Steve likes his hamburgers with thin sliced dill pickles. And we both like whole pickles at any picnic. As I had grown up on a truck farm where we raised lots of fresh produce I never did see any sense in buying dill pickles. My most favorite and easiest pickle recipe I got from my home where my mother got it from her mother.
This recipe is called Saccharin Pickles
Saccharin Pickles
Prepare your cucumbers by washing and trimming your cucumbers
You can thin slice your cucumbers in a food processor, spear cut the cucumbers, chunk your cucumbers, or leave the thumb size cucumbers whole.
Now don’t get excited as it is hard to find the saccharin tablets on the store shelves.
So I substitute the saccharin with the packs of sugar substitute.
3 cups of 5% vinegar
6 cups of water
Bring the brine to a boil.
Add the washed and cleaned cucumbers to the boiling brine.
Watch the cucumbers change their bright green color to a dull green.
The larger the cucumbers the longer it will take for the cucumbers to change color.
Have your pint jars clean and sterile. I place my clean jars in a 170 degree oven.
OPTIONAL – Into the clean jar place 1/2 teaspoon of dill seed or a sprig of dill weed and a clove of garlic.
Pack the hot cucumbers into the hot jar. Be careful so you don’t burn yourself.
Add 1 heaping teaspoon of salt
Add 1 packet of sugar substitute.
Then fill jar with the hot brine.
Place a clean hot lid on the jar and screw on the ring.
(This kind of canning is called open kettle cooking. No hot water bath is needed.)
Let the canned pickles set for 24 hours so the seal can set.
Check the lid to make sure it is sealed.
If the jar is not sealed refrigerate the jar of pickles.
I like to let the pickles set in the brine for several days before we eat them so the flavor can get thru the pickles.
The sealed pickles it will keep safely in a cool dark place for a year or longer.
Enjoy!