Quick Pickles – Recipe for salty, crunchy kosher dill pickles in a simple salt and vinegar brine. Easy fast method for great refrigerator pickles with homemade pickling spice.
A friend of mine grew up in New York surrounded by kosher delis and appetizing shops. One of his favorite childhood memories was walking down to the corner store, where they kept large wooden barrels filled with pickles. His father would give him a boost so he could reach deep down into the bottom of the barrel to retrieve what he called “armpit pickles,” so named because you’d have to reach into the brine up to your armpit to get the best, most flavorful pickles. Though the name might not sound appealing, my friend looks back on armpit pickles as one of his fondest childhood food memories.
Pickling got its start about 4,000 years ago, long before delis began popping up on the East Coast. Pickling began as a way of preserving food. To create a pickle, fresh vegetables or fruits are immersed in an acidic liquid or saltwater brine until they are no longer considered raw or susceptible to spoilage. In the case of pickled cucumbers, saltwater brine is a common choice, which results in lacto-fermentation. Lactic microbial organisms, much like the kind that cause milk to curdle, develop. These organisms turn the naturally occurring sugars of the foods into lactic acid. In turn, the environment becomes acidic quickly, so that it is no longer possible for any spoiling bacteria to multiply. Cucumber pickles can also be made with a salt and vinegar brine, a popular choice for home cooks.
Kosher dills have their own unique history. In Claudia Roden’s The Book of Jewish Food, she explains that pickled vegetables were a dietary staple for Jews living in Poland, Russia, Lithuania and the Ukraine. The sharp flavor of pickles paired nicely with the bland bread-and-potato diet of these cold weather countries. For several generations, it was a fall custom for Ashkenazim to fill barrels with cucumbers, beets and shredded cabbage (sauerkraut). They were left to ferment in a warm place for several weeks, then relocated to cool, dark cellars. The pickles would last through the long cold winter until spring, when new crops of fresh produce were available.
Sunday morning at Orchard and Rivington, New York City immigrant tenement district ca. 1915. Source: Library of Congress.
When a heavy influx of eastern European Jews arrived in New York City during the late 1800s and early 1900s, immigrants introduced kosher pickles to America. The process of “koshering” pickles required a rabbi who would supervise the entire production, ensuring that each step was done correctly and that the equipment was used exclusively for pickle making. Cucumbers were washed, then piled in large wooden barrels along with dill, garlic, spices, kosher salt and clean water. They were left to ferment for a few weeks to several months; shorter fermenting time produced brighter green “half sours,” while longer fermentation resulted in “full sours.” Pickles were sold on pushcarts in the immigrant tenement district of New York City. Over time, a multitude of Jewish owned shops began selling pickles straight out of the barrel from their storefronts. Eventually, pickling became a profitable business within the Jewish community.
Pickles are deeply ingrained in Jewish food culture, as emblematic of the Ashkenazi Jewish diet as matzo ball soup and brisket. Sadly, nowadays it’s much more difficult to find a classic kosher dill. Most of the small-scale pickle businesses have died off, replaced by mass-marketed pickles sold in grocery stores. If you’re searching for real Jewish pickles, your best bet is to visit a kosher deli. The first thing that should arrive on your table is a dish of pickles—a combination of full sour and half sour cucumbers, and sometimes a few other vegetables. In a true old-school deli, one should never have to ask for pickles. Their sharp, salty flavor and crunch is the ultimate counterpoint to a fatty corned beef or pastrami sandwich. Oy, I’m making myself hungry.
Most folks don’t have the time or patience to produce old fashioned lacto-fermented kosher dills. This Quick Pickle recipe is a super easy method for quickly producing yummy pickles. The prep only takes about 10 minutes. They aren’t true kosher dills due to the small amount of vinegar used in the brine, but they are quite delicious, and they pickle much faster than the old fashioned kind. My own blend of pickling spices, including chili pepper flakes for heat, adds terrific flavor. Keep them in the fridge for a couple of days, and voila! Quick pickles.
