The Husband-Approved Pickling Recipe

I don’t like pickles. Never have.

I’ll eat them on burgers if they’re hard to remove, but otherwise, I’m always passing the pickle spear to my husband’s plate. He is our family pickle connesiur. Meaning, he’s very picky about his pickles. No bread and butter, whole dill is best.

This year, in an act of pure, selfless love, I decided to grow pickling cucumbers for the first time so that he could have access to fresh, home-grown pickles.

Little did I know that it would be an intense journey. Over the last few months, we have tried at least 5 different recipes or versions of the same recipe in an attempt to create the perfect dill pickle. Most have ended up in the garbage, whomp.

Making pickles isn’t super hard but let me tell you, as somebody who doesn’t like pickles, it’s been rough. Since I don’t eat pickles, I’ve had to rely on the husband to describe the taste of each pickle and tell me what what he thinks went wrong with each batch. (His response? “If you won’t eat it, then it’s like I’m trying to describe the ocean to a blind man, I can’t do it.”)

But lo and behold, this recipe, found on Tiktok of all places, would lead us to the perfect pickle.

“Husband-Approved” Dill Pickles

3-5 large pickles (we use about 2.5 per 32 oz jar)
1 part apple cider vinegar (about 1 cup)
1 part water (about 1 cup)
4 sprigs of fresh dill
2 thinly sliced garlic cloves
1-3 tsp pickling spice (we love Penzey’s)
1-3 peppers if you like spice (we do 1 habanero and 2 thai green chilies)

Instructions:

Spear the cucumbers and layer them in a mason jar with the garlic, dill, pickling spice and peppers. Bring apple cider vinegar and water to a boil and then immediately remove from heat and pour into jar. Seal the jar and then turn upside down to sit for 2 hours on a heat safe surface at room temperature. You can try the pickles after 2 hours or leave longer in fridge to pickle. Good for at least a few months, shake them from time to time.