pickling First try at spicy pickles

[Pharthan]

This is my first try at spicy pickles. It's my first attempt at pickling pickles, really. I've pickled jalapenos and eggs and such before, but never actual pickles.

 
Ingredients:
2 Cucumbers
1/2 Red Onion
1 Head Garlic
14 Dried Thai chilis
2 Jalapeno
1 1/2 Tbsp Peppercorn
1 tsp Ground Mustard
1 Tbsp Red Pepper Flake
4 Tbsp Kosher Dill Pickle Mix
1/2 tsp coriander
3 Bay Leaves
6 Sprigs of Dill
ACV: 2 Cup
White Distilled Vinegar: 2 Cup
Water: 4 Cups

Not all ingredients are shown as I sort of overestimated the jar size, and needed a second jar, so I added some more jalapeno and pickling mix.

 

[luvmesump3pp3rz]

those are gonna be some spicy pickle chips.  i`ve only made "refrigerator pickles" and didn`t do the sterilize and hot bath method. i only added crushed pepper flake to mine. those dried thai chiles should kick yours up with heat. how did you process these? let us know how they turn out.

 

[Pharthan]

those are gonna be some spicy pickle chips.  i`ve only made "refrigerator pickles" and didn`t do the sterilize and hot bath method. i only added crushed pepper flake to mine. those dried thai chiles should kick yours up with heat. how did you process these? let us know how they turn out.

 

I'll keep you posted! 

Everything was added to jar, the dill-pickle mix, vinegar and water brought to a boil then poured over the material-in-jar, up to the very top, then refrigerated.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Pickles should be kirby cucumbers otherwise it will turn out mushy. 

 

[podz]

Pickles should be kirby cucumbers otherwise it will turn out mushy. 

 
What I do is put them into a large bowl of ice water and leave them in the fridge overnight before putting into jars and vacuum sealing in the boiling water. This is how they turn out crunchy, even after nearly a year in the cabinet.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Even supermarket/slicing cucumbers? The reason kirbys are used is the low water content. They are more like zucchini. Regular cukes are almost all water.

 

[podz]

Even supermarket/slicing cucumbers? The reason kirbys are used is the low water content. They are more like zucchini. Regular cukes are almost all water.

 
Yes, I use kirbys when making pickles. I have still not been able to achieve the level of crunch that I want without the overnight ice water soak.
 
Normally, I buy them when they hit the supermarket in August and make pickles then. Otherwise, hard to get enough of them ready at one time to make large batches of pickles. In the backyard, I just grow the long cukes for salads and stuff.

 

[Pharthan]

Pickles should be kirby cucumbers otherwise it will turn out mushy. 

 
We shall see. The mix I use is supposed to maintain crispiness, but I'll steel myself for the worst.

If nothing else, I'll get some good pickled jalapenos, thai chilis, garlic, and onions.

 

[Pharthan]

Day 3: Not spicy. Still crunchy. Good, pickley flavor, though more cucumbery-flavor than I'd like.

Going to start daily rotating them (vertically) to keep all the spices mixed. I plan to wait 3 more days before trying a second time.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Why you opening them?

 

[Pharthan]

Why you opening them?

 

Experimentation (also impatience).

I'm trying to get a fix on when my recipe is "ready." I wanted to know when it wasn't ready, to start with. The pickles will continue pickling for some time and the material won't be going bad for some time, so I'm not too worried about openning one of the two jars early.

 

 

[Pharthan]

Day 7: Still crunchy. Taste more like pickles than before. Not spicy, but the onion and garlic do seem to be imparting a bit of a flavor on them.

 

[Pharthan]

Day 19: Still crunchy, though the very middle is losing the crunch a bit. Quite delicious. A bit of heat to the pickles now. If I weren't so tolerant of spice I'd probably put them at mild to medium heat. This would definitely be a finished product.

 

[bpiela]

I made spicy pickles once and all I did was add one superhot pepper into the jar.  Those pickles were awesome!  I gotta do that again.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

I don't bother making pickles, I'm not good at the waiting game and then they go too fast. I can buy good NY pickles and I just add superhots or whatever. I've even added Cajun rub, shook it up, and they were damn good spicy garlic Cajun pickles! Just gotta wait a day. But not from scratch. It's like watching paint dry lol!

 

[podz]

Last year, we made 30 jars of dill pickles, 1 quart jars. That was enough to last us until we made more now (still have a couple jars left). We just finished 30 more jars.
 
My wife tossed an Apache inside some of the jars - not cut or poked, just one entire Apache pod with a bit of stem on (they are really small, but very hot). Lemme tell you, you don't need more than that. The pickles in those jars had some serious kick. I have a high heat tolerance, but something about the pickling made them far hotter than one would imagine.
 
The reason we make pickles is that you can't buy good ones here in Finland at all. They all contain sugar and allspice, both of which I absolutely hate in my pickles. Or they are "suolakurkku" (salt pickles) with garlic but without any spices whatsoever (dill, mustard seed, coriander seed, etc) and are also soggy. So we make our own, FTW. It's not cheaper, just better.