I recently had a reader request a recipe for lacto-fermented kosher dills (no vinegar). If you are interested too, let me know in the comments and I’ll try to squeeze it into my end-of-summer blogging schedule. What’s your favorite kind of pickle… kosher dill? Sweet? Half sour?
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Ingredients
- 8 cloves garlic, sliced
- 2 handfuls fresh dill
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon dill seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
- 1/4 teaspoon fennel seed
- 1 3/4 pounds Kirby or Persian cucumbers (small pickling cucumbers, no wax on skin)
- 4 cups water
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons kosher salt
NOTES
Instructions
- Place the sliced garlic in a small saucepan of water and bring to a boil. Boil the garlic for 1 minute, then drain immediately. This blanching process will keep the garlic from turning blue in the pickle jar.
- Place the blanched garlic, fresh dill, bay leaves and other spices into the pickling jar or jars. If using two jars, divide the ingredients evenly between them, half in each. The red pepper flakes are optional, and will add a little kick to your pickles—if you don’t like spice, feel free to omit.
- Slice off the tip ends of each cucumber, then place them into the jars, half in each jar. It’s okay if they’re tightly packed, they will shrink up a bit as they pickle.
- In a saucepan, bring the water, white vinegar, and kosher salt to a boil, whisking till the salt is fully dissolved. Boil the mixture for about 1 minute, then remove from heat. Pour the hot brine through a funnel into each jar, submerging the cucumbers completely in liquid.
- Let the jars cool completely to room temperature (this will take a few hours). Secure the lids and place pickles in the refrigerator. Your first pickle will be ready to eat in 48 hours; they’ll become more pickled and flavorful as they age. Pickles will keep for up to 2 months.
Nutrition
tried this recipe?
Let us know in the comments!
Christine O. Eggleston says
just make 10 pints of pickled dill waxed beans 🙂
Wendy Ross says
garlic half sour
Haleemah Cynthia Clouser says
love pickled veggies…kosher pickles…pickled boiled eggs…:)
Rachel Altholz says
It´s all about the half dills!!!!
Terry Diemer says
GARLIC
Mike Janning says
Full sours, but no vinegar. And, pickled green cherry tomatoes!
Mydear Kawshka says
Kosher sour… the only way to go!
Robert Holsapple says
Kosher dill out off the barrel.
Evelyn Cotney says
Nothing better than a crunchy dill pickle. Second favorite is bread and butter pickle.
Fran Bonanno Imperatore says
Thanks Jeanette I can´t wait to try it
barbara says
i would love it if you could find or create a real old-fashioned jewish half- and sour pickle. we never called them dills and the ones that are called that aren’t really the same. i mean the ones that are heavy on pickling spices, especially garlic, and are sold by companies such as ba-tampte.
we eat them by the barrel load ourselves and with the holidays in sight, that would be a wow!! my own shiksa in my kitchen can’t wait to try it.
Tori Avey says
I will try to add this to the schedule before the end of summer Barbara. 🙂
Marty Dressler says
BA-TAMPTE garlic sour is the closest to my mother’s recipe. If I could find that I would completely change my garden next year.
barbara says
real old-fashioned half-sour and armpit full-out sour, just like my grandma made in our brownstone apartment in brooklyn, new york, circa 1944. she had a huge ceramic crock that was always filled to the brim with pickled cucumbers on one layer, sauerkraut on another layer and tomatoes on the last layer. the layers were separated by circles of wood made from slats crossing each other. there was a large platter on top that was kept sunken by a heavy polished stone. i remember the trouble she took to get whatever she wanted from the very bottom, but one crock was what she had.
Phyllis Karangis says
Any pickle but sweet!
Eve Tenenbaum says
Real Garlic Sour pickles from Brooklyn, NY
Meryl Pottock says
half sour is the best!
Pia Casarino says
half sour of course!
Sandi says
Should the lids be on the jars when they’re cooling to room temperature?
Tori Avey says
Hi Sandi, I usually rest the lids on top of the jars to keep them covered, but I don’t tighten them. Once the jars are cooled I screw the lids on to secure them.
Terri Farkas says
most anything
Becky Lolley says
A sweet garlic dill!
Eli Goldstein says
sour for sure