good time to learn. 

Janis got the pickles (1/2 bushel) and dill from Wagner's in Black Creek. Erin and I stopped at the store to pick up a few odds and ends that Janis requested. Then she requested mustard seed. We stopped at the Pick N Save by her house. We head down the baking aisle and no spices. Finally after wandering up and down the aisles (and asking an employee), we found the spices next to the canned soup!?!?

Pickling making is a relatively easy yet time consuming process and we were going to make three different types of pickles.. refrigerator, dill, and bread and butter.

First thing we had to do was wash all those dang pickles to get off the grit. 

Then we started to cut the pickles. We chopped the pickles for bread and butter and made spears for the rest. I did not cut off any fingers or require any band-aids. Janis had them just in case. :)

Then we had made the bread and butter "stew" -- pickles, onions, and garlic. This mixture had to sit for 3 hours.

After a lunch break, we started the brine and canning process. We made the brine for the refrigerator pickles which we would finish at home by laying cucumbers and dill in a bowl. Cover with a plate for 48 hours and jar.

Then we made the brine for the dill pickles. Erin and I jammed the jars full of pickles and dill. Erin was much better at jamming the jars with pickles than I was. She did most of the bread and butter jars. I just filled the with the mustard seeds, alum, and red peppers flakes at the bottom of the jar

Danielle would fill the jars with brine. 

I would make sure the air bubbles were out of the jars and then Danielle would put them in the pot of boiling water for 15 minutes. Repeat with the the bread and butter pickles.

Cooking is what takes forever. We could only get 4-6 jars in the pot at time and we had at least 12 jars of each the dill and bread and butter pickles. Each batch has to cook for 15 minutes exactly

The dill and bread and butter pickles have sit for 6 weeks. So they are sitting on top of my hutch.

The refrigerator pickles are good to eat after the 48 hours but are best after a week in the fridge. The refrigerator pickles are really good. I am almost out. 

This was a great day. It wasn't hard to pickle. Even the scary jar tongs weren't that scary. Now if only I knew how to can peaches.