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First pings of the season!!


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Any of you have tried and true crisp dill pickle recipe? I love them....but hate how soggy they get. I have no idea how these will turn out as I just did them today. Here's hoping, though....:pray:

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In the past, I have heard of adding grape leaves, but with mixed results.  More recently, I have read that oak leaves work great.  Everyone has been positive about oak leaves.  I would google it as I don't know if it would be young leaves or any other details.

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I have used alum, grape leaves, horseradish leaves, oak leaves, and even plain black tea to keep pickles crisp.  Alum works more consistently but the others work too.  The tanic acid in oak leaves is too bitter for my tastes and the medicinal properties can bother some people.  More importantly to have crisp pickles is to use fresh, small firm cukes, preferably pickling ones, leave the end on.  My favorites are fermented with black tea bags added to each jar and then stored in the refrigerator at the peak of taste and texture.  Of course we have an extra fridge for them and kraut and they are both excellent. 

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I've tried Pickle Crisp but my pickles were a failure. Someone here told me it was because my cucumbers weren't fresh. I believe that because I bought them in a store. It's hard to tell how old they were by the time I bought them. First rule of thumb is to make sure they are fresh. 

 

Back in the day, women in my family always used alum. 

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Thank you, ladies! We have a few oak trees on our property, so I'll try one or two jars next time. I think we have grapes still alive, too (one week of too high temperatures did some in), so I'll try those too. I have whatever Ball uses for pickles and used that yesterday. We'll see how it goes. My cucumbers were less than a week old, I got them at the farmer's market on Saturday. Is that fresh enough? :shrug:

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