Sweet Dill Pickles – Simple Canning Recipe (Video)

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Sweet dill pickles are one of my family’s favorite things that we preserve for our homestead pantry each year.  We have a lot of pickled foods in our pantry including pickled beets, dill pickles, and banana pickles, but when I send my kids to the pantry to get a side dish for a meal, they almost always come back with at least two jars of sweet dill pickles.  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.  

We always add grape leaves from our orchard to each jar of pickles, which makes them very crisp even after canning.  We don’t can them for very long because the vinegar and sugar act as a preservative for these pickles.  The purpose of canning them is just to get them hot enough to seal the jars so they can be stored on the shelves of our pantry, and not take up valueable refrigerator space.

How To Enjoy Sweet Dill Pickles

• On hamburgers
• In chicken salad or potato salad
• They are a great addition to any meal

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 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.
• 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.

Ingredients

Cucumbers

Use the freshest pickles you can find.  You can keep cucumbers fresh in a plastic bag in your refrigerator for up to two weeks until you have time to make these pickles, but the fresher the better of course.

Garlic

I like to use the large garlic cloves that come from the garlic we grow in our very own garden.  But use whatever garlic you have.  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.

Fresh Dill

Dill is very easy to grow.  I usually sprinkle some dill seed into a corner spot in my garden at the same time that I plant my cucumbers and then I have dill ready to harvest when it’s time to make pickles.  If you can’t find any dill, ask your neighbors and garden friends as they may very well have some.  You can use dill heads or the leaves, although the dill heads will have the best flavor.

Grape Leaves

Grape leaves are optional, but the tannins in the grape leaves will keep the pickles really crisp.

White Vinegar

Sugar

Salt

I like to use Redmond real salt, but you can use whatever you have.

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Tools You May Need

• Canning Jars – I like to use 1-quart wide-mouth glass jars.  You can find jars at garage sales or auctions, or you can also purchase them from Azure Standard.
• Jar Lids – I always get the best seal rate (most of the time it’s 100%) using the For Jars canning lids.
• Crinkle Cutter
• Cutting Board
• Pairing Knives
• Boiling Water Bath Canner
• Jar Lifter
• Camp Chef Stove – this works really well for outdoor canning
• Large Mixing Bowls – we like to chop all of our cucumbers and put them into large bowls, then start stuffing the jars with all of the ingredients.
• Large Pot – I use this for heating up the brine
• Measuring Cup – I like to use a 2 cup measuring cup for ladling the brine into the jars.  It hangs easily on the side of my pot when not in use..

How To Make Sweet Dill Pickles

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.  

It’s best to wait at least 2-3 weeks before trying the pickles.  This will give them time to absorb the brine and have the best flavor.  

Serve pickle slices alongside any meal, on hamburgers, in chicken salad or tuna salad sandwiches, or eat plain as a delicious snack.

Enjoy all year long!