Make your own pickles?

[T.G]

Originally Posted by TheBeard

Yes, but you'll find that the "pickling cucumbers" make better pickles--they're shorter and fatter. Standard pickles might do alright, but they'll probably end up getting quite soft during the pickling process.

That's exactly what happens to them. I made two one gallon jars of "regular" cucumber pickle slices a month or so ago when I couldn't get pickling cucumbers at the farmers market here. On the thinner slices the cores got very soggy and some collapsed entirely. The thicker slices held together though.

Also, I discovered for "regular" cucumbers, you need to peel them, as the rinds tend to stay rather tough for a long time in the brine.

On the recipe I used - it started out a number of years ago as Alton Brown's Bread and Butter pickles, which are really good, but I grew tired of the B&B and was looking to re-create a real deli pickle ala Chasens or Jerry's. Ended up cutting the sugar way back, yes there is still some in there to balance things (you can't taste it - but it rounds out the flavor), omitting the turmeric, cutting the celery seed quantity down, and using nothing but distilled white vinegar (it's cheap) rather than the fancy vinegars he calls for - I also upped the amount of vinegar a bit, about the called for amount of pickling spices, with some additional brown mustard seed and a metric asston worth of chopped fresh garlic in the jar with the slices. While I didn't duplicate the deli pickle I was aiming for, but I'm really liking the results.