The Day of the Pickle
Yesterday I tackled my first (perhaps only) homemade pickle project. I started with three pounds of pickling cucumbers and a bunch of zesty ingredients, including whole cloves, crushed red pepper, whole yellow mustard seeds, and ground tarragon. It was a little difficult finding the canning jars, because according to the lady at Walmart, they’re seasonal. This didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, because I figured people must be canning stuff (spaghetti sauce, pickled vegetables, sauces, jams, etc) all the time, but Walmart is often a mystery, so I just let it go at that. I ended up with some squatty little contemporary-styled (quoting he package) half-pint jars.
After prepping all the ingredients, I still had to figure out how to sterilize the jars (I went with the dishwasher) and the how to pasteurize the pickles once they were done. This required much consultation of both my mother and the Internet. I ended up using a spaghetti pot (with strainer inside) and a kitchen towel to buffer the double-decker layers of pickle jars. It was QUITE an experience, and I’ve just finished cleaning up all the resultant dishes. The pickles need to marinate for two weeks before I can try them, so I will be fashoning some cute ‘Homemade’ labels in preparation for giving some jars away.
01/17/2009 at 10:44 pm
Lol. Looks like fun!
01/17/2009 at 11:23 pm
I did not know pickles came from cucumbers until I was 18 years old. I’m going to print this and make pickles with my daughter so she doesn’t embarrass herself in front of her boyfriend’s family like I did.
Looks like fun! 😉
01/18/2009 at 1:02 am
oh my!this brought back some happy memories! yup caning jars are seasonal! i don’t why this is but it’s true!
peace
dogs
01/18/2009 at 2:49 am
I hope they turn out well, because they sure look delicious!
01/18/2009 at 6:25 pm
Those are very contemporary looking jars. You are a canning trend-setter!
Also, I tagged you for a meme on my blog.
01/18/2009 at 7:05 pm
Those jars are so cute!
01/18/2009 at 11:31 pm
Can’t wait to hear how they turn out. They look yummy in the pictures.
01/19/2009 at 2:10 am
Ooh, I love this post! And I love pickles. Update us soon.
01/19/2009 at 5:53 am
Make sure you post an update! These projects can be so labor intensive but it looks like it was fun and a great experience!
01/19/2009 at 5:08 pm
Very impressive.
Your post title sounds like it could be a Veggie Tale movie.
01/20/2009 at 3:07 am
I LOVE the jars you found! They’re such a cute shape. As for them being seasonal, I bet most people use them when they plant too many veggies in their gardens and have to either throw the extra produce away or put it all in jars.
01/21/2009 at 5:02 am
What kind of pickles did you make? Sweet? Dill?
That looks really cool. Someday I want to try that.
01/21/2009 at 7:20 pm
Jason,
I made sweet/spicy. Basically sweet with a little cayenne. Got the recipe from Emeril.