Sadye's Dill Pickles

Sadye’s dill pickles are the old-fashioned crock kind, the way they were made before canning jars took over. Cucumbers get layered with fresh dill stalks in a stoneware crock, then covered with a hot salt-and-vinegar brine spiked with black pepper.

No sugar, no garlic, no fancy spice blends. This Pennsylvania recipe keeps it stripped down to the basics and lets the dill and brine do the talking. The result is a clean, tart, properly salty pickle with a peppery bite.

Pour the brine over the cucumbers while it’s still hot. The heat jump-starts the pickling process and helps the brine penetrate the skins faster.

Kitchen Tips

• Use pickling cucumbers, not slicing cucumbers. Slicers have thinner skins and higher water content, which means mushy pickles.
• Make sure the cucumbers are fully submerged in brine. Any exposed cucumber above the liquid line will soften and spoil. Weight them down with a plate if needed.
• Use non-iodized salt (pickling salt or kosher salt). Iodized salt can turn the brine cloudy and darken the pickles.
• These need at least a week in the brine before they taste like proper pickles. Two weeks is even better.

Variations

• Add a few whole garlic cloves and mustard seeds to each layer for a classic kosher dill flavor.
• Toss in a grape leaf or oak leaf per layer. The tannins help keep the pickles crisp.
• Slice the cucumbers into spears instead of leaving them whole for faster pickling.