It’s a lot easier to make homemade pickles than you think! Get a great recipe for refrigerator pickles in this post.
For more ideas, check out all of our recipes.
We love pickles. They’re something I’ve loved since I was a little kid, something Pete loves, and something you can make at home. There are two versions of refrigerator pickles that you can make.
The first is the cheating version, which was my favorite version for a while. I actually loved that so much that I blogged it.
But it is sort of cheating. It’s like the box mix version of a birthday cake. Sure, it tastes like cake, and sure, you baked it. But it’s not from scratch.
So we finally made a from-scratch fridge pickles recipe. Oh my gosh. It’s amazing and better than any pickle I’ve bought in stores. It’s also pretty easy too.
These Refrigerator Pickles are just one way to use an abundance of cucumbers. For more ways, check out all of our Budget-Friendly Cucumber Recipes.
Refrigerator Pickles Recipe
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Refrigerator Pickles Ingredients:
- 1.5 tablespoons salt
- 1.5 teaspoons dill
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 6 kirby cucumbers
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
How To Make Refrigerator Pickles:
Combine the salt, dill, peppercorns, and red pepper flakes in a bowl. Really give it a good stir to make sure everything is evening distributed in the seasoning mixture.
Evenly distribute the seasoning mixture between pint size mason jars.
Then, add the chopped garlic to each jar.
Wash your cucumbers and cut off the ends. Rub the cut ends into the inner end. I don’t know why this helps to eliminate the bitterness in the cucumbers, but it does.
Side note: You should do this when you’re cutting cucumbers for a salad as well.
Cut the cucumbers into spears or rounds. I prefer the spears because they’re easier to get out of the mason jars. But if you are making these for burgers, you’ll probably be better off making rounds.
Put the cucumbers in the jars, on top of the seasoning.
Boil the water and apple cider vinegar on the stove.
Pour the liquid on top of the cucumbers in the mason jar.
Seal the jars tightly, then store them on the counter until they cool. Put the jars in the fridge for at least 48 hours. This will give the brine enough time to pickle the cucumbers.
They can keep in the fridge unopened indefinitely. Once you open the jars, they’ll keep a couple weeks, but they will start to loose their crispness after a week or so.
Refrigerator Pickles
It’s a lot easier to make homemade pickles than you think! Get a great recipe for refrigerator pickles in this post.
Ingredients
- 1.5 tablespoons salt
- 1.5 teaspoons dill
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 6 kirby cucumbers
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Combine the salt, dill, peppercorns, and red pepper flakes in a bowl. Really give it a good stir to make sure everything is evening distributed in the seasoning mixture.
- Evenly distribute the seasoning mixture between your mason jars.
- Then, add the chopped garlic to each jar.
- Wash your cucumbers and cut off the ends. Rub the cut ends into the inner end.
- Cut the cucumbers into spears or rounds.
- Put the cucumbers in the jars, on top of the seasoning.
- Boil the vinegar and water on the stove.
- Pour the liquid on top of the cucumbers in the mason jar.
- Seal the jars tightly, then store them on the counter until it cools. Put the jars in the fridge for at least 48 hours. This will give the brine enough time to pickle the cucumbers.
Nutrition Information
Yield
12Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 23Total Fat 0gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 0mgSodium 800mgCarbohydrates 5gFiber 1gSugar 2gProtein 1g
Have you tried this Refrigerator Pickles recipe? Let us know what you thought in the comments.
Gloria Schumacher
Thursday 18th of November 2021
More of a question really. Do you have to use apple cider vinegar or would white vinegar work as well? Also, with the salt...do you uniodized regular table salt or pickling salt? What about about using pickling spices? What are your feelings?
drugstore diva lisa
Friday 19th of November 2021
Apple cider vinegar is a lot more mild than white vinegar. I definitely wouldn't use white vinegar because it would overpower everything. If you can't find apple cider vinegar, I would suggest rice vinegar (or rice wine vinegar) in its place. You might want to reduce the amount by 25% though.
For the salt, we actually use sea salt as table salt in our home. So, you can use sea salt or Kosher salt and you don't have to use pickling salt. Traditional uniodized table salt would be fine. I should definitely update that in the post. Thank you for pointing it out.
Using pickling spices would be fine. We cook every meal at home, so we have so many spices and I love making my own blends (I do this for taco seasoning and dirty rice seasoning, rather than just using packets or boxes for those, just to give you an idea of how we are). So for me, adding all the seasonings and being able to tweak them to someone's taste buds is simple enough. But, using pickling spices would be a lot easier, especially if you don't have a ton of spices at home.
SYBIL
Wednesday 21st of July 2021
So, how can I find the 'cheat' version? ty
drugstore diva lisa
Friday 23rd of July 2021
It's here: https://www.drugstoredivas.net/tasty-thursday-how-to-make-your-own-pickles-for-the-cost-of-a-cucumber/
I thought it was linked in the post. I'll add that now!