Today on The Stay At Home Chef
I'm showing you how to make Easy Overnight Refrigerator Pickles.
Refrigerator pickles always remind me of my grandpa.
He was an avid gardener and I swear he always had pickles in the refrigerator.
Not only are refrigerator pickles delicious, they only require a few simple ingredients,
and they're super easy to make.
You'll need white vinegar,
sugar, salt,
whole garlic, and whole black peppercorns,
as well as dill and cucumbers.
You'll also need a container to keep your pickles in.
You can use any food storage container with a lid,
or you can also use a mason jar.
You'll also need to decide what kind of cucumber you're going to use.
You can use mini or pickling cucumbers, you could also use a regular cucumber,
or what I prefer is an English cucumber.
English cucumbers have a thinner skin and are a little bit sweeter,
but any kind of cucumber you want to use should work.
Next you need to decide what shape to cut them into.
With mini or pickling cucumbers, the best thing to do is cut off the ends,
and then slice in half or in quarters depending on their size,
so that you end up with pickle spears.
Well they're just cucumber spears for now, but they're about to become pickle spears.
So I'm going to put these into my container, then I'll show you how to slice a regular cucumber.
Well not that you need to know how to slice it.
You can slice these thin though, or you can go a little bit thicker,
it really is a matter of personal preference, whether you want thin or thick pickles.
If you're not using an English cucumber you may want to peel off some of the peels,
and of course you don't have to cut these cucumbers into slices,
you can also cut them into spears as well, just get a good 3 inch chunk of cucumber,
slice it in half, then you can go half again depending on the size,
or you can go thirds, or even in quarters if you have a really fat cucumber.
Once your cucumbers are all prepped and cut we're going to grab a saucepan and head on over to the stove.
To make your pickling liquid you'll need 1 1/2 cups of distilled white vinegar,
and you're gonna pour that into your saucepan over medium-high heat.
Then we'll add in 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of salt,
1 teaspoon of whole black peppercorns, and 3 whole cloves of garlic.
And then we're gonna bring this to a boil.
The act of heating the liquid causes the chemical reaction
which will ensure that your sugar and salt do not separate from the vinegar
and end up in a pile on the bottom of your container.
Once it comes to a boil,
that should be just enough to dissolve the sugar and salt,
we'll remove this from the heat,
and then we're gonna pour all of this in directly with our cucumbers,
and make sure all of the peppercorns and garlic end up in the jar as well.
Sometimes I even use like the edge of a spoon or measuring spoon to stuff the garlic down.
Then you'll want to place the lid on whatever container you're using,
and let this cool at room temperature for about 1 hour.
After an hour it's time to add in our dill, because of course who doesn't love a good dill pickle.
You don't want to add in your dill while the liquids are hot,
otherwise it will wilt.
So just add it in later,
and you'll want to add in about 3-4 sprigs depending on their size.
And then one fun lasts twist if you like spice,
you can add in 1/4-1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes.
Spread that around in there as well.
That will bring the heat.
Once again we'll place the lid on and place these into the fridge overnight.
Then the next day you'll have delicious refrigerator pickles that are ready to eat.
These should stay good in the fridge for basically as long as it takes you to eat them.
They really should last for months when refrigerated.
Thanks for watching.
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