Making Garlic Dill Pickles

I'm a dill pickle fiend – maybe from growing up in Montreal? – so I can't believe I've never tried this before. I got six pints of organic pickling cucumbers and this gorgeous bouquet of dill at the Withrow Farmer's Market, and worked out the recipe proportions from the book Put a Lid on It! by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard (the recipe called "Fast Favourite Garlic Dill Pickles".)

You fill two jars from one pint basket of vegetables, it turns out. All you have to do is take a thin slice off the top and bottom, and slice the big ones in halves or quarters. You boil the jars in the canner, and prepare a brine of 1 cup of water to 1 cup of white vinegar to 1 tbsp of preserving salt, which is coarse salt that's available in regular grocery stores. Make as much as you think you'll need, depending how many cukes you buy.

When the brine has come to a boil, you fill each jar with a head of dill, a clove of garlic and as many pickles as will fit, leaving the top ½-inch empty. Then you simply cover the pickles with brine (leaving ½-inch of head room) and process them at boiling point in the canner for 15 minutes. (I have much more detail about sterilizing and processing jars in my piece about making raspberry jam.) I used a sturdy mug and a jam-making funnel to fill the jars, which meant I didn't pour scalding brine all over the place.

The most satisfying part about the whole process (apart from the fact that the dill heads are so lovely) was reusing a dozen mason jars that came with soup or pasta sauce. You can get the replacement snap lids (with or without the screw-on bands) at most hardware stores and even chains like Zellers and Wal-Mart. They're easy to wash, and you can get the labels off quickly in a soapy sink. I feel awful whenever I recycle them. This is much better.