Quick Fresh Pickles
Appetizers, Preserving, Sides, Vegetarian, Veggies — By Jessie on June 10, 2009 at 7:53 pm
These crisp pickles are high on my list of nibbles and noshes to take on a picnic or a barbecue. They’re the perfect cool companion to spicy barbecue or lunch-counter favorites like a thick pastrami on rye. And while pickling can seem daunting, it doesn’t have to be. You can make these crunchy spears overnight with a handful of pickling cukes. The best part? No canning required.
This recipe makes a manageable amount of pickles. (12 pickle spears, to be exact. That’s 4 pickling cukes, quartered.) It’s easily doubled or tripled, should your pickle demand be greater.
They get a good balance of old-fashioned pickle flavor from fennel, coriander, dill, mustard—and subtle heat from a smidge of chili flakes. The brine is heated briefly to help coax pungent flavor out of the dried herbs.
A heady mixture of rice wine vinegar, white balsamic vinegar, and sugar give these pickles a hint of sweetness and good amount of tang.
Quick Fresh Pickles: Pickling spice and everything nice
Hey, Mouse! What are all those seeds and spices, anyway?
Dill Seed
Dill seed is brown-ish and flat, and is actually the dried fruit of the dill plant. Heating it brings out its flavor.
Fennel Seed
Fennel seed is the seed of the bulb-less common fennel plant (as opposed to the Florence fennel, which has a bulb—as well as stalks and fronds). It’s used in both sweet and savory recipes.
Mustard Seed
Mustard seeds come in two main varieties—white (a.k.a. yellow) and brown (a.k.a.) Asian. White seeds like the ones I bought are larger than brown ones, and are the typical seed used in most American mustards.
Coriander Seed
These seeds come from the Coriander plant, which is more commonly known as cilantro in the U.S. Their flavor is a little lemon-y with a hint of caraway. Coriander frequently shows up in pickles, mulled wine, and baked goods.
Aleppo Chili
Now, this isn’t a typical pickling spice—but it is one of my all-time favorite ways to add a little heat to a dish. These Turkish chili flakes taste kind of like ancho peppers.
Garlic cloves, halved
No pickles (at least at The Mouse House) would be quite the same without garlic. To prep the garlic, nip the ends off each clove with a knife. Remove the peel. Slice each clove in half.
Fresh Dill
I top off my pickles with a bunch of fresh dill. I use it at the end like this, since (unlike dried dill seed) the fresh herb loses its flavor quickly when heated.
Get to the pickles, Mouse. Yep, yep! Here you go.
Quick Fresh Pickles
4 large pickling cucumbers
1 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 cup water
1/3 cup white balsamic vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
3 Tbls. sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt (for the cukes) + 2 Tbls. kosher salt (for the brine)
3 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half
1/4 tsp. dill seed
1/4 tsp. Aleppo chili flakes
1/4 tsp. coriander seed
1/4 tsp. fennel seed
1/4 tsp. mustard seed
1 bunch of fresh dill
Yields 12 pickle spears
Quick Fresh Pickles: Slice and salt the cukes
Grab your pickling cukes. Scrub them well under cold water, then dry them off.
Slice each cucumber in half.
Then slice each side in half again, so you wind up with quarters.
Repeat with the other cucumbers. Put the cucumber spears in a medium-sized bowl.
Sprinkle on 1 teaspoon of kosher salt.
Mix the cucumber spears around well to distribute the salt.
Let the cucumber spears sit in the bowl like this, on the counter, for about an hour. Salting the cukes like this helps draw out excess water—which in turn helps keep your pickles crunchy.
After about an hour, your cukes will have let off a fair amount of water. Drain that off and discard.
Quick Fresh Pickles: Make the brine
Put the rice wine vinegar, water, and white balsamic vinegar (or white wine vinegar) in a medium-sized pot.
Toss in the sugar and 2 Tbls. of kosher salt.
Set the pot on the stove over high heat. Whisk to combine.
Whisk until the sugar and salt are dissolved.
Bring the mixture up to a boil.
When it starts to bubble, toss in the garlic, coriander seed, fennel seed, dill seed, mustard seed, and Aleppo chili flakes.
Whisk to combine. Take the pot off the heat and let it stand for 5 minutes to help release the flavor of the herbs.
Quick Fresh Pickles: Combine the cucumbers with the brine
In the meantime, pack your cucumber spears into a smallest bowl that will hold them all. You want them to be fairly close together so that they’re all covered by the brine.
Pour the hot brine over the cucumber spears.
Trim your bunch of fresh dill so that it will fit in your bowl. Lay it on top of the pickles, so that they’re covered, like this:
Let them sit on the counter like this until the brine cools to room temperature.
When it’s cool, push down on the mixture with your hand.
You want to submerge the pickles and douse the dill with brine.
