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Joined: 4/2/2009
Posts: 1
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Hi all--
I canned my first batch of dill pickles (12 jars) last month using Kirby cucumbers from our garden--I hadn't done this since I helped my mother do it as a kid. Mom is no longer with us, so can't ask her my question. I used the water bath method with Mom's big old black canner on the stove--the seal was great on the jars, I thought everything had gone well. I popped one jar in the refrigerator since I prefer them cold, and when we opened it, the pickles were great. Now this past weekend, we opened another jar (the rest of them I had put on the bottom shelf of my food pantry with the door closed). The pickles in this jar were soft and mushy--not at all like the crisp ones from our first jar! The seal was so good on the jar, my hubby had trouble opening it. Any ideas of what happened so I can avoid it for the next batch? I wanted to give some of these to friends & family, but now am not sure I want to with this consistency!
Thanks for your help,
Julie
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Joined: 11/2/2009
Posts: 1
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Hi Julie,
This my first time on this site and noticed that no one had answered your post.
I canned around 170-180 quarts of pickles this year and try to every year.
How long did you process them in the water bath? Any of my friends that have tried to can pickles - this seems to be the biggest problem.
I only let them process for 12 - 13 minutes in the canner and remove them. I use wide mouth jars also. I have better luck with them sealing.
I don't know if that will help you or not, but that's my plan.
Julie
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Joined: 2/5/2008
Posts: 7
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Julie, I have noticed that the larger the cuke, the greater chance that it will get mushy. Therefore I always use Pickle Crisp made by Ball to help out with this problem. You should be able to find it in any supermarket that has a well stocked canning section, if not, you can get it online.
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Joined: 12/6/2007
Posts: 453
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I also use pickle crisp when canning pickles.
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