The BEST Half Sour Pickles recipe there is! These easy homemade pickles taste just like New York Crunchy pickles. No canning is needed to make these delicious pickles, just throw them in the refrigerator for a few days! Make them to find out why they’re so popular!
How to Make Half Sour Pickles
If I could stand on top of a mountain and yell one thing, it would be “I love pickles!” Seriously, I can’t get enough of them — they’re crunchy, briny, and just hit the spot any time of day. Whether I’m grabbing a quick snack or adding them to a burger, they’re always my go-to. If you’re a pickle lover like me, don’t miss out on my tangy, heartwarming Polish Dill Pickle Soup! It’s the perfect comfort food that’s packed with all the pickle goodness.
Right now, my cucumber plants are in full swing, and we’ve been busy picking and pickling those fresh kirby cucumbers. Did you know cucumbers are one of the easiest veggies to grow? I currently have 6 mason jars full of pickles in my fridge! And it’s not just cucumbers — I also love experimenting with other pickled veggies, like Pickled Red Onions, spicy Pickled Okra, and some classic Pickled Green Tomatoes. Each of them brings something unique to the table!
If you’re ever in Brooklyn and find yourself craving a pickle, you know where to come! After years of swooning over the pickles at all the NYC pickle spots, I’ve finally perfected the art of making the perfect half sour pickle. Trust me, it’s totally worth it!
Half Sour Pickles Recipe
A few notes about these half sour beauties:
- Half sour pickles are made using a saltwater brine instead of vinegar, which gives them a milder, less acidic flavor. The saltwater helps draw out the natural flavors from the cucumbers while encouraging fermentation, which is what gives half sours their signature tang. This method allows the pickles to retain a more crisp texture and fresh taste, unlike the more tart, preserved flavor found in traditional vinegar-based pickles.
- I recommend letting these pickles sit in the fridge for at least 4 days before digging in. After that, they’re so irresistible, you might find yourself finishing the jar in just a day or two. However, if you have some self-control, they can last for several weeks in the fridge.
- Kirby cucumbers are the best for pickles, but honestly any cucumber if you can fit it into the jar will work.
Refrigerator Pickles Recipe
-If you don’t have Kirby cucumbers, no worries! For larger cucumbers, it’s a good idea to cut them into spears so they fit better in the jar. Just keep in mind that cutting the cucumbers exposes more surface area, which means the pickles may taste saltier as the flesh absorbs more brine.
-Please don’t skip on the seasonings. These pickles soak alongside delicious garlic, fresh dill, peppercorