Sweet Dill Pickle Recipe
Every summer our garden seems to produce cucumbers faster than we can eat them, which means it's time to start making this homemade sweet dill pickle recipe. If you're looking for an easy sweet dill pickle recipe that stays crisp and has the perfect balance of garlic, fresh dill, vinegar, and sweetness, this family recipe is one you'll make year after year. Whether you're stocking your pantry with home-canned food or learning more about food preservation, these sweet dill pickles are a delicious way to enjoy your cucumber harvest long after gardening season is over. We enjoy them all winter long with burgers on our sourdough discard hamburger buns recipe, or as a side dish to our chicken melts recipe.
Quick Look: Sweet Dill Pickles
- ⏱️ Prep Time: 20 minutes
- 🍳 Cook Time: 10 minutes
- 🕒 Total Time: 30 minutes
- 👥 Servings: 6 quarts
- 📊 Calories: ~15 kcal per serving (based on nutrition panel)
- 🔥 Cook Method: Camp chef stove in a waterbath canner
- 👩🍳 Flavor Profile: Crisp and tangy with a bright, sweet-sour balance and aromatic dill notes.
- ⭐ Difficulty: Quick and easy
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- A great way to preserve fresh garden cucumbers before they go bad during peak harvest season.
- Shelf-stable pantry food so you can enjoy homemade pickles all year long.
- Uses simple garden ingredients including fresh dill, garlic, and cucumbers.
- Stays wonderfully crisp thanks to grape leaves and a short water bath processing time.
- Perfect for burgers, sandwiches, potato salad, and charcuterie boards. We also like to add some extra crunch to this cold beef sandwich recipe with this easy pickle recipe.
- Pairs perfectly with other home canning recipes like this canned pickled beets recipe, these canned glazed carrots, or these pickled garlic scapes, so you can fill your pantry with homemade food instead of store-bought convenience items.
Ingredients
- Garlic - get my best tips on how to grow garlic at home. Our favorite part of the whole jar of pickles is the garlic. In fact, I usually try to make several jars of pickled garlic using this sweet dill brine.
For a full list of ingredients needed to make this recipe, see the recipe card below.
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How To Make This Sweet Dill Pickle Recipe
- Step 1: Slice cucumbers into ¼” thin slices using a crinkle cutter or knife and add to a large bowl.
- Step 2: In the bottom of each jar, place 1-2 grape leaves, 2 cloves of garlic and 1-2 heads of dill.
- Step 3: Pack cucumber slices, or even whole cucumbers into jars.
- Step 4: Once your jars are filled with cucumbers, estimate how much brine you will need based on how many jars you have. I figure about 2 cups of brine per quart, and 1 cup per pint jar, depending on how tightly you packed your cucumbers into the jars. Mix up your brine (pickling liquid) in a large pot. Stir well until sugar dissolves and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. I like to use my outdoor Camp Chef stove, so I don’t heat up the house. Put 4-5” of water in the bottom of your boiling water canner and start it heating up.
- Step 5: Wipe the rims of each jar to make sure they are clean. Place the lids and rings on the jars. Note: If you'd like to skip the canning the process and just make easy refrigerator pickles, you can place the jars in the refrigerator at this point.
- Step 6: Once the water in the canner comes to a boil, place jars in the canner and start the timer for 10 minutes.
- Step 7: After 10 minutes, remove jars and turn upside down to keep the heat on the lids. This will help them to seal.
- Step 8: Let them set for a few hours or overnight at room temperature. Check to make sure the lids are sealed and remove the rings.
Tips For Making This Sweet Dill Pickle Recipe
- Use fresh grape leaves in each mason jar to help keep the pickles crisp. The tannins in the grape leaves will help to keep them crisp.
- I always make these pickles in quarts because we like them so much, but you can use pint jars if you prefer.
- I like to use fresh garlic and dill from my garden to make these pickles. It cuts down on the cost and gives them the freshest flavor.
- Fresh crisp cucumbers will make the crispest pickles. If you’re not harvesting very many cucumbers at a time, you can put them into a plastic grocery sack in the refrigerator for a week or two until you get enough to make it worth your time making pickles.
- I like to use a crinkle cutter to slice the cucumbers for making these easy sweet dill pickles, but a knife works fine too.
- The best way to make these homemade pickles is to get all your ingredients prepped, and then you can quickly assemble each jar.
- Fill all your jars with cucumbers before making your brine. Then you’ll know how much brine you will need to make so you don’t have much if any leftover. I figure about 2 cups of brine will fit into a quart jar with the cucumbers and other ingredients. 1 cup of brine would fill a pint jar filled with all the other ingredients.
