Put all those garden cucumbers to good use with this easy Homemade Canned Dill Pickles Recipe!
You may also enjoy these Quick Pickles and Onions or my Homemade Pickled Beets too.
My family is OBSESSED with pickles. Open up a jar and they are gone in minutes.
That’s why we’ve planted rows and rows of cucumbers this year in our backyard garden. I’ve perfected my homemade canned dill pickles recipe and I should be set for crunchy, dill pickles all year long.
Homemade Canned Dill Pickles
This recipe is for making shelf stable (meaning they can be stored in the pantry for up to a year) pickles.
It does require a little bit more work than my Quickles (quick refrigerator pickles), but it’s well worth the time.
Ingredients Needed For Homemade Dill Pickles
Here’s a basic list of the ingredients you’ll need in order to make these dill pickles at home. As always, you can find the full list of ingredients in the printable recipe card below.
- Pickling Cucumbers
- Dill Seed
- Mustard Seed
- Whole Cloves of Garlic
- Whole Peppercorns
- Water
- White Vinegar
- Pickling Salt – you can also use a kosher salt that does not contain iodine
- Sugar
Special Tools Needed For Canning Pickles
We’re going to be processing the pickles in a water bath, making sure they’re safe to store on the shelf and create a long life for them. Here’s some tools I recommend to have on hand…
- Clean glass mason jars with clean lids – this is what I am using
- A large stock pot with a rack for the bottom – I use my instant pot insert for the rack
- Canning jar lifter tongs
- Funnel for adding brine – you can also use a measuring cup
How To Make Homemade Dill Pickles
Did you know pickles are made from cucumbers?
It blows my kid’s minds when we turn those crunchy cucumbers into delicious, snack-able pickles.
Making homemade pickles is actually quite easy…
- BOIL JARS TO SANITIZE It’s important to make sure you dip your glass jars AND lids into a pot of boiling water to fully sanitize them. This way you can rest assured that your pickles will be safe from any harmful bacteria.
- PREPARE CUCUMBERS Wash the cucumbers, then trim off the flowering end on each cucumber. There is an enzyme in that end that softens the cucumbers over time, by removing it, we will have crunchy cucumbers.
- COMBINE PICKLING SPICES I’ve created a simple and easy garlic dill flavor that adds a nice punch of flavor. Just add the ingredients to each jar, then fill the jars with your prepared cucumbers.
- MAKE THE BRINE To make the simple sugar, salt and vinegar brine, you’ll add all the ingredients to a pot and bring to a boil, until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Then just pour the hot mixture into the prepared jars, up to 1/2″ from the rim. Hand tighten the lids, but not too tight.
- WATER BATH Now is when we turn our cucumbers into pickles! Bring a large pot of water to a boil, with the rack on the bottom. Make sure it’s filled with enough water so the jars are fully submerged. Bring the jars to a boil and let them sit in there for about 10 minutes. Remove from the boiling water with the canning tongs and let cool completely.
What Type Of Dill Should I Use For Pickles?
Dill is a very versatile plant! Did you know there are actually 4 different ways the plant is used?
- Fresh Dill Weed – the leafy, feather-like part of the dill plant that is an herb used in sauces, dressings and of course with seafood.
- Dried Dill Weed – found in the spice aisle, the dried version of the fresh herb, has a sweet and bright flavor.
- Dill Seed – also found in the spice aisle, is the fruit of the plant. It’s more aromatic than the herb and used whole or crushed to add a bright lemony flavor.
- Dill Heads – the part of the fresh dill plant where the flowers bloom. Many recipes for canned pickles call for this, but unless you have dill growing in your garden, they can be difficult to source.
Since I don’t have fresh dill plants growing in my garden, I am using the dried dill seed to give that bright flavor to these canned pickles. It’s easier to find and stores great in the pantry.
Water Bath Canning Method
If you’re new to canning, this method is by far the easiest. It may seem intimidating at first, but you’ll quickly see how easy it is to preserve your veggies or jellies to make them last in your pantry all year long.
