How to Make Dill Pickles: Old-Fashioned Recipe for Cucumbers & More

Make dill pickles with more than cucumbers—try cauliflower or green tomatoes with this versatile recipe!

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Learn the "old-fashioned" way to make dill pickles. Pickling preserves excess vegetables for winter or creates tasty summer snacks. Use this recipe for homemade pickles.

Vegetables for Pickling

This recipe works for cucumbers, cauliflower, green/red peppers, onions, green tomatoes, summer squash, baby corn—many garden vegetables. Best pickles come from your own garden (click vegetable names for growing guides).

Dill Pickle Recipe

• Make brine: ¾ cup pickling salt, 2½ quarts water, ½ cup vinegar. Heat to dissolve salt, cool before use. In a large crock or ceramic bowl, alternate layers of vegetables (small whole cucumbers 3–4 inches, or large pieces of other vegetables) with fresh dill. Add hot red peppers and peeled garlic cloves for extra kick.
• Pour brine over vegetables. Weigh down with a cloth, plate, and water-filled canning jar.
• For 2 weeks, white scum appears daily—remove it.
• After 2 weeks, pack vegetables into hot, sterile jars. Heat ½ cup pickling salt, 1 quart vinegar, 4 quarts water to boiling. Pour over vegetables and seal. Process 15 minutes in boiling water bath.

For easier refrigerator dill pickles, watch our video. Want simpler? Try our Kosher-Style Dill Pickles recipe.

Pickle enthusiast? Find more pickling tips and recipes.

Source: The Forgotten Arts, Book Five, 1982