- It’s important not to overprocess these jars when canning them, or else the pickles can get soft. I like to put my jars with the hot brine in them into my boiling water bath canner, and immediately start the timer for 10 minutes. This means that they aren’t actually boiling for the full 10 minutes because by the time the canner comes back to a boil, it’s probably more like 5-7 minutes. But I’ve always found that that’s plenty of time to get the jars to seal.
- We always make these pickles with sliced cucumbers, but you could use whole cucumbers as well.
- For spicy sweet dill pickles, add a couple of slices of jalapeno pepper to the top of each jar.
Sweet Dill Pickle Recipe FAQs
What is the secret to crisp dill pickles?
The secret to crisp pickles is using small, freshly picked cucumbers. Adding grape leaves to each jar also helps to increase the crispness because they contain natural tannins that keep the cell wall of the cucumber intact.
Can I make these into refrigerator pickles?
Yes, you can make these sweet dill pickles into refrigerator pickles by just skipping the canning process and putting these in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks.
Other Favorite Canning Recipes
If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21. I can’t wait to see what all you make!
Sweet Dill Pickles - Simple Canning Recipe (Video)
Sweet dill pickles are one of my family’s favorite things that we preserve for our homestead pantry each year. The garlic and dill combined with a sweet brine make the best pickles. They have a nice sweet taste that is balanced out by the dill and garlic.
Equipment
- Canning Jars - I like to use 1-quart wide-mouth glass jars.
- Jar Lids - I always get the best seal rate using the For Jars canning lids.
- Crinkle Cutter
- cutting board
- Pairing Knives
- Boiling Water Bath Canner
- jar lifter
- Camp Chef Stove
- Large Mixing Bowls
- Large pot
- measuring cup
Ingredients
- Cucumbers sliced
- Garlic peeled
- Grape Leaves
- Dill - fresh flowering dill heads
- Pickling Liquid
- Makes About 10-12 Cups Of Brine Which Should Fill Approximately 6 Quart Jars Of Pickles
- 6 cups water
- 2 cups white vinegar
- 4 cups of sugar
- ¼ cup salt
Instructions
- The best way to make these homemade pickles is to get all your ingredients prepped, and then you can quickly assemble each jar.
- I like to wash all my jars first and allow them to air dry on a towel. I always make these pickles in quarts because we like them so much, but you can use pint jars if you prefer.
- Slice cucumbers into ¼” thin slices using a crinkle cutter or knife and add to a large bowl.
- Peal enough garlic cloves to have two for each quart jar.
- Gather dill and grape leaves.
- In the bottom of each jar, place 1-2 grape leaves, 2 cloves of garlic and 1-2 heads of dill.
- Pack cucumber slices into jars.
- Once your jars are filled with cucumbers, estimate how much brine you will need based on how many jars you have. I figure about 2 cups of brine per quart, and 1 cup per pint jar.
- Mix up your brine (pickling liquid) in a large pot. Stir well until sugar dissolves and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. I like to use my outdoor camp chef stove so I don’t heat up the house.
- Put 4-5” of water in the bottom of your boiling water canner and start it heating up as well. Be sure to put the trivet that came with your canner in the bottom of the canner so the jars aren’t sitting directly on the bottom of the canner.
- Once the brine is boiling, pour it over the jars full of cucumbers using a 2 cup measuring cup. I find this is the easiest way to fill the jars, and the measuring cup hangs easily on the side of my brine pot.
- Wipe the rims of each jar to make sure they are clean. Place the lids and rings on the jars.
- Note: If you'd like to skip the canning the process, and just make easy refrigerator pickles, you can just place the jars in the refrigerator at this point.
- Once the water in the canner comes to a boil, place jars in the canner and start the timer for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, remove jars and turn upside down to keep the heat on the lids. This will help them to seal.
- Let them set for a few hours or overnight at room temperature. Check to make sure the lids are sealed and remove the rings.
- Label and put on your pantry shelf.
Video
Notes
- Use fresh grape leaves in each mason jar to help keep the pickles crisp. The tannins in the grape leaves will help to keep them crisp.
- I like to use fresh garlic and dill from my garden to make these pickles. It cuts down on the cost and gives them the freshest flavor.
- Fresh crisp cucumbers will make the crispest pickles. If you’re not harvesting very many cucumbers at a time, you can put them into a plastic grocery sack in the refrigerator for a week or two until you get enough to make it worth your time making pickles.
- I like to use a crinkle cutter to slice the cucumbers for making these easy sweet dill pickles, but a knife works fine too.
- For spicy sweet dill pickles, add a couple of slices of jalapeno pepper to the top of each jar.
This is a great recipe, thank you!
Great flavor!