PRO TIP – Make sure you use a large pot and allow enough room for the water to come to a rolling boil.
You should see some bubble releasing from each of the jars as they boil in the water bath. This is normal and expected. The release of bubbles helps create a nice seal on the jars.
How Long Do Homemade Pickles Last?
Once you’ve processed your pickles, you’ll want to let them sit for 24 hours on the counter before opening. Press the top of the jar to see if it pops back up. If it does not, then you are good to store the UNOPENED jars in the pantry for up to 1 year.
Make sure to write your dates on the top of the jars so you don’t forget when you made them.
If the lid did not seal for some reason, just place the pickles in the fridge and consume within 7 days. After opening your jars of pickles, they should be stored in the fridge.
How To Customize Flavor of Dill Pickles
This recipe is for your basic, crunchy dill pickle, with a nice punch of garlic. If you want to customize the flavors or change things up, here are some ideas…
- Swap out the dill seed in each jar for one dill head
- Use pickling spice in place of the dill seed, mustard seed and peppercorn
- Don’t try to use fresh dill weed or dried dill weed as they won’t work for this recipe
- The longer you cook your cucumbers, the softer your pickles will be.
Can I Make Pickle Spears Or Chips?
YES! You can cut or slice your cucumbers however you like and process them the same way I do in this recipe.
I’m using pint size jars, but you can also use quart size if you have larger cucumbers.
My brine is enough for 4 pint size jars, or 2 quart size jars. You can easily double the recipe to increase the amount of brine made.
I hope you enjoy this yummy Homemade Canned Dill Pickles recipe and have a bountiful gardening year!
Homemade Canned Dill Pickles
Equipment
- 4 pint size mason jars
Ingredients
- 3 lbs. pickling cucumbers, *see notes
- 4 tsp dill seeds
- 2 tsp mustard seeds
- 4 cloves garlic
- 16 whole black peppercorns
- 2 cups water
- 1 ½ cups white vinegar
- 2 tbsp pickling salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
Instructions
Prepare The Mason Jars
- Clean mason jars and lids with soap and water, then dip in a large pot of boiling water to completely sanitize jars and lids. Carefully remove from boiling water and set on clean towels to dry.
Prepare The Cucumbers
- Wash and rinse the cucumbers. Trim off the ends of the cucumbers, to remove the enzyme in the cucumbers that promote softening. This will keep your pickles crisp and crunchy!
- If your cucumbers are larger, cut them down to size, so they can easily fit into your jars.
Prepare For Pickling
- To each jar, add: 1 tsp dill seeds, ½ tsp mustard seeds, 1 clove garlic and 4 whole peppercorns. Divide the prepared cucumbers between the jars, packing them as tightly as possible.
Make The Pickle Brine
- In a medium size pot, combine 2 cups of water, 1 ½ cups white vinegar, 2 tbsp pickling salt and 1 tbsp sugar. Heat over medium-high heat until the mixture boils and sugar and salt is dissolved.
- Pour hot mixture into prepared jars, leaving just ½" of headspace (to the top). Place on lids and hand tighten, but not too tight.
Water Bath Canning Instructions
- Prepare a large stock pot, fitted with a rack on the bottom, and fill with water. Bring water to a rolling boil. Carefully add the jars, making sure they are submerged under water, and let them boil for 10 minutes.
- Bubbles will escape from the jars, this is normal! Carefully remove the jars from the boiling water and set aside on a cooling rack. You might hear a loud POP from the lids as they seal, this is normal.
- Let the pickles sit for at least 12 to 24 hours, before pushing down on the lid to test if it's sealed. If for some reason, the lid did not seal, place pickles in the fridge and enjoy within 7 days. If sealed, the pickles are shelf stable and can be enjoyed within 1 year (refrigerate after opening).
Notes
Nutrition
PIN THIS IMAGE TO SAVE THE RECIPE
Creamy Alfredo Sauce Recipe
Tracey
What kind of cucumbers do you recommend?
