Dill Pickles

• Fresh Cucumbers
• 2 - 3 slices fresh Onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 quart chlorine-free water
• 2 - 3 Tbsp iodine-free salt
• 2 Tbsp Pickling Spice
• Dill:
  • 1/2 cup fresh dill heads and stalks OR
  • 1 Tbsp each dried dill seed and dill weed OR
  • 2 Tbsp dill seed
• Other spices to taste
• Optional: 2-3 large grape leaves, oak leaves, or horseradish leaves

Recipe for 1 quart jar

• Heat the water and dissolve the salt in the water to create the brine. Set aside to cool completely.
• Wash and prepare cucumbers to your liking (whole with the ends trimmed, sliced, speared)
• Add onions to and garlic to the bottom of a mason jar
• Add spices on top of onions and garlic
• Pack cucumbers tightly on top of spices
• Optionally, cover cucumbers with tanin-containing leaf
• Fill jar with cooled brine leaving about 1 inch of headspace
• Place fermentation lid on jar and set out of direct sunlight in a place that stays between 65°F and 75°F
• After 5 days, check pickles for desired level of sourness.
• Once ready, place a regular lid on the jar and store in the fridge.

• Water salinity should be between 3.5 and 5%. Pickling at 3.5% technically produces "half-sour" pickles. I used 3 Tbsp for "full-sour."
• Table salt will not work. Use a good sea salt or something fun like pink himalayan salt (what I used)
• I prefer to make my own pickling spice and have linked to that recipe in the ingredients
• If you don't use a fermentation lid on the jar, you must burp the jar daily.
• I use these fermentation lids for my pickles and sauerkraut. They're great.
• The cucumbers must be completely submerged in the brine. If using sliced, you may have to weight the slices down. I use these fermentation weights.
• The tanin-containing leaves will help the cucumbers retain their crispiness