The dill

January 13, 2011 § 4 Comments

The dill pickle is probably still my favorite and I lean a more towards the sour, vinegar variety than the salt brined deli ones.

I’ve tried out many of the delis in Boulder and haven’t found one that lives up to a NY style deli, but I did make a trip into Denver to Deli Tech today which gets all of its key ingredients from the Carnegie Deli in NYC. It was a bit of a drive but worth a trip. The atmosphere was more 80s than traditional but the food was pretty good.

It was good inspiration for making some dill pickles. My grandparents got me started on them early and used to have jars around most of the time that a good friend of theirs would drop by. Along with homemade sauerkraut that is another tradition I’d like to keep going in my family. I tracked her down this week and she was nice enough to give me the recipe, so here are Connie Close’s dill pickles:

DILL PICKLES

2 CUPS CIDER VINEGAR
6 CUPS WATER
½ CUP SALT
½ TSP. GARLIC POWDER (i’ll be substituting real garlic)

BRING TO BOIL. PUT SPRIG OF DILL IN BOTTOM OF QUART JAR. FILL WITH CUCUMBERS. POUR BRINE OVER CUCUMBERS AND LET STAND FOR 10 OR 15 MINUTES. POUR OFF AND REHEAT. ADD ANOTHER SPRING OF DILL ON TOP OF QT. CAN. POUR BOILING BRINE OVER PICKLES AND SEAL.

A FEW HINTS….MAKE SURE YOU USE SMALL PICKLING CUCUMBERS ABOUT 3 INCHES LONG. THE REASON WE POUR THE BRINE OVER PICKLES TWICE IS BECAUSE TO MAKE SURE THE PICKLES ARE HOT FOR BETTER SEALING. LIDS MUST BE HEATED IN BOILING WATER FOR 5 MINUTES BEFORE PLACING ON JAR.

* i am also putting a jalapeno pepper in a couple of the jars for some heat.

Tagged: deli, dill pickles, pickling

§ 4 Responses to The dill

Amity says:

January 16, 2011 at 6:53 pm

Did you get to talk to Mrs. Close?

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- dshively says:
  
  January 16, 2011 at 7:09 pm
  
  I did. She said to say hi to the family and that their family is all doing great. Apparently she has 12 grandchildren spread out across all the grades!
  
  Reply
Jess says:

January 17, 2011 at 11:39 am

So the best pickles are certainly made from the best cucumbers- and while everyone seems to love a good pickler, we will have to give you a sample of our delicious middle eastern cuke next summer bc they are seriously amazing (almost too good to make into pickles!)

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A month of doing is done « 52 To Do says:

January 30, 2011 at 4:51 pm

[…] this role from me. 5) Keeping family traditions from dying out. I learned how to make the dill pickles my grandparents used to eat all the time and also made sauerkraut from scratch which my great […]

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