This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.
It’s hard to find a crisp pickle these days. To can crisp pickles, you need to find tiny cucumbers, about the size of your pinky finger. They’re almost impossible to buy unless you grow them yourself. For the rest of us that want a crisp pickle from farmers market cucumbers, refrigerator pickles are the best option.
Refrigerator pickles quick pickle cucumbers without canning using salt, vinegar and spices. They won’t keep in the pantry all winter, but they’ll still last for months in the refrigerator.
Start with the smallest cucumbers you can find. Smaller cucumbers mean more cucumber “meat” and smaller seed cavities. The cucumber meat is what gives a pickle a crisp bite.
Slice the cucumbers into ¼ inch rings and pack them into jars, leaving about an inch of headspace. Since you’re not canning, the headspace isn’t critical.
Add pickling spices directly into the jar. I use peppercorns, mustard seed, coriander seed and dill seed, along with fresh dill. This is where you can really get creative.
In the past, I’ve made Herbes de Provence pickles, which used French spices like rosemary, thyme, tarragon and even lavender. With refrigerator pickles, you can make each jar unique and then test it about a week or two later. If you open it and decide it needs more salt or stronger spicing, toss that in, cap it up and give it a bit more time.
Unlike canned pickles, refrigerator pickles are flexible like that. Open them up, change things a bit, and then give them more time.
Still, even with all that flexibility, I’m still partial to my refrigerator dill pickles recipe. There’s nothing like a crisp dill pickle on a summer burger right off the grill.
Refrigerator Dill Pickles
Ingredients
- 4-5 pounds cucumbers
- 4 cups water
- 4 cups cider vinegar
- 5 tablespoons pickling or kosher salt
- 1 onion
- 10-15 garlic cloves
- 5 dill heads or fresh dill sprigs
- 5 teaspoons mustard seeds
- 5 teaspoons dill seeds
- 5 teaspoons coriander seeds
Instructions
- Slice the cucumbers into 1/4 inch slices and pack into mason jars. This recipe makes about 5 pints, and can easily be cut in half or adjusted to both smaller or larger batches.
- To each jar, add 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 teaspoon of each of the spices. Top with a few dill sprigs, 2-3 garlic cloves, and a few slices of onion.
- Mix the vinegar brine together using half water and half apple cider vinegar. For 5 pints, you'll need approximately 8 cups of liquid total. Reduce the total for a smaller batch. For better flavor, you can bring the spices and salt to a boil with the vinegar and water, and allow it to cool before pouring over the cucumbers.
- Top each jar with the vinegar and water mixture, leaving about 1 inch of headspace. Tighten on the lids, and give each jar a shake to distribute the contents.
- Allow at least 24 hours for the flavors to infuse, but preferably several days.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Do you have a cookbook?
Hi Chris. No, I don’t have a cookbook at this time, but one day I’d like to!
I’ve loved learning how to can and reading your multitude of recipes! In the cucumber pickles recipes I’ve read, you recommend cucumbers the size of your pinky. My pinky is rather small, and my husband’s is rather large. Could you provide a general measurement for your recommendation? Length and diameter? Thank you.
It’s rough guidance really. Probably the range between your two pinkies is the right range, smaller than yours and they’re not big enough to be worth the bother, bigger than your husbands and they’re too big to be good.
Hi is cider vinegar the same as apple cider vinegar or should I get the white vinegar?
Yes, cider vinegar and apple cider vinegar are the same. You can also use white vinegar, that’s fine too. Look at the label, it should say standardized to 5% acidity, that’s what’s important.
Hi Ashley,
I was happy to find your Refrigerator Dill pickles recipe. Our granddaughter has shown an interest in learning how to can/pickle and this one looked like a good “first” try.
We followed your recipe pretty closely. While we were getting the brine ready I mentioned to her I never saw a recipe where the brine and spices weren’t mixed and heated together. We combined everything in the jars, I mixed the vinegar and water and we began filling. It wasn’t until we were all but finished that I noticed your comment about heating up the brine. Now we are concerned that they won’t have the flavor we are aiming to get.
So a question and suggestion-
1.Would it help enhance the flavor if we dump everything into a pot and heat up then refill? She was pretty bummed out that “we did it wrong.”
2. You may want to consider moving your heating the brine comment closer to the beginning before folks start putting the spices etc. in the individual jars (just a suggestion).
Thanks again, and hopefully we’ll soon have some flavorful pickles. And I look forward to using more of your recipes.
Pat
Hi Pat. You’re right, I should move the heating of the brine up in my recipe and will do that. Since I’m sure you’ve already tried them by now, how did they turn out?
Hey there! I didn’t heat the brine at all. In fact i put everything in the jar but the cucumber, shook till dissolved, added the cucumber and they are bomb. I used your recipe and a couple other recipes i found along with research to make my own version. I also used a teeny amount of local honey instead of maple syrup. I also used rice vinegar instead. They are AMAZING. Will try apple cider vinegar next and a white vinegar.
Wonderful, so glad you enjoyed them!