Wrap the bowl tightly with plastic wrap.
Set it in the fridge overnight to let the brine soak into the cukes.
Quick Fresh Pickles: Serve & enjoy
The next day, unwrap your pickles.
And that’s it!
No really, that’s it! When you’re ready to serve, fish the pickles out of the brine and heap them up on a platter along with pieces of garlic and a few strands of dill.
Pickles will keep for a few weeks in the fridge—if they last that long.
Enjoy!
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Tags: coriander, cucumbers, dill, garlic, mustard, pickles, pickling
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24 Comments
Now that is a pretty fantastic looking pickle!
I love dills. My grandmother made wonderful pickles and last year my friend Luke Despatie shared some of his award winning pickles with me. But, both their methods take a loooong time.
I love that your recipe offers more immediate gratification! I just might make them this weekend.
Wheee! Thanks so much! These were so easy and good, I swear I’ll never can another pickle in my life. (OK, maybe not my *entire* life, but you get what I mean…)
+Jessie
WOW! Jessie, as an avowed pickle devotee, I have to say that this is a great recipe for quick pickles. I could run through a batch of these in one sitting. This is on the recipe shortlist!
Hehehe…I think that would be a Pickle Feast!
(Which we here at The Mouse House thoroughly support.)
+Jessie
this was very informative, I have to say I learned a lot about the brine process of pickles. Hurley is a huge pickle fan, I have to make this for him some time
Oh, you should! (Love that Hurley!) Once you get the basic method down, you can change up the spicing however you like. Next time, I’m thinking I might add some ginger.
+Jessie
I can’t wait to make these! They look great, and I’m all over the no canning part.
Thanks, hon! I’m with you. I love canning, but I love *not* canning even more.
+Jessie
Excellent post. This has always been on my to do list. Thank you.
You never cease to amaze me
I had some amazing pickles when I went to the Pasadena Strawberry Festival. An old bitty bat was selling *SWEET* pickles. I nearly died on the spot, and since then have been craving them.
I do like regular pickles but thanks for reminding me about my quest for sweet ones.
looks awesome!!! they’d be great in a potato salad
There’s nothing quite light the snap and flavor of a freshly made pickle! They make great snacks too!
These look fantastic and so easy. Will have to make them soon.
Thanks Girl1
By the way we use those Turkish chili flakes all the time but it is called paprika in Germany but it isn’t the paprika I was raised up on. It is bigger- softer and HOT!
Cheers
Thank you for this very in depth step by step “pickle guide”…I will def be trying this!
I love the mix of spices in this pickle and the fact that you don’t have to can!
Fresh pickles are really fun to make, yours look wonderful. A friend of mine grows pickling cukes every year and always has extra left over from his garden.
Regards,
CCR =:~)
I am currently ADDICTED to pickles. I eat a jar or two a week, by myself (if not more). I was just thinking how I wanted to try to can my own, but because I’m lazy, that thought lasted about 2.8 seconds.
These, I am trying for SURE, your recipe turned up just in time for our Farmer’s Market season!
Cheers!
overnight is pretty fast for pickles. interesting.
Lovely!
My mom used to have these going all summer long but she would have the pickles in an immense glass jar, filled with water, and of course dill, pepper corns, etc., with a slice of bread and into the sun for a couple days.
The bread would help the thing ferment a bit and turn crisp and pickle like nothing else. I think she didn’t add salt to it but I am not sure –
cheers!
Gabi @ Mamaliga
i love pickles this way! the ‘half sours’ or, as i call them, barely pickled pickles
there’s actually a restaurant in ri that brings these sliced to the table like most places bring bread and butter. here’s another recipe if you or anyone else wants that’s great – takes a few days but no canning AND no cooking either! (i just do it in the fridge the whole time, just seems easier, but you can leave it on the counter while they’re getting pickly.)
Find a ceramic bowl or crock to use for this. A wide mouth glass jar would also work.
1. Wash your cucumbers (~2.5lbs of the small ones) and remove blossom ends.
2. Fill your bowl 1/2 full of water
3. Add 1/4 cup of salt to water
4. Add dill heads or sprigs of fresh dill (~6)
5. Add 1T dry dill seed
6. Add 2T pickling spices & 1/4c. vinegar
7. Stir gently to distribute spices
8. Cover with weight to keep cucumber submerged-in brine
9. Cover crock with plate or clean towel
10. Check crock each day and remove any scum that forms on the top, these should be ready in 2 to 3 days.
12. At that time you must put in fridge (will last ~2 wks), they will not keep on the counter.
Wow, these look delish! I made pickles last weekend. I haven’t tried them yet, I did a psuedo-canning thing, where I poured a similar brine to yours in the jars along with the cucumbers, and just closed up the jars and refrigerated them. I think I might sneak one tonight…we’ll see! I’m dying for a pickle now, your pictures are so tempting!