The short answer
- Small pickling cucumbers, whole or sliced, with dill, onion and spices in clean jars.
- Cover with a boiling brine of vinegar, water and salt; close once cooled.
- Whole pickles need at least two weeks; sliced ones are ready sooner.
- These are fridge pickles: keep them cold. Pantry pickles need a tested canning recipe.
Recipe
Ingredients
2kg small pickling cucumbers, 2 red onions, a bunch of dill, 500ml white wine vinegar, 1 litre water, 2 tablespoons salt, 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, clean preserving jars.
1 · Prepare
Wash the cucumbers and trim the ends; leave them whole or slice them. Large or field cucumbers are better peeled and seeded. Slice the onions into rings, wash the dill, and rinse the jars and lids with boiling water.
2 · Brine
Bring the water, vinegar and salt to the boil.
3 · Fill
Pack the cucumbers, onion, dill and spices into the jars and pour over the boiling brine until everything is covered.
4 · Cool, close, chill
Let the jars cool with the lids off, then close them and put them in the fridge. Whole pickles need at least two weeks to take on flavour.
Where the vacuum helps
A tighter lid in the fridge
Close a twist-off lid to the first resistance, put the jar cover over it and switch your LAVA sealer to container mode: the air is drawn out and the lid pulls tight. It also keeps an opened jar crisp for longer.
Helps: Vacuum cover for jars · Flex Jar-Sealer
Not a replacement for canning
A vacuum on the lid doesn't sterilise what's in the jar. For pickles that keep in the pantry, use a tested water-bath canning recipe.
Variations
- 1
Garlic and chilliA peeled garlic clove and a dried chilli per jar.
- 2
Sweet and sourAdd a few tablespoons of sugar to the brine.
- 3
Other vegetablesCarrot sticks, cauliflower, beetroot and zucchini pickle the same way. Pickled asparagus
Keep them in the fridge. These pickles aren't heat processed, so they belong in the fridge, opened or not. If a jar bulges, fizzes, smells off or shows mould, throw it out without tasting.
LAVA AustraliaOfficial LAVA distributor and vacuum-packaging specialists since 2018.
