There is nothing I love more than fresh, garlicky dill pickles. Because of allergies, I can’t have vinegar. I know, I know, it’s weird. But I have found a work around with lemon juice that works perfectly and you can’t taste the difference! At least for people who can’t stomach the vinegar it is a delicious substitute. So in my recipe, you can feel free to swap out the lemon juice for vinegar, if you like.
Refrigerator pickles are actually very easy!
Ingredients:
2 cups of water
2 cups of lemon juice
8 tbspoons of pickling salt
6 large sprigs of dill
10 cloves of garlic cut into large pieces
22 small cucumbers quartered into spears
Directions:
To make the brine, bring the water, lemon juice and salt and half the garlic to almost a boil. If it boils, it’s not a problem, but you want the mixture to be steaming hot and for all the salt to be dissolved in the water.
Put the cucumber spears into sealable containers. The containers can be plastic, or glass, or whatever you like. I like the plastic Ball jars because they fit nicely into my fridge. Whatever you use will smell like pickles for eternity, so choose wisely.
Put the rest of the garlic into the containers with the cucumbers and add the dill springs, too. Then pour the hot brine over the cucumbers, garlic and dill until everything is covered. Once cooled enough, seal the containers and put them into the fridge for 48 hours.
When the 48 hours are up, open a container and sample the pickle! Trust me–delicious!
If you have too much brine, you can freeze it and thaw it to use again at another time, so there’s no waste.
These are very simple pickles, but you can add other ingredients (hot peppers, coriander seeds, etc) to flavour them to your liking.
If you try these, I hope you enjoy them!
And as always, happy reading!
❤
Patricia Johns 
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