The Dill Pickle Experiment

I confess, I’ve had mixed success with dill pickles.  Historically they come out too soft for my taste and probably everyone else’s taste as well.  After all, don’t we all want a crunchy, crisp dill pickle?

Yesterday on NPR I heard an interview with Marisa McClellan talking about how to make crisp dill pickles.  Timely to say the least, as The Gardener continues to bring in a pound or two of cucumbers every day.  Marisa’s recipe doesn’t call for any special equipment or exotic ingredients, so I was able to give it a go as soon as the interview ended.

For the complete recipe, click on over to Marisa’s interview, and you’ll find it there.  As for me, I didn’t follow it to the letter.  I used a pickling spice I had already made for another project, and I increased proportions to accomodate 1.5 bounds of cucumbers.  I also took a leap of faith and quartered the cucumbers lengthwise.

This is a test.  I’ll keep you posted on how it goes, but I confess, I’m optimistic.  So far so good.