Garlic Dill Pickles Recipe
Adapted from "Bromberg Bros. Blue Ribbon Cookbook" by Bruce Bromberg, Eric Bromberg, and Melissa Clark
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This is as easy as pickling gets, so there’s no reason not to make your own dill pickles. The longer these pickles sit, the more sour they become. Enjoy them on sandwiches or burgers, or as a snack on your next road trip.
For a behind-the-scenes look at the Brombergs’ cooking philosophy, check out their Q&A with CHOW.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 pounds pickling cucumbers, such as Kirby, scrubbed
- 4 cups water
- 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons sliced garlic
- 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh dill
- 1 tablespoon brown or yellow mustard seeds
- 1 bay leaf
INSTRUCTIONS
- Chill the cucumbers in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.
- Combine water, vinegar, and salt in a medium nonreactive saucepan. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the salt has dissolved, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
- Transfer chilled cucumbers to a large bowl. Add garlic, dill, mustard seeds, and bay leaf. Pour cooled water-vinegar mixture over the cucumbers. Place a plate or other weight on top of the cucumbers to completely submerge them in the liquid. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let it stand at room temperature for 3 to 4 days. Refrigerate the pickles in a tightly covered jar for up to 1 week.
Anybody try this with sliced cukes? I have a small garden and LOVE kosher half-sours,"a la Batampte"
I made these last Saturday and tried one yesterday--pretty salty, kind of pickly, not really garlicky but tasty. I'm letting them sit another couple of days to see what happens. They're super easy to make too.
This recipe is on the barbaric side, in that true kosher garlic dill pickles contain no vinegar. They are created solely by fermentation. These pickles are fermented, but it looks like the fermentation period is on the short side. I've made these pickles, and it typically takes a week or longer, depending on ambient temp.
What brand of kosher salt? Morton and Diamond Crystal have very different bulk densities and will produce very different results. What mass of salt was used?
Up the dill to twice the amount while you're at it, give them a few days, and you've got yourself a nice half sour.
OK - I made these. We liked the garlic and dill flavor a lot, and they were pleasantly sour. But, everyone who tasted them said they were too salty. I am going to try them again this week, with a tbls less salt.
As the first poster already asked, is there any need at all to boil the water and salt? A quarter cup of kosher salt will quickly dissolve in four cups of water if put in a blender for a few pulses. (Boiling the water and salt with the garlic, mustard seeds, and bay leaf might make sense, though, to open the flavors a bit.)
I have a batch of these resting on the kitchen counter right now. Only change I made was to add one small chili pepper to the brine, for a bit of zing.
I always use a chunk fresh horseradish (keeps them crisp) in my dill pickles, also a dry chile.
Hi everyone,
Some further clarification:
After 4 days of sitting in this mixture, the pickles do have a hint of vinegar; the vinegar is subtle. They are lightly pickled -- more of what you'd find at a Jewish deli than in a jar
Thanks,
Christine Gallary, CHOW Test Kitchen
Hi everyone,
The amount of vinegar in this recipe is correct, it is 2 tablespoons!
Christine Gallary, CHOW Test Kitchen
I'm pretty sure that 2 tbsp is correct; the idea is to have a brine solution, rather than a vinegar solution.
There's a good pickle recipe on www.strubpickles.com ; they're pretty well known in Toronto (and maybe elsewhere).
Could someone verify if the 2 T vinegar is correct?
There seems to be an error in the amount of vinegar called for. 2 tablespoons of vinegar couldn't make much of a dill pickle.
Is there a reason the water/vinegar/salt mixture needs to be boiled? It seems like this would make the salt dissolve faster, but that seems like overkill to me.