I love pickling.
Notice I said pickling and not canning. It’s not that I have anything against canning—I’ve done it quite happily—but sometimes it’s too finicky for me. Too much can go wrong, too many standards and requirements, too much technicality. One wrong move, one little adjustment to the recipe, a few degrees off in the water and the whole thing goes bad. So it’s this impatience and my gravitation to not following the rules of anything that make me lean a bit more towards quick pickles. I don’t even mind that their shelf life is considerably less—they don’t last long for me anyway.
Things like quick-pickled red onions are more my speed. I love tossing red onion, sliced paper-thin, in lime juice, rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and red chilies (with a few splashes of water to dilute) for topping tacos or tostadas. With red wine vinegar for the acid and holding the chilies they’re fabulous on a salad of escarole with a robust extra virgin olive oil. Or turnips, the ones with a few wedges of beetroot to dye them hot pink. Pickled grapes, jalapeños, shredded carrots, ramps… the list goes on. Oh, and cucumbers.
They’re meant to be refrigerated, and only for a short time, so you don’t have to worry about shelf stability and can play with the levels of salt, sugar, vinegar, and water—something that would threaten any traditionally processed pickles. Not only that, but some are ready to eat in mere hours, and there’s something to be said about that, that most instant of gratifications. A few years back I decided to grow pickling cucumbers. I let them stay on the vine for a while because they weren’t getting quite green enough to me. Needless to say they ended up quite large. Even still, I was picking cucumbers faster than I knew what to do with them. I decided to try out some pickle recipes. I went through the whole process, following all the steps to the letter, canning them properly and everything. I was so proud of them. I couldn’t wait to give them a try after they spent some time pickling. And when the day came and I took a bite it was immediately obvious—this recipe is not for me. Such a disappointment. Not so much the fact that they didn’t taste good, but because I had invested so much in them. So much hope, so many glances at them in my pantry as I waited on their evolution. So much vinegar.
I love my fridge pickles (the cucumber ones, I mean) to be heavy with dill, a good amount of garlic, and an underlying, lingering, fiery heat from chilies. Ideally, the chili would be a fresh red one, plucked from the garden and split down the middle. Unfortunately for me my chilies are incredibly behind this year. Chili flakes do just as well.
These are perfect for last minute summer cookouts and so versatile that they can fit almost any flavor. Not only is the effort minimal but the reward is absolutely max—you not only get the smug satisfaction of making pickles (without all the finicky canning, I might add) but you also get a damn good pickle, too.
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| Servings | Prep Time |
| 2 16-ounce jars | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | Passive Time |
| 5 minutes | 24 hours, or more |
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A great way to use up your summer cucumber crop, incredibly quick, and intensely flavorful—perfect in every way.
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- 1-1/2 pounds pickling or kirby cucumber washed
- 2/3 cups white vinegar
- 1-1/4 cups water
- 1 tablespoon canning salt or kosher salt (NOT table salt)
- Heaped 1/4 cup dill fronds or flowers
- Heaping 1/4 t-spoon chili flakes
- 2 - 4 cloves garlic smashed (per preference)
- 1 generous pinch celery salt
- Slice the cucumbers in half lengthwise and stuff them into two cleaned, sterilized 16-ounce mason jars.
- Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Once boiling, stir in the canning salt until it dissolves. Pour in the vinegar and set aside until its cool.
- Add the remaining ingredients into the jar and pour over the “brine”, sealing the jars tightly with their lids. If the pickles aren’t totally covered don’t panic—as they sit in the liquid the cucumbers will release some of their own juices and they’ll eventually be fully submerged.
- These just need 24 – 48 hours in the fridge before they’ll be ready and they’ll last for about a week.
- Feel free to change up the flavors here. I like mine heavy with dill, garlicky, and a hint of lashing fire (which in a perfect world would come from a split red chili, though dried chili flakes do well, too). You can always add whole black peppercorns, bay leaves, coriander seeds, red onion... the list could go on.
- If you don't like pickles on the tart side you can decrease the vinegar to 1/2 cup—just up the water to 1-1/3 cup.