Kosher Dill Pickles: Canning Recipe (2025)

FAQs

How do you keep dill pickles crisp when canning? ›

Soak Cucumbers In Ice Water Beforehand

If you're not canning your cucumbers immediately, leave them in an ice bath or in your refrigerator overnight to maintain firmness. Doing this before you start canning them will give you the crunchiest pickles you've ever had!

Kosher pickles are made according to Jewish dietary laws, while regular pickles may be made using any ingredients and processing methods. Kosher pickles are typically made with a salt brine and flavored with garlic and dill, while regular pickles may be pickled with vinegar and flavored with sugar and other spices.

Pickles can be as quick and easy as pouring hot brine over cold cucumbers in jars and processing in a water bath. Or you can choose to brine the cukes overnight in a salt water bath to draw moisture out of them so the pickling solution better permeates into them.

Most fruit preserves and pickles are sufficiently high in acid to be canned via a method called water bath canning, where jars are submerged in boiling water for a prescribed amount of time. This destroys any pathogens in the food, and creates a seal, thereby rendering the jars shelf-stable.

The best way to keep your pickles crisp is by taking an extra moment to remove the blossom from the end of the cucumber. By adding this extra cut, you have a crisper pickle. Other ways to ensure a crisp pickle is by adding grape leaves to your jar. I tend to cut off both ends of the cucumber as I quickly process them.

The name comes from them being prepared in the same style/method as the dill pickles that you would get at a Kosher Deli. They tend to have a heavy garlic flavor as opposed to a standard dill pickle.

McDonald's uses dill pickles in their burgers including in the Big Mac®.

Does the rabbi bless the food to make it kosher? There is no blessing a rabbi (or any human) can say to make food kosher. Kosher food is defined in the Torah.

For a quick and easy way to help ensure crisp pickles: soak cucumbers in ice water for 4 to 5 hours before pickling. This is a safer method for making crisp pickles. Using lime, or calcium hydroxide, in solution for soaking cucumbers changes the amount of acid in the cucumber tissue.

Boiling mason jars serves as a means of sterilization, a process essential for preserving the integrity of your canned goods. While fresh fruits and vegetables contain beneficial microbes, they also harbor potential spoilers and harmful bacteria.

Do you have to do a hot water bath when canning pickles? ›

All pickles and pickled products are subject to spoilage from microorganisms, particularly yeast and molds, as well as enzymes that affect flavor, color and texture. Processing in a boiling water-bath canner will prevent both of these problems. Standard canning jars with self-sealing lids also are recommended.

To allow pickles to mellow and develop a delicious flavor, wait at least 3 weeks before eating! Keep in mind that pickles may be ready to enjoy earlier. It's all up to you and your tastes! Just don't let them go too long or the veggies' texture can deteriorate and turn rubbery.

Heat to 180 degrees F and maintain this temperature for a full thirty minutes. Temperatures higher than 185º F may cause unnecessary softening of pickles. Once complete, remove the lid and let your jars rest for five minutes before removing them from the canner.

If good quality ingredients are used and up-to-date methods are followed, firming agents are not needed. Alum has little crispness affect on quick-process pickles. Alum will increase firmness of fermented pickles when used at levels up to ¼ teaspoon per pint, but greater amounts will decrease firmness.

It replaces pickling lime, which home picklers have long used to firm cucumbers into pickles . Calcium chloride aka pickle crisp is easier to use: you add 1/8 teaspoon along with the fruit or vegetable pieces and the pickling liquid to a pint jar, or 1/4 teaspoon to a quart jar and voila! Your done!