C
Hello! Do you need to adjust the water bath time in this recipe for altitude?
Lorin
Hi, just curious why fresh dill doesn’t work I’m this recipe?
Karen
The fresh dill heads and even stems will work. ( We’ve used these parts for dill pickles for decades with my grandmother) The smaller, fine dill weed part will likely not have enough flavour.
Carol J W Carlson
I have made this recipe several times. It is excellent as written! Fresh and crisp! My whole family loves them! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I have one question. Can this brine be used with any other vegetables? Peppers? Zucchini? Summer Squash? Have you tried any others?
Shawn
So great to hear! Yes, you can use the brine on other recipes. I’ve tried it with carrots from my garden and it’s great!
Linda
I add a pinch f pepper flakes other than that follow to a T….. perfect!!
Kourtney
I don’t have a rack to put inside my pot for the water bath. Will this cause a problem? I can buy one for future use, but I just picked my cucumbers and wanted to can them as quickly as possible.
Felix
it’s ideal to have space between the bottom of the pot and the bottom of the jars because if theyre touching, it risks the contents of the jar burning on the bottom and i cant imagine burnt pickles are very good at all. if you dont have a rack, a sneaky little trick you can use is placing extra metal jar rings in the bottom of the pot, as many as you can fit while still getting them to sit flat on the bottom. and then you can sett the jars on top of them and it will keep them up off the bottom of the pot.
Christina
I use pieces of cedar cut to fit bottom of stewing pot. It works. Just use less wood sticks when doing smaller batches. Add water after jars are placed inside the pot on top of wood.
Heather King
Will the sugar make these sweet? Or is it necessary for that dill pickle flavor?
Barb
I just made these yesterday can’t wait to try! Easy recipe for a newbie. How long did anyone wait before they tried them? Thank you!
Marcelle
Making these tomorrow and I’m very new to canning. Been researching every detail I can think of and am getting conflicting answers on one thing. I’m planning on using two quart size jars and I’ll be using a large pot of boing water not a canner. Am I still processing the large jars for 10 minutes? If not, how long?
Please and thanks!!
Verell Freese
Do you have to use a water bath? I use hot jars and the brine is very hot which sealed my jars fine without the water bath, is this unsafe to do?
Bob
Hi –
The proper answer is yes, you need to use a hot water bath. The reason for this is that the process has been tested and proven to be safe. While you are indeed adding boiling brine to the jars, the contents (cukes, okra, squash, whatever) hasn’t been raised to boiling so many germs/spores on/in them aren’t assured to be killed.
(Boiling kills them, but since the contents aren’t at boiling temps when you add the brine, the temperature of the mix drops to much less than boiling).
While the acid may kill the little buggers, boiling temps surely do.
For unboiled pickles, see fermented pickle recipes. I’ve never done it myself (wimp that I am). I just don’t like the idea much although I’m aware of the long history of using that method.n
Bob
Amy Godfrey
Hello is it 2 tablespoons of salt or teaspoons as mine came out tasting really salty. Thank you.
Shawn
It should be tablespoons, but make sure you’re using pickling salt and not regular table salt.
Nikko
I made this and I think it could use more of something. I used dill seed from my garden, but maybe it needs more? What is pickling spice if I tried that instead?
Susan Harbuck
Yes, I add a half jalepeno, serano, or cayenne depending on how much heat I want. Works perfectly well.
Michael Zanon
Don’t you add salt to cukes for a couple hours to drain out moisture for a more crispy pickle
Cynthia
Has anyone tried to make these spicy? Wondering if I could add red chili flakes or a slice or 2 of jalapeño to each jar.
Jewel
I made some a few days ago and ended up throwing the whole batch away. The pickles were too mushy for us. I guess we’re too in love with the one day refrigerator crunchy pickles. It would be nice to be able to save some for my son and grandsons but I am afraid to try again. I can’t say anything bad about your recipe but these were not crunchy when I tried them.
Kim Allen
Thank you for this GREAT recipe. My family thinks I am the pickle master, thanks to you! The only thing I do different is that I add 1/8 tsp of Mrs Wages Xtra Crunch to keep my pickles a little more crisp.
Ash
I just did these with my fresh cucumbers. Got almost 2 gallons of pickles! Thank you for adding the water bath instructions! Your recipe seems the most like the kosher dills I love! Sadly, the store didn’t have dill seeds. So, I Googled and subbed celery seeds and fresh dill from my herb garden. I also cubed my cucumbers since they were so big. They smell amazing, and I can’t wait to try them!!
Jackie Oeleis
These pickles turned out delicious and so easy to make! I used distilled water and I think it made a difference. I cut off the ends of the cucumbers and then spears to make them fit in the jars. Followed the recipe. I doubled the brine. To each pint jar I put in 1 tsp. dill seed, 1/2 tsp. mustard seed, 1 or 2 garlic cloves, 4 pepper corns, and 1/8 tsp. pickled crisp. Waited 7 days and tried them. Wow, my guests were really impressed and devoured most of one jar.
Courtney
If I want to use pickling spice in place of the individual spices like you listed, how much should I use?
Diantha Harville
Are the jars to be HOT when putting the cukes in them or mainly just the brine?
Bob
Hi –
If the jars are too cool when you pour in the boiling brine or put them in the hot water bath, the chances of breaking them rises due to the rapid temperature increase.
I advise moving along promptly. I process 4 quart jars at a time. Cucumbers are already prepared and I keep them in the fridge to reduce the cooking time in the hot water bath. Crunchier.
So I have already boiled the jars and they are still in the water and added the lids and bands to the boiling water. I have all the spices on the table and a towel to put the hot jars on. One by one I remove the jars, pour some of the water in them in a spare pot in case I need to add back some (to cover them with a couple of inches of water while boiling), and put them on the towel. Then turn the heat back on the pot so it can return to boiling.
Then I quickly add all the spices and pack the cucumbers into the jars. Then I ladle the brine (which has been boiling all this time) into the jars. Remove the lids and bands from the hot water. Wipe the rims of the jars with a paper towel and add the lids and bands. The bands should be screwed on nice and snug. But not super tight.
Now the jars are returned to the hot water bath which may or may not be boiling again. I believe the standard process says to return to boiling then start the timer (double check me but I think 10 minutes for pint jars. 15 minutes for quarts).
Me? I set the timer right then. This is my personal opinion (not expert), but I’ve just added boiling high acid brine and I will take them out when the timer expires unless it hasn’t returned to a boil, in which case I will wait for it to boil, then remove them. I honestly don’t think anything is going to grow in there and I haven’t had a sealed jar go bad in 30 years. Even when I discover 12 year old jars of pickles I made in the attic or a monastary somewhere.
PS. I’ve eaten 12 year old pickles after being very careful to test small amounts at a time to see if they made me sick. They were kinda of soft, but still had acceptable flavor. I do not advise you do this though. Try to eat them within a year or two.
Bob
Marcelle
I followed the recipe and made 2 2L jars processed for 15 minutes as per current guidelines. The only tweak I made to the recipe was using 1 tsp sugar instead of 1TBS after reading comments about sweetness. Out of the 2 jars I made one of them had a false seal so I refrigerated it after 24hours. Just had a couple and they are delicious. I’m surprised at how developed the flavour is after just 1 day. I thought they’d have to sit for a few weeks unopened to taste like proper pickles. This was my first time ever making pickles so I wasn’t expecting such an awesome result. Thank you for the recipe!
Meghan
Can I do this in 4oz jars if I halve the spicing in each jar?
Debbie
“pushing down on the lid to test if it’s sealed” Does this mean if it clicks it did not seal? Sorry if that is a silly question
Lori
If it clicks it did not seal. Sometimes it does take a little time for it to seal so don’t press on the middle of the lid. If after a couple hours it doesn’t seal you should put them in the fridge.
Jen
Could I add whole garlic cloves and onion rings?
Shawn
Sure! Sounds great!
Mary Ann
Is the sugar really necessary?
Jay
No. Do not use sugar at all.
Eli Gaffke
No unless you like sweet pickles. I was highly disappointed with the sugar added. Ruined a 4 jar batch, and two more jars I did the day before my first batch was ready to eat. Sugar intensifies when cooked, maybe arson, but not a tbsp
Bob
Hi,
The pickling is done by the acid. You don’t need to add sugar or salt or anything else for that matter. I advise using half way and half 5% white vinegar according to the latest notice by the FDA.
Since this will be a little more sour than usual (for me), I added 2 tsp of sugar for 4 quarts. Can’t really taste the sugar, but it took some of the bite away from the sour.
Bob
Rita Sexton
I would like to know how they stay crunchy when you have to pour hot brine on them ?
Verell Freese
I made your dill pickle recipe and it is delicious. They are so crunchy, very easy to make! My husband and I say this is definitely a keeper!! Thank you!
Brianna
How long should I let the pickles sit before enjoying them for maximum pickle-iness?
Jay
You should let them sit in the fridge for at least a week and a half to absorb the flavors. I typically take the jar and turn it gently upside down and right side up every day just to keep the flavors mixed well.
Kate
Why will fresh dill not work for this recipe?
Shawn
The fresh dill is too delicate for this recipe. If that’s all you have to work with, then you can use it, but I would stick to what’s recommended.
marcia
I used fresh dill and it was fantastic.
Shawn
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed it!
Verell Freese
I made the dill pickle recipe and it is delicious, so easy to make. My husband and I say this is definitely a keeper.
Kathy Overton
Your recipe says that if i don’t have dill seed, I can used fresh dill, but then later in this same article you state that fresh dill shouldn’t be used!
Also, in the recipe right by the amount of fresh cucumber amount, you say “see note”. I have been all over this entire article and see no NOTE.. What do I need to know about the cucumbers?
Shawn
I actually do not recommend using fresh dill in this recipe. I say you can use dill heads instead of seeds. As for the “see note” I meant to type a note saying that you could use other cucumbers for this recipe if you don’t have pickling cucumbers. Just cut them down to the size that will fit in your jars.
Jay
Fresh dill is MUCH better than anything else. Dill seeds will not provide the same flavor.
Amy
If I’m using quart jars do you double the spices in each jar?
Judy
I am wondering the same thing. I am thinking that double the size of the jar means double the amount of spices.
Dianna
If you use quart jars, I think you do double the spices. However, the downside of using a quart jar is the extended cook time in the waterbath. I’ve read on other websites that using quart jars may make your pickles soft because of the extended time in the waterbath. Maybe whole pickles would fare better in quart jars, but if you try it, I don’t know if cutting the pickles in slices or quarters would give you the results you are looking for. It would be a shame to put in all the work and end up with soft pickles. If you decide to go with quart jars, I’d first browse around the internet for recipes using quart jars and see what reader comments say. I’m no expert but I’ve checked out a lot of recipes because I like my pickles in slices and not sweet. It is amazing to see the differences in the amount of water/vinegar/salt brine used in various recipes! It makes the process very confusing to know what is safe or not.
Bob
Hi,
Pickle spices are up to the taste of the cook. I tend to use what I have on hand. I grow garlic and like garlic a lot pickles so I add a few cloves. I like spicy pickles so I add some chili flakes. If I have hot peppers, I cut one in half and toss it in. I use about 1/2 tsp of peppercorns per quart. I’ve been known to put a slice of onion in the bottom. I use the same “recipe” for okra (picked not much longer than an inch). And squash. Try fennel seeds some time instead of dill. That’s a rush. Lol.
Bob
Debra Cawrse
I always use alum and leave the ends on. Alum makes them good and crunchy.
Debbie
How much alum did you use?