Hungarian Summer Dill Pickles

Homemade dill pickles in a jar
Bill Boch / Getty Images
Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 0 mins
Total: 10 mins
Servings: 32 servings

These Hungarian summer pickles are fermented by the heat of the sun, so they should be made in the summer or in warm climates. It's from Linda Ziedrich's "The Joy of Pickling" (The Harvard Common Press, 1998), and it's one of the easiest ways to pickle cucumbers.
Best of all, you can vary the amount from 1 quart to as many gallons as you like, and they only take 5 days to mature. Since they are not canned, they must be refrigerated, where they will hold nicely for several weeks.

The ingredient list calls for 1 head of dill in addition to a frond of dill (the feathery part). A dill head is the flowering part of the dill plant when it is ready to go to seed and from which dill seed is obtained. If you don't grow your own dill or have access to a dill head, use more of the feathery part.

Ingredients

  • 1 quart pickling cucumbers (3 to 5 inches)
  • 1 tablespoon  pickling salt or kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons white vinegar
  • 1 fresh dill head
  • 1 frond of dill
  • 2 cups water

Steps to Make It

  1. Gently wash the cucumbers, and remove the blossom ends. Using a knife, slit the cucumbers through lengthwise just short of the end, so they are still attached.

  2. Place pickling salt or kosher salt, white vinegar, and dill head and dill frond into a narrow-mouth quart jar. Pack cucumbers tightly into jar so they won't float, leaving 1 inch headspace. Pour in water to cover and cap the jar with a nonreactive lid.

  3. Place the jar outside in the sun or in a sunny window (place a saucer under the jar to catch any drips). Bring the jar in at night. Within 3 days, you should see tiny bubbles, indicating the cucumbers are fermenting. When the tiny bubbles have stopped rising (around 5 days), place in refrigerator. They will keep about 2 weeks, refrigerated.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
2 Calories
0g Fat
1g Carbs
0g Protein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 32
Amount per serving
Calories 2
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0g 0%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 219mg 10%
Total Carbohydrate 1g 0%
Dietary Fiber 0g 0%
Protein 0g
Calcium 7mg 1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)