Tag: canning

Tastes Like (Hamburger Dill) Pickles!

Tastes Like (Hamburger Dill) Pickles!

Posted on by Mama

pickles2

This one is for all you Wednesday night Bible study ladies, because my homemade hamburger dills actually taste like pickles and I promised to post the recipe here at Small Talk Mama. Yes, my husband and I actually got the first taste of our maiden pickling project and we both gave it a thumbs up. I don’t know why we’re always so surprised, when we try a new recipe or grow a new vegetable, to find that it tastes exactly as it should. I remember our first harvest of broccoli years ago — it actually tasted exactly like broccoli. Imagine that! That being said, we haven’t yet opened the dill spears, but I’ll keep you posted — the suspense is just killing you, I know.

So here’s the recipe we used for hamburger dills, which were a great addition to our grilled burgers. Unlike most recipes of its kind, this one does not require a several-day soaking before the canning process. So if you’re “in a pickle” and can’t wait days to can, you might want to try this quick and easy recipe.

Recipe adapted from Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving

Hamburger Dill Pickles
Yields 7
Canning recipe for hamburger dill pickles that doesn't require a lengthy ice water bath.
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Ingredients
  1. 4 lbs cucumbers
  2. 6 tbsp canning salt
  3. 4 1/2 c water
  4. 4 c vinegar
  5. 14 heads fresh dill
  6. 3 1/2 tsp mustard seed
  7. 14 peppercorns
Instructions
  1. Wash cucumbers and drain. Cut cucumbers into 1/4-inch crosswise slices, discarding blossom ends.
  2. Pack cucumbers into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.
  3. Add 2 heads of dill, 1/2 tsp mustard seed and 2 peppercorns to each jar.
  4. Combine salt, water and vinegar in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil.
  5. Ladle hot liquid over cucumbers, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.
  6. Lightly tap jars to remove air bubbles, and screw on two-piece caps.
  7. Process 15 minutes in a boiling-water bath.
Notes
  1. This recipe makes delicious husband-pleasing hamburger dill pickles!
Adapted from Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving
Adapted from Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving
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When Life Hands You Cucumbers

When Life Hands You Cucumbers

Posted on by Mama

pickles2b

We all know what to do when life hands us lemons, but what’s one to do when a friend hands you cucumbers? Hint, it’s not make cucumberade.

Our good friend and surrogate family member, Ruby, commented last week that she and her husband, Howard, were going to make pickles from their current cucumber harvest. My response (silly me) was to say that I had always wanted to make pickles but never had enough cucumbers to make a go of it
So Thursday afternoon when the phone rang, I shouldn’t have been surprised when it was Ruby on the other end offering up some left-over cukes. I accepted the offer and picked up the veggies Thursday evening — all 13 plus pounds of excess.

Since this was our first voyage into pickle making, we had to search for a few recipes and finally chose a dill spears recipe and one for hamburger dill slices. The spears recipe was just a shot in the dark, but I chose the hamburger dill recipe because it was one of the only I could find that didn’t require a long ice water bath (I mean, we were in the mood to make pickles).

The process was pretty easy, like canning most things, but unfortunately we have to wait at least two weeks for a taste test.  If they actually taste like pickles, I’ll share the recipes at a later date; if not, we won’t speak of this again.