Save your summer produce with our best Quick-pickling tips and recipes

What is quick-pickling?

Quick-picking is a method of jarring fresh food in a brine solution to extend its shelf life. Unlike traditional pickling, or canned pickles, quick pickles need to be stored in the refrigerator where they will last up to 2 months.

What’s in a brine?

A basic brine solution is equal parts vinegar and water, plus salt and sugar depending on your taste preference.

Basic Brine Recipe:

• 1 Cup Water
• 1 Cup White Vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon Non-iodized Salt (Kosher, Sea Salt, Pickling Salt)
• 1 Teaspoon Sugar

⚠️HOT TIP⚠️

Use white vinegar, apple cider, white wine, and rice vinegar instead of malt or balsamic vinegar for the best pickle flavor.

‘Bread and Butter’ pickles by Bayou Creek Farmstead // Quick pickled radishesby Felice

Let’s get pickling!

1: Prepare your vegetables - using fresh vegetables, clean and slice them into spears or round slices. You can also leave smaller vegetables whole if they fit in the jar.

You can pickle raw vegetables, but some prefer to blanch, steam, or dry roast them before pickling to help maintain their color and texture.

2: Stuff vegetables in a clean jar - leave about 1 inch of space at the top.

3: Add spices and aromatics - Try fresh or dried herbs, garlic cloves, pieces of ginger, whole or ground spices… the taste is up to you!

4: Make your brine - add vinegar, water, salt and sugar to a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil and stir to dissolve the salt and sugar. Pour into the jar of vegetables, leaving 1/2 inch of space at the top.

5: Tap and seal - tap your jars on the counter to release any trapped air bubbles and put the lids on the jars, sealing them tightly.

6: Cool and refrigerate - leave the jars to cool at room temperature before storing them in the fridge. Let your vegetables pickle for at least 24 hours (48 hours is best) before cracking them open and enjoying! The flavor improves the longer you leave them.

7: Enjoy for up to 2 months!

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Pickles not quick enough?

If you can’t wait a day or two to eat your pickles, you can slice your vegetables super thinly and have them ready in less than an hour! This works best for onions, cucumbers, and carrots. Check out these recipes for the method:

Pickled Red Onion⏱ 2hrRed Onion, Lime, Vinegar, Salt, Alkaline water

Pickled Cucumber - Asian Cucumber SaladPersian/Japanese cucumbers, garlic (grated), grated ginger, chili pepper or 1/2 teaspoon of chili hot oil, soy sauce

What will you pickle?

Here are some more recipes to get you inspired!

Pickled Green beans and Cucumbersgreen beans, big cucumber, garlic sliced in two, whole black pepper, dry red chillies broken into 2

Quick Pickle (Cucumber)⏱ 20 mins · 📸 2cucumbers Persian, garlic (sliced or halved, dill fresh (4 sprigs), coriander seeds, whole peppercorns

Lemon chilli quick picklegreen thin layered lemons cut into quarters, Green chilli Indian slim, salt, red chilli powder, black pepper powder

Quick pickled jalapeño rings - i hear this are great on nachoslarge jalapeno peppers, sliced, sugar (I like these kind of sweet, so use less or no sugar if you don’t), white distilled vinegar, water, kosher salt

Pickled Red Beet Eggs (PA Dutch)⏱ 20 mins · 📸 2Hard Boiled Eggs, Sliced Red Beets, strained and liquid reserved, Sugar, Salt, Apple Cider Vinegar

Happy pickling! 🧡

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