University of FloridaSolutions for Your Life

Download PDF
Publication #FCS8240

 

Pickled or Non-Fermented Foods: Quick Fresh-Pack Dill Pickles1

United States Department of Agriculture, Extension Service2

Quick Fresh-Pack Dill Pickles
8 lbs of 3- to 5-inch pickling cucumbers
2 gals water
1-1/2 to 1-1/4 cups canning or pickling salt
1-1/2 qts vinegar (5 percent)
1/4 cup sugar
2-1/4 to 2 quarts water
2 tbsp whole mixed pickling spice
5 tbsp to 3 tbsp whole mustard seed (2 tsp to 1 tsp per pint jar)
21 heads to about 14 heads of fresh dill (3 heads to 1-1/2 heads per pint jar) or
7 tbsp to 4-1/2 tbsp dill seed (1 tbsp to 1-1/2 tsp per pint jar)

Yield: 7 to 9 pints

Procedure: Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch slice off blossom end and discard, but leave 1/4-inch of stem attached. Dissolve 3/4 cup salt in 2 gals water. Pour over cucumbers and let stand 12 hours. Drain. Combine vinegar, 1/2 cup salt, sugar and 2 quarts water. Add mixed pickling spices tied in a clean white cloth. Heat to boiling. Fill jars with cucumbers. Add 1 tsp mustard seed and 1-1/2 heads fresh dill per pint. Cover with boiling pickling solution, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process according to the recommendations in Table 1.

Tables

Table 1. 

Recommended process time for quick fresh-pack dill pickles in a boiling-water canner.

 

Process Time at Altitudes of

Style of Pack

Jar Size

0 - 1,000 ft

1,001 - 6,000 ft

Above 6,000 ft

Raw

Pints

10 min

15

20

Quarts

15

20

25

*After the process is complete, turn off the heat and remove the canner lid. Wait five minutes before removing jars.

Footnotes

1.

This document is Fact Sheet FCS 8240, one of a series of the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Publication date: May 2003. Revised: July 2005. Reviewed: May 2011. This document was extracted from the Complete Guide to Home Canning, Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539, USDA. Please visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Reviewed for use in Florida by Amy Simonne, assistant professor, Food Safety and Quality, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville FL 32611.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.