The only dill pickles in Italy
Maybe not, but it feels that way. I have never seen them for sale anywhere in the whole country. To have them I have to get the right cucumber seeds from Germany, dill seeds from wherever — these are a gift from Canada — and grow them. I had a hard time getting the large number of cucumbers and the dill seedheads at the same time. The cucumbers slowed down when the dill was just blooming.
Once you get those things out of the way, however, the pickles are dead easy. What you see is a big jar of dilled cucumber pickles, and another jar of pickled green tomatoes, because they were there and the cucumbers weren’t.
Pickling, like jams and salting, is safe to do. You might occasionally lose a jar of product but you can’t kill anyone like you can with some kinds of canning. I find that reassuring and inspiring.
Kosher Dill Pickles
smallish cucumbers up to 4″ long
peeled garlic cloves — 2 per jar
chili pepper — 1 per jar
dill heads — 2 per jar
grape leaves or a piece of alum the size of a grape (I don’t even know the Italian word for alum and I do have grapevines, so that’s what I used.)
Brine:
250 ml (1 cup) apple cider vinegar
500 ml (2 cups) water
1 tablespoon or soupspoon of coarse salt — do not use table salt!
Wash and trim the cucumbers, then soak them in cold water overnight.
Mix the brine and bring it to a boil in an acid proof pot.
Clean very well and sterilize the number of jars and lids you need. Take one out and pack the garlic, the chili, the dill and the cucumbers in it as tightly as you can. Add the grape leaf or alum, then using a funnel, pour the hot brine over it all until the jar is full. Screw the lid down onto the jar and leave it upside down on a towel on the counter to cool. They’ll be ready to eat in a couple of weeks.
If you use tomatoes, I think you need to cut them in half lengthwise for the flavor to penetrate. The rest is exactly the same. I would happily also pickle celery chunks, blanched cauliflower, carrot or lots of things, but how many pickles can I really use? I am thinking of making my grandmother’s mustard pickles which were my real favorite as a kid. It all depends on the cucumber vines now.
5 comments September 2nd, 2008
