Refrigerator Pickles

Refrigerator Pickles

A colleague of Dork was nice enough to share the abundance of his summer garden, so today I find myself with a handful of cucumbers. Dork likes to eat plain cucumbers, but I find them a little bland for my taste, and well, Quirky won't touch them at all. That being said, there is just no way Dork will eat all of these cucumbers before they go bad. So instead of letting all these beautiful cucumbers go to waste I decided to make a quick batch of refrigerator pickles. That way both Dork and I can enjoy them. They are super simple to make. Here is what I did.

Refrigerator Pickles

4 cups cucumbers

2 cups vinegar

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. salt

                                                                   1 tsp. garlic powder

First you need to wash and scrub your cucumbers, removing any soil from the skins. At this point you can peel them if you want, or do like I did and leave the peel on. I like the slight snap that the peel provides, when biting into the pickle. Dry your cucumbers and get them ready for the next step. 

Next slice your cucumbers into medium sized slices. Slicing them this way allows for a little bit of crispness to the pickles. 

In a container with a lid, stir together your vinegar, sugar, salt, and garlic powder. I used a 4 cup plastic container, but you can use any container with a tight fitting lid. Continue stirring until most of the sugar is dissolved. 

Add in your sliced cucumbers, pressing down and adjusting your space as needed. Try placing the larger slices in first and then fitting the smaller slices in around them. 

Close lid tightly and shake and turn to make sure cucumbers are completely coated. Refrigerate at least two days before serving. Through out the two days that they are refrigerating, turn and shake the cucumbers to keep coated. 

Now if you can just wait the two days. These pickles turn out sweet with just a hint of garlic. In other words, delicious.