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.
Make crisp pickles from farmers market cucumbers with these quick and easy refrigerator dill pickles! 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.Refrigerator Dill Pickles
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Nutrition Information:
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 58 
Pat Miller
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
Admin
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?
Melinda
Hi is cider vinegar the same as apple cider vinegar or should I get the white vinegar?
Ashley Adamant
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.
Amanda
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.
Ashley Adamant
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.