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Originally Posted by harleysilo
Wow, i would never have thought to use a cloths washing machine! They don't get bruised up from the agegitator?
I would love to see your receipe! I would also like to hear more about how you prepare yours to prevent something nasty, and your shelf life of the canned pickels.
One of the reasons I like these so much is because they are crispy fresh. If you take a bite of these, and then a bite of a fresh cucumber, they are identical save the flavor. I don't like the mushy kind, or the kind that are too strong with the vinegar taste. How are your after several months regarding crispness?
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As far as the pickles getting too bruised from the washing machine agitator....No, not if you put on the GENTLE cycle with lots of water and don't overload the cukes. Don't add more than a half bushel of cukes at a time. There's more than enough room for them to move about without getting crushed then.
I'll go copy it from my records and post in a few minutes. I've included instructions on prep and cleaning of cukes/veggies and jars, lids, rings etc. As previously mentioned we tend to do it on a massive scale....assembly-line-style. We've been known to have as many as a dozen people working on different things. One cleaning/prepping garlic alone! But not so surprising when you realise that we did over 300 jars last year...most of which were at 1 L (quart) to 1.5 L in size and at least 20 that were closer to Imp. gallon jars (5 quarts to an imperial gallon). We assign my father "catering duties"... which means he's in charge of take out and beverages.... LOL...since he doesn't cook, but scarfs down the pickles in quantity.
Shelf life in jars that are totally sealed, and with no sign of rusted rings, can be over 2 years in a cool dark place. We keep them in a cupboard in the "fruit cellar" (that has never seen fruit except stuff that has been canned or preserved). They are put in the refrigerator after they've been opened.
One way to ensure that your pickles retain that "crunchiness" is to make sure that you've got very fresh, just picked ones with few bruises/blemishes. It is better to cut off the damaged areas than add the whole cuke with the bruises to the jar. The same thing goes for any of the other veggies that we do in the same brine....for the Tourshi (Armenian mixed pickles) or other single veggies like beans or onions. As for crunchiness for opened jars....Frankly an open jar rarely lasts more than a week in this house....usually far less, especially if the whole "immediate" family is visiting. If we're having a bash, we could go through a gallon or more.
These have a strong dill-garlic taste, which is far more prominent a taste than the vinegar used in the brine. You can alter the amount of dill, garlic and hot peppers used in the jars to taste. And make sure its lots of fresh dill - whole seed heads are best, with some of the "feathery" dill. But you can skip the "feathery" dill and just add the seed heads and stems
Okay time to go dig up the recipe.