If you have extra cucumbers from your garden try these Easy Refrigerator Pickles. Simple to make and ready to eat in just 2 days!
Let me tell you about a little secret I’ve learned. Refrigerator Pickles are awesome!!
This is often the scene on our kitchen counter in August and September. We love cucumbers and we love to eat them fresh, but when our plants really get going there can be more than we can eat!
So one of the many creative ideas we have found for using up those extra cucumbers is to make refrigerator pickles. Here’s a photo of our first batch of pickles for the year. I found this recipe online many years ago but over the years we have tweaked it a little to suit our tastes and make it our own.
Refrigerator Pickles Recipe
They are super simple to make, here’s the recipe
- 3 cups of water
- 3 tablespoons of salt (or 2 depending on your likes)
- 6 tablespoons of vinegar (white or pickling)
- A bunch of Dill
- A minced clove of garlic
- Enough cucumber to fill your jar a quart jar and a pint jar
Just mix the water, salt, and vinegar until the salt is dissolved. We like to use either pickling salt or kosher salt, but in a pinch, we have been known to use table salt or sea salt.
Layer the cucumbers, garlic, and dill in the jars and pour in the water mixture. Put it all in the fridge for 48 hours and your all set. Letting them sit in the fridge for at least 48 hours is key! That gives the vinegar and spices time to soak into the cucumbers and give them a nice flavor. If you can give them 3 or 4 days they are even better. You’ll notice I didn’t have any fresh dill so I just used some dried dill weed from the spice rack.
One change to note, after making it a few times we decided that they were too salty. So we have reduced the amount of salt to 2 tablespoons and we like it better. Try it both ways and pick the one you like best!!
These refrigerator pickles are very tasty, very easy and very quick. Everything I have read tells me these will last in the fridge for about a month. But around our house, a batch is lucky to last a week! The batch makes enough liquid to fill a quart jar and a pint jar. If you want a slightly smaller batch just reduce all the ingredients by 1/3.
Love refrigerator pickles! Yours look great and this just may be the kick in the pants I need to get started on making some!
I love refrigerator dills too. So far almost all of our cucumbers have just gone straight to the large jar of refrigerator dills that we keep in the fridge. Very tasty!
Hi! I have made the sweet refrig pickles but never the dills. Will have to try this! Thanks. Nancy
Thank you so much I’m so glad I found this post. I have a sight very similar to your first picture of a handful of cucumbers sitting on my kitchen table without a use! I’m definitely going to make these today!
I’ve gotta try this. I make fermented pickles which have a powerful flavor. I’d like to try refrigerator pickles. Thanks for the recipe and for sharing on the homestead Blog Hop. Pinning!
Do you need to heat the water mixture before adding it to the jars??
Lee, Good question and the answer is no. Just stir it a bit until the salt dissolves and you are good!
Mr. Stoney, Thank you for the quick reply.