It’s time to take a cue from Portlandia and put those mason jars to their intended use (we can pickle that!). Put down that store-bought jar of off-colored lifeless pickles, because making your own batch just got a whole lot easier. These ‘quickles,’ aka refrigerator pickles, are so simple all you need to make them is a fridge and some mason jars, no complicated canning gear required.
GIF Courtesy of tumblr.com
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4 full jars
Photo by Sarah Silbiger
Ingredients:
4 wide-mouth mason jars with lids
1 pound pickling cucumbers
1 cup fresh dill, roughly chopped
1 cup white vinegar
2 cups cold water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 garlic cloves (peeled)
Directions:
1. Evenly divide dill and garlic into jars.
Photo by Sarah Silbiger
2. Cut cucumbers into even pieces, you can cut them into any shape you want. I prefer round slices because they soak up the brine the quickest and are the most sandwich friendly. Add cut cucumbers to jars.
Photo by Sarah Silbiger
3. In a medium bowl, mix together: vinegar, water, sugar, salt, mustard seeds, peppercorns and red pepper flakes. (This is the brine that will turn those cukes into pickles).
Photo by Sarah Silbiger
4. Divide the brine liquid evenly between the jars. If the cucumbers aren’t fully covered by the liquid you can add a little extra cold water to them.
5. Cap the jars tightly and place in refrigerator for a week.*
Photo by Sarah Silbiger
6. Put quickles on everything.
*Disclaimer: If you CAN’T wait an entire week to start shoveling these quickles into your mouth, you can eat them sooner, they just won’t be fully pickled yet. Also, once you start running low you can cut up more cucumbers and add them to the brine…quickles for days (I recommend only using the brine for one more batch after the original).
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