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Dill Pickles

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Radishrain –

A relative made lots of dill pickles with West India burr gherkins for me.

The ingredient list here is adapted from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, p. 48.

* 8lbs 4–6" cucumbers, cut in long halves (my relative used West India burr gherkins cut into halves, and probably eyeballed the amount)
* ¾ cup sugar (my relative used either less or no sugar; I didn't want sugar, because they're dill pickles and I don't think they should be sugary; we could have just used the Hamburger Dills recipe instead, as it has no sugar, it seems)
* ½ cup canning salt (my relative used less salt, although I would have requested the full amount)
* 1 quart vinegar
* 1 quart water
* 3 tablespoons mixed pickling spices
* Green or dry dill (1 head per jar) (my relative used dill seeds)

Simmer the spices in a bag for 15 minutes. Process 15 minutes in a water-bath canner.

I don't know how these will taste, but I hope we'll enjoy them and that they'll taste good.

recipe_
burr_gherkin

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Radishrain

Re: Dill Pickles

They didn't taste right. However, I discovered that the person who canned them used less salt than the directions said to use (which I definitely would have objected to). If I add more salt, they taste like dill pickles, however. They're kind of thick for hamburgers and hotdogs; so, I think I'll just mince cans of it up as needed, and add salt, to make dill relish.

I just hope they preserve long enough without the directed portion of salt.

relish_

Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6

Radishrain

Burr gherkin pickle powder

So, I dehydrated and powdered about 10 quarts of these pickles (which made less than a quart of powder). The resulting powder has a kind of unpleasant smell in the mouth; however (similar to the taste fresh without extra salt added, even with extra salt and dill added as a powder), I discovered that it tastes pretty good (a nice, zesty taste that should be great for dips) if you use it with an enormous amount of granulated garlic and perhaps some cheese (I added it to a sample of macaroni and cheese with extra cheese in it). (There was unfortunately no garlic in the pickles.)

I did grind the seeds into powder, too.

powder_
dehydration_

Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6

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