Dill Pickles

Well, I got home from my shift, got a nap, and then felt good enough to get started on a batch of dill pickles.  I always use the recipe from the American Family Cookbook but I'll rewrite it here (I make a double batch, which makes 7 quarts):

6 cups cider vinegar

6 cups water

3/4 cup kosher salt

28 cloves garlic, halved

peppercorns

dill seed

cucumbers

Once the brine is boiled (vinegar, water, salt and garlic) then each hot quart jar is filled with 8 garlic halves, 6 peppercorns, 4 T. dill seeds and sliced cucumbers and filled with the brine, leaving half an inch of headspace.  Then they are processed for 10 minutes and I leave them in, off the heat, for 5 minutes after so they don't siphon or anything.  Most of my cucumbers were too long but 3 or 4 of my jars have smaller, whole cucumbers mixed in with the slices.  I also made a point of cutting off the blossom ends from the slices since I read somewhere that they can get mushy if you leave them on.

The finally tally for a peck of cucumbers:  15 pints of bread and butter pickles and 7 quarts of dills.  Plus 6 for eating.  I think we're set for a while, on pickles, anyway!