My first (canned) dills--Kosher Dills

Kosher Dills
The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook Copyright 1999

4 pounds pickling cucumbers
14 cloves garlic, halved
¼ cup pickling salt
3 cups water
2 ¾ cups white vinegar
14 fresh dill sprigs
28 peppercorns

Wash cucumbers; cut in half lengthwise.

Combine garlic and next 3 ingredients in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Remove garlic, and place 4 halves into each hot jar. Pack jars with cucumbers to ½ inch from top, adding dill sprigs and 4 peppercorns to each jar.

Pour boiling vinegar mixture over cucumbers, filling to ½ inch from top. Remove air bubbles; wipe jar rims.

Cover at once with metal lids, and screw on bands. Process in boiling water bath 10 minutes.

Yield: 7 pints
_______________________

I broke open these pickles to see if they were good enough to serve at my cookbook and I think they are. This was one of the first recipes I canned and I may have overprocessed them a bit but better to be safe with a slightly mushy pickle than poisoned by an underprocessed pickle. I think that's probably highly unlikely but I don't want to take any chances. It's a real challenge to make crunchy dills using the latest approved canning method. Pickle Crisp probably would have helped but I couldn't find any locally. I'll have to order it online next year.

I was very pleased with the taste. They were salty and tangy but the vinegar flavor wasn't too harsh. The texture was a bit soft but I'm used to my crunchy refrigerator dills (I've made two batches of those so far but I don't have any left to serve at my cookout and it's too late now- they're really best the second week).

I probably won't be posting tomorrow. I have too much to do for the cookout. I'm trying plenty of new recipes so stayed tuned for those next week. Have a nice weekend!