Have I been doing pickles wrong for these past 15 years? Oh gawd, perhaps.
But first, what does one want from a pickle? Sweet pickles? Sour pickles? Kosher dill? Do you want to stack it on a burger? Put it in a cocktail? Cut it up to make relish? Or do you just want to eat a fabulous pickle.
Personally, I love funky fermented things like kimchi, sauerkraut, and miso, but my hands-down, slap-your-mama, to die for pickles are not ones that I make.
They are (or were, pre-pandemic) found on the table of Kornblatt’s Deli in NW Portland. They sit on the table, next to the condiment caddy, in an open jar with tongs. Available at lunch or dinner, no extra charge.
The pickles are salty and garlicky and snap like a fresh cucumber. They are perfect. I’m not ashamed to say I’ve eaten waaaay more than my fair share of them.
This style is called a ‘half-sour’ and it’s a kosher deli dill pickle. I’ve pickled hundreds of pounds of cukes in my day but have never come close to making this perfect deli pickle.
Until I read Mark Bittman’s newsletter this week.
Half-sours, my favorite pickle, are his favorite too, and are screamingly easy to make.*
The name is misleading as there is nothing sour in the recipe. Just salt, water, garlic, dill.
But.. half-sours have a short life — about 7-10 days. These are pickles to pig out on, every day.
The Process/Recipe:
Here it is: add 1/3 cup of salt to a cup of boiling water. I prefer kosher or sea salt. Add ice to cool it down, and set it aside.
Take a large jar, like a half-gallon mason jar. Put a few (3-5) garlic cloves and a handful of dill (or coriander — a substitution Bittman recommended and I endorse).
Cut cucumbers in fat slices or spears. Bittman likes Kirby cukes but I’m not so particular.
Put them in the jar. Add the salt water. Top with cold water. Use a weight or a bag of salt water to keep the cukes submerged.
Wait four to eight hours. That’s it. Just 1/3 of a day to make freaking delicious pickles.
Refrigerate them when brined to your taste.
Process notes:
The second batch I made, I re used the brine. It needed a little love to be salty enough to make a good half-sour. For myself, I’ll probably use the brine twice but no more.
For submersion weights, I love the ceramic “donuts” that my friend Max Graze made but both the ceramic or glass work well.
I put a jar on the table with every meal. Because... pickles!
Stay well,
& Love Big
xoxo
Nancy
* What I had been doing is fermenting the cukes then processing them in jars. They’re OK but not amazing. The key is to eat these while they’re fresh.
