The BEST Dill Pickles We've Ever Eaten 😃

it's a rainy day here in the southern mountains of Appalachia kind of dreary but a really exciting day I've been waiting for pretty much a year to do what I'm going to do today which is to make another run of Justin metcalf's dill pickles now I will link to Justin's video in the description below and you should go watch it because he goes into great detail about the cucumbers and how you should clean them and that kind of stuff that I'm not going to talk about today so and and he is the or the original recipe come from so you're going to have to go go see all the details he shares about it it's a recipe that he learned from his mother now when Matt and I was first married and I first started Canon of course who doesn't love a dill pickle we all love dill pickles well I'm sure there's someone that doesn't but for me and my family we all love them but we love the kind of dill pickles that comes you know off the grocery store shelf that's really crunchy you bite into it and it really crunches and just has great flavor too well from the very beginning when Matt and I started growing a garden making a garden every year we I wanted to make those dill pickles and I tried all kinds of recipes I tried the ball cannon book recipe people would give them to me and say this is the one my grandmother made or this is the one I've always made and some were better than others but the problem with all of them were they didn't keep their crunch so maybe the pickle would be good maybe you know three or four days after you canned it I don't know I didn't open the jar but if you waited a few months like it's typical for us we we can stuff during the summer we put up the Bounty of the garden and then a lot of times we don't open those ours until later in the year maybe you think about might be November or December by the time you're by the time you're pulling those pickle jars off the shelf and actually eating them and what would happen is they would all just be mushy they might taste good but they just were mush they just were not pleasant to eat now I do make another pickle that stays really crunchy and I've been making it pretty much since Matt and I was married I learned about it from his mother Miss Cindy and it's 14 day pickles I have a recipe or a video that I share the recipe in share all those 14 days of making pickles and I'll link to that one but it's a a sweet pickle sweet cinnamon like pickle and it involves a lot of sugar and that Sugar bowling it and putting it back over the mixture back over the Cucumbers that are sliced they're not whole doing that several days gives them a real Crunch and they keep their crunch but totally different taste than the dill pickle so probably about three years ago maybe four years ago I thought well maybe I'll try a fermented dill pickle and I'll see how that goes so I had some of the I got granny to give me some of her big old I guess pickles come in them originally but what granny used to use them for was tea if we made sweet tea big glass gallon jars or for a long time granny and Pat bought milk whole milk Grill milk from a couple at church and we'd take those jars and exchange them each Sunday for the next two gallons of milk so I knew they were probably down at granny somewhere and I went and found them and she was glad to give them to me she wasn't using them and I cleaned them up good and I got me a fermented Dill recipe dill pickle recipe and I made them and just made them in that big jar I let them ferment on the counter and then instead of worrying about trying to can them or anything like that I just put them in the refrigerator Matt and I are very fortunate that we have an extra refrigerator in the basement kind of for overflow so I just thought I'll just put them in there and we'll eat on them I'll just have to go back and forth take them back bring them up here until we get them eat if they were any good you know that was my plan well they were they were pretty good and we enjoyed them and we eat them all eat the whole gallon you know through the winter just every time we'd have hamburgers or something like that want a dill pickle somebody'd have to go to the basement and carry up the big jar and we'd eat you know as many as we wanted then we take it and put it back and we eat them all like that and they were they were good they were the best that I had ever made so I was like that's that's going to be my go-to recipe so I did use that recipe for since then and then also I did carrots like that with that same recipe and those were really good too well then last year I was watching one of Justin's videos and I seen that he was making pickles so I watched his video and he even has and I'll try to link to it too if I can find it he even has a little teaser video that was talking about the main video where he shows how to make the pickles and it's a short just a little short video it but in it the whole point of it is he crunches down on the pickle and you can hear it through the video and then he says that was you know a year old pickle or last year's pickle or whatever so he's kind of like proven it keeps its crunch well after I watched his video it seemed so simple I thought there's just no way there's just no way that it could be that good and um you know but what have I got to lose I'm just going to try and see because it is so simple it won't take me no time well that day Matt and Katie and went off fishing somewhere and I was here by myself trying to this time of the year The Bounty of the garden coming in you're just constantly trying to preserve it you know to make sure none of it goes to waste and I was doing that I don't remember what I was making that day but then I had some cucumbers I knew that I'd really left too long in the refrigerator and I was gonna have to do something with them to make matters worse I'd let them get on the big side they weren't small cucumbers usually think of for pickling they were big cucumbers I thought well that's just it I'm gonna get those out and I'm gonna make that recipe of Justin's and I won't even worry about it I made four quarts is all I'll just do it forget about them and we'll see if they're any good well again it was probably like I said November end of November 1st of November before I actually oh we was having hamburgers one night and I thought I wonder if those pickles were any good I'll get them out and try them they were so good we all loved them they had that wonderful crunch they had a wonderful Dill flavor they were just so good only problem was I only had four quarts of them so we ate them sparingly trying to save them all that goodness you know kind of dulling them out a little bit at a time all winter and probably a month ago we finished off the last jar and we're kind of in mourning because we enjoyed them so much so I said I'm just gonna have to wait till till cucumber season is here again and I'm gonna have to make a whole lot more jars than four jars to make us through the winter so that we can eat all we want to now when it comes to the recipe I'm going to share it with you but again you should jump over and watch Justin's video just because he shares more details than I will but when it comes to the recipe if you you'll see quickly as I begin to show it it's what they call I never knew this until this past year a Rebel Canon recipe it's not again that Justin's mother created it to be a Rebel Canon recipe it's not that he thought it was one it's not even that I thought think it's one that's just the term that's being used now for old recipes like the one that Justin's mother used and what that means is it's made differently than FDA Canon regulations would tell you to make it so personal preference comes in here you just have to do what you feel safe doing for your family now one thing about these I think would be perfectly fine is to make them make just the four quarts or something like I did to see if you like them and if you're paranoid about the the actual process of making them pop them in the refrigerator once you're done and then wait a couple of months and see what you think about them and maybe you like them and you just kind of think of them as refrigerator pickles and they just stay in your refrigerator and that's a way to to look at it if you're you know worried about it not being safe as far as it's no there's no water bath into it it's the open kettle method of Cannon kind of a Twist on that but still basically that's what it is another way to tackle it if you don't want to go the refrigerator out but you'd still like to really make them you could make them and then you could water bath them instead of this is like I said the open kettle method you could water bath them for five or ten minutes whatever you think would be would be good on that part I don't know what would be good but I would say no more than 10 minutes and then you know maybe you'd feel safer about it if you wanted to do them that way and Justin even in the video again you should jump over there definitely and watch it at the end of it he even talks about he he like continues to the next day and shows which one's sealed and which ones didn't none of them didn't seal they're all sealed but he says if you did have one that didn't seal you could put it in the refrigerator like I just said and just enjoy it you know sooner or you could pop it in a water bath and heat it back up for about five minutes and then it would likely seal unless something was wrong with you know sometimes if you have a I don't know if you've ever done that but the little edge of the jar I've had like maybe a green bean uh jar not seal in the pressure canner and then I've tried to figure out why and I see there's a little Nick out in the jar that's why so unless something was wrong with your jar or your tap or your ring or something like that unless something was defective then you would you know you'd need to do something discard it or eat it quickly or whatever but if everything was okay then he's saying you could put it in the water bath for about five minutes heat it back up let it cool and it would likely seal that time one other thing I want to mention before we actually I actually tell you the recipe which is really really easy and really quick won't take no time to tell you is this year if you are a can or you've probably heard about and you're on the internet any at all you've probably heard and seen all these people talking about the vinegar that all of a sudden they've noticed that the vinegar that you buy in the stores is not as acidic as it was the percentage of it is went down it's usually five percent vinegar it's some for some reason a lot of the vinegar that you buy now has four percent on it so there's this big debate about is that safe for pickling because most of the time it's recommended to use the five percent so you can I just want to warn you about that you'd have to do your own research and decide what you think is best and maybe just make sure when you go to the store that you see somewhere that it does say five percent I'm lucky I've not had to buy any this year but I kind of keep a stockpile of things like that so I'm lucky that I have several gallon containers worth of vinegar in my basement and just for to be curious I did go check them when I started seeing that and all of mine say five percent but again I've not bought any this year and and I don't know all of the scientific you know theory behind that about the acidity level and and what it needs to be to be safe and I don't I'm not a scientist and I don't know about that I'm more like Justin I'm doing things the way that my grandmother and my mother and Matt's mother showed me how to do but do make sure that you look into that make sure that you're safe you never want anyone to be sick or to do something that might harm your family especially if you just didn't even notice you know if you're that's the thing that a lot of people are upset about is there was no announcement there's no like big sticker on it says Hey beware this is not what you're used to buying it's just kind of put there and then people are buying it and then realizing it after the fact so now I'm going to tell you about the actual recipe so of course you got to have your cucumbers I've got a big bowl here and I've got all different sizes these are the best size about like this but I I will remind you I said earlier you know in my little talk here that I used big ones last year and they worked to just is fine so I have one or maybe probably more than one or two cucumbers are like squash and zucchini they hide from you and then when you see them they're bigger than you want them to be so I'm going to go ahead and use those there's another not maybe as long as that one but definitely fatter thicker through the middle so I'm going to go ahead and use them and in Justin's video he also says you could slice them if you want to but the main ones he done and the ones I did last year is just to use them whole just to put them whole in the in the jars so you got to have your cucumbers then you need Alum a-l-u-m you need that so I've got me got some right here and you need dill weed you can use if you're lucky to have grow your own and have some fresh I've got some you need it if not like in the video Justin says that year he forgot to plan any deal so he's just using dill weed and you know dried dill weed that you get from the store and he says that it still turns out wonderful so you could definitely use that and then you need a clove of garlic for each jar so Matt and I run outside and dug up some of our garlic this is fresh garlic I'm going to use it but store-bought anything that would work too that would work fine too and then of course you need your jars and you need your lids and your taps the mixture you're gonna that's kind of what you put in the jar first and then the mixture you're going to put on top of that is you're going to do four cups of white vinegar three quarts of water and one cup of pickling salt and you're gonna put that together I've already got mine over here on the stove and when we're ready to start I'm going to turn it on and bring it to a bowl and then you can turn it off after that I mean you want it to be warm though when you put it in the jars and the interesting part about Justin's recipe he shares in the video this is the kind of the Twist on the open kettle method so the open kettle method of Canon is when everything's hot so your jars are boiling away in the water and they're piping hot your mixture whatever it is that you're gonna you know maybe if you're doing Tomatoes or jelly or whatever it's boiling away and it's hot and you put that hot hot liquid into your hot hot jar I usually have my rings hot too and warm at least my Taps are warm and then you put it all together real quick seal it up I put mine under a towel to keep that heat in and then as it cools it seals and forms a vacuum and that's open kettle method of Cannon again FDA Cannon people will tell you not to do that so you have to decide what you're comfortable with but the Twist on Justin's is that he fills the jar fills it like right now I'm going to start feeling them here in a minute with the Cucumbers the garlic the deal and the Alum it's puts the lid on he Heats his oven until 200 degrees to 200 degrees puts the jars you know on a tray or something puts them in the oven for about 10 minutes let some heat for 10 minutes at 200 degrees while he's kind of fixing the mixture on top of the stove and letting it come to heat and you know come to a bowl then he gets out those hot jars they're not you know super hot not like you've been baking something for 450 degrees for 20 minutes or something but they are warm so you get out those warm to hot jars you open them back up pour the liquid in them screw the lid back down tight and then put them under the towel and let them until they cool usually 24 hours and then the next day make sure that they have sealed so that's kind of the Twist on the open kettle method that he's doing and Justin doesn't say in his video if he sterilizes his jars first so that may be the thinking that you actually are sterilizing them in the oven I know my father-in-law Papa Tony when he cans things that's what he does he doesn't want food with all that water so he Heats his jars in the oven some people heat them in their dishwasher if they have a dishwasher I'm old school and I just do it like granny you know like she did and I hate mine in some boiling water if I'm doing it that way today I have already sterilized all my jars the main reason for me is I store my jars in the basement and our basement is unfinished and so it's dirty Katie's workshop's down there and sometimes the Stray little mouse is down there and maybe crawling all over them so I just feel better if I sterilize them so mine are I've boiled them in hot water they're cool though now to the touch but so from here on out I'm going to follow Justin's recipe so first up we're going to pick us out some cucumbers I'm going to use that really big one and I'm using Largemouth jars just because it's easier to put the put them in there maybe I'll start out with some little ones and make it easy on myself instead of that big one so I kind of think about putting them on the outside of the jar and then putting one down in the middle I think Justin even says that in his video to kind of keep them tight now I think I'm going to be I've got some that are little I think I can put some more down in there you want them to try to get them to be down below the kind of the shoulder of the jar so what Justin said I don't know if that one is but I'm going to leave it and now I'm going to put my teaspoon of Alum down in there I'm gonna put me a garlic clove and then for the deal he says about a tablespoon of Dill for quarts I'm going to just I'm just going to break off some and put it down in there since I've got fresh dill I'm not gonna and I don't even think you can have too much Dill I'm going to try to guesstimate about how much I think a tablespoon would be and and he was using dried too so that might be different putting deal fresh deal in the jar always makes it look so pretty any kind of herb like that I think makes it look pretty and I guess what is it they say we eat with our eyes and with our taste buds in our mouth I've got plenty of deal so I'm going to put some more okay now I'm gonna Stir It Up Put it on my tray over here and do another one foreign for some little ones to go in this one if I let myself I get paranoid about how to do it and then I start thinking well should I have put that many in there should I put more should I cut one in half what should I do I do want to try to cut some of them up this year because I didn't last year and I'm curious if they still stay as crunchy as the ones the whole ones that I did but I guess I'm just going to leave this one the way it is all right I could put my deal in there first might be easier with the Cucumbers but either way either way you do it'll be it'll be fine and it'll work careful Eddie's gotta gotta go for an appointment I'm telling her to be careful because it's so rainy outside probably a lot of it's rained all day and rain during the night probably be a lot of standing water and of course it's always going to rain when you do something me and Matt actually put diatomaceous earth all over our cucumbers last night because we're fighting the squash beetles on the Cucumbers instead of in the squash and of course then we heard it rain and before we'd even went to bed like well I guess it washed everything off that we put on it [Music] good that's when you need a little one of those little curved ones right there is one if I could get that many in every jar I'd be doing good still didn't put the put two things of garlic in that one still didn't put my deal in there like I supposed to I was going to try adding it but first okay I'm going to finish these up and pop them in the oven and then I'll show you the next step got my mixture boiling my jars are are kind of hot to the touch and now I'm gonna start filling them with the liquid I don't even know if I need that actually let's see see I can do it carefully without spilling it don't put too much but I was trying to cover them I probably didn't get my cucumbers as low as they needed to be and if you spilled any you can wipe it off if not you can put the lid on it set it over I set it on my towel and go ahead and cover it up as I do the others just out of curiosity I did take some of the those bigger cucumbers that I had I sliced one up and then I cut some of them into Spears long Spears just to see how how those do be interesting to see if they stay as crunchy as the whole ones foreign [Applause] wipe off the top and this one I mix the whole cucumbers and then I had just stuck one or two of the ones I'd cut down in there I got them all in the jars I've got them covered up here I'll show you one of them they're they're really hot with that boiling water but you can see how how beautiful they look they look beautiful even better they're going to be so good to eat I know since we loved them so much last year be sure to jump over to Justin's Channel and watch that video I'll link to the the whole video of the how to make the pickles and also the little shorts so you can see him crunch on the pickle on here how crunchy it is they have such a good flavor and that crunch is really nice too I especially love recipes like this whether it's Canon preserving or if it's you know something good to eat just for supper or a dessert or something like that that's generational that's been passed down so I love it that Justin's mother taught him to make it and I'm sure someone taught her to make it maybe it was her mother maybe it was an aunt I'm not sure maybe it's a mother-in-law somebody like that but I really love that I love how that knowledge is passed to one generation to the next again it is a rebel now that I've learned that it seems so weird to say a Rebel Canon recipe but so you'll have to decide whether or not you want to try but I hope you will try it and if you don't feel comfortable just like I will do nothing else this is it I'm just going to leave them like this I'll check them to make sure that the seal that it's sealed and if they did I'll put them downstairs on my Canon shelves and we'll just eat them as we go but if you don't feel comfortable doing that you can make a smaller amount put them in the refrigerator you can water bath them you could try that route so lots of different options but I really love how those generational recipes and and I love that's really Justin is from Appalachia like I am he's from Western North Carolina I really love that just him sharing the recipe shares or highlights the wonderful culture that I'm so proud of and that I celebrate that generational ties that he was really close to his parents and that they taught him so much about Canon about life about growing a Garden he makes a big Garden every year his is much bigger than ours so they pass that that knowledge on to him and he's passing it on to his girls he has two beautiful girls so I really love that and the old ways of doing things also that that's kind of part and parcel for the culture of Appalachia so all of that really just kind of the icing on the cake I guess the recipe is a good one the pickles are great but then I love that knowledge of where it come from that it come from his family I hope one day to sit down with Justin and talk to him and interview him and share that with you we've not been able to make it work out yet but I I know we will in the future if you try the recipe please let me know what you think about it as always I hope you'll drop back by often help me celebrate Appalachia

Channel: Celebrating Appalachia

Views: 37,236

Keywords: Appalachia, Appalachian Mountains, dill pickles, how to make crispy dill pickles, best dill pickle recipe, old canning recipes, old pickle recipe, rebel canning, what is rebel canning, what is open kettle canning, Justin Metcalf, Metcalf Mills

Id: VIrnMlgupGs

Length: 26min 44sec (1604 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 27 2023