Dill pickle canning season is from the August first until the middle of September. Dill pickles are the first memory I have of my Grandma Ella canning food. She was standing in the kitchen putting grape leaves and a clove a garlic in the bottom of a canning jar. It was the grape leaves that got my attention.
Canning dill pickles passed my momma by but it became a yearly tradition in my own home. I never went a year without canning Cucumber Dill Pickles.
Sour pickles are my kids and grands favorite. It’s a really toss up between dills and homemade sweet pickles for me.
Rather than explain the entire canning procedure and dill pickle canning recipe here… I want you to click on to my sister site… Insightful Nana where the entire dill pickle canning method is presented in detail.
My grand kids love to pull a whole dill pickle from the jar and eat it wrapped in a paper towel. For Sunday dinner, I dress up the dill pickles by placing them in fancy relish dishes. I have antique relish dishes that I love to show off.
Try canning dill pickles… they are sooo easy and great to serve for the first time at Thanksgiving.
Happy Canning And Preserving!
Kathy Griffiths – Insightful Nana
P.S. Having genuine dill pickles to serve your guests will impress them. They may remember old times when their grandma served up sour pickles to them.
I have been making dills for years. But this year they turned out too salty. Is there anything I can do to the juice to eliminate the salty taste?
What kind of grape leaves do you use and where do you get them?
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August 19, 2011
Follow-up on previous note:
These Amish pickles are rather sour, I’d say. The longer the jar is open, the softer the pickles seem.
If the grape leaf was meant to keep the cukes crisp, it failed.
There is a product on the market called Pickle Crisp which works great. My sister uses it to make her dill pickles which are not processed. They taste way better than the Amish ones.
So, if anyone happens by this site and reads the notes, ignore my question.
During recent trip to Belleville, Pa. I bought a jar of dill pickles with a grape leaf in bottom of jar. I recall my mother doing them that way. There was some chopped garlic which I can not taste, and lots of dill which I can not taste. The pickles are crisp.
My question is —- Why does one add grape leaves to the dill pickles?
@ Tracy Gresham:
I’d say the white on the bottom may be from using hard water. I have alot of lime in my tap water so sometimes I have white residue in my canned goods, but it shouldn’t harm you. It doesn’t affect flavor, and hard water may help with the crunchiness too. Wouldn’t be a bad idea to ask for her ingredients list just in case she added something else, but as long as it’s not growing it should be fine. The jar will usually not seal in processing if bacteria is living inside. Hope this info is helpful.
I have this jar of pickles that my co-worker gave me (after badgering her to bring) that she made hers with the grape leaves. There is a white, hazy sedament at the bottom of the jar that disperses throughout the jar when shaken. I am a little nervous about eating them, even though the har has sealed. I cannot find a picture of these pickles once canned to reference. Do you think they are ok to eat??
I used to make canned pickles, but as I’ve gotten busier and the children are grown and it seems that I work more in my office than in the kitchen, I have started making refrigerator pickles. It’s my own recipe, so I don’t if anyone else does it this way. I slice up either English cukes or small crunch ones from the farmer’s market. I also slice a lot of Vidalia onions. I put a half water/half vinegar (maybe 6-8 C.)solution with some sugar (can’t say how much—maybe almost a cup.) Then I put it in the microwave until it’s very hot but not boiling. I pour it over the pickles in a big jar and add a lot of dill weed. When it cools, put it in the fridge. They would keep for weeks and weeks, but they never last that long. We eat them every day – on bread and butter, as a side dish, or just as a snack. Another thing I do is to make the solution a little sweeter, using white vinegar, leave out the dill, but put in some sliced Thai chilies. Those little green and red ones I buy in the Oriental market. Not too many, because they really pack a punch. I also don’t put onions in this one. If you don’t have the chilies, you could just throw in some red pepper flakes. The sweet next to the heat makes a great pickle.
I’m glad I found you here…I love sites like this.
Jeanne
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My mom always had a big jar of refrigerator pickles in the fridge. they were so yummy but took up a lot of space in the refrigerator. They always got better the longer they were in there. Canning them looks like a good alternative. Thanks!
Dalton’s resturant in Payson does a deep fried dill pickle that is to die for. Don’t know the recipe but wish I did. Thanks for all of the good information. I don’t can as much as I used to but you might keep in mind that there are those that are at lower elevations that the processing time changes. You can check with the extention service to see how to make those adjustments.
I love homemade dill pickles, but have never known how to make them. You make it sound so easy that I think I will give it a try!
When my mom canned cucumbers she always added sliced up onions- SO yummy! Thanks for the great posts- your blog inspires me to start canning for my family.
Okay…. it looks like I better get busy. They look so good and I love a good dill pickle.
I love a relish tray of pickles for Thanks giving and Christmas.
My family loves canned dill pickles. I have always used grape leaves. I
am told that they help to make the pickles more crisp. I am not sure if
that is really a fact, but I have used them nevertheless. My sister
loved my home canned dill pickles. Whenever she came to my home she
would always ask if she could have a bottle of those yummy dill pickles.
I love home canned dill pickles too. I have never added grape leafs. I can’t wait to try your recipe. I even have grapes so getting some leaves will be easy. My cucumbers aren’t doing that great yet. Will hope for a good crop.
Having grown up on homemade dill pickles, I can almost taste them just by looking at the jar. Not only did they taste great but they always looked presented well in the jar. My kids love the dill pickles too and they really like the baby or mini dills. I suppose i ought to increase the number of cucumber plants in the garden so that we can harvest off a ton of little ones too.