Lets get Pickled

Schwartz Smoked Meat Sandwich with Half Sours

I have wanted to pickle something for a while. Anything really. As long as it involves salt and vinegar I'm in. What really sold me on pickled cucumbers though were my recent trips to Montreal, Canada and also the USA. Half sours, full sours - they do an array of pickling styles and they do them all well. I was hooked on pickles, and on my return to Sydney I picked up a jar of McClure's Dill and Garlic Pickles from Essential Ingredient and demolished the jar in a few sittings. At $17.95 a pop, I quickly realised that whilst there ain't nothing better than the salty, garlicky, vinegary tang you get as you bite into a crispy cucumber spear I was gonna need to rob banks to fund my new addiction unless I learned how to make them myself. So I started researching pickling recipes. Some people swear against vinegar, choosing only to brine with salt and distilled water. I tried it. It didn't work for me. Back to the pickling jar I went. Until one day I stumbled across an online post from someone who claims to have attended a pickling class run by Bob McClure's of McClure's pickling fame. Look I don't know about the merits of this claim but in a way it's kind of like Colonel Sanders handing out 11 secret herbs and spices recipe cards.  You don't really give away your prized money-making award winning recipes - and then *cross your fingers* that some chump like me doesn't decide to post them on the world wide web.

Ingredients:
2.7kg small pickling cucumbers
6-12 garlic cloves (halved)
1-2 bunches dill
3 cups water
3 cups distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup kosher or sea salt
6 x Pint size jars (16oz)

Method:
1. Wash cucumbers and place in a bowl and cover with ice and pop in the fridge until needed. Doing this will make your cucumbers crispy.
2. Wash dill and trim roots.
3. Place peeled garlic in a bowl and pour hot vinegar over it. Let it stand for 1 minute then pour vinegar out. Doing this will stop your garlic from going blue in the brine.
4. Sterilise your jars - fill a pot with water and bring it to the boil. The water levels should be at least 1 inch above the tops of the jars. Submerge jars for about 90 seconds each, remove with tongs.
5. In another pot combine the vinegar, water and salt. Bring the brine to a rapid boil - make sure salt doesn't stick to bottom.
6. Take cucumbers out of fridge and quarter them. Trim cucumbers to same length so they fit into the jars without getting squashed (place 1 spear first in a jar to test its height). You can use the trimmings to pack into available jar space.
7. In each jar, place 2-4 halves of a garlic clove (depending on how garlicky you want your brine to be), one handful of dill then enough cucumber spears to fill the jar - making sure the cucumbers are below the "neckline". Place the lids in boiling water for 90 seconds before using.
8. Fill each jar with hot brine. Cap and seal the jars. Turn them over to make sure you have a good seal.
9. Place the jars in the boiling water for 10 minutes, this is called "processing".
10. Store in a cool place, and wait 1-2 weeks before eating. Refrigerate after opening. Pickles should keep for up to 1 year if stored in a cool dark place.

Well...go on then...! Get yer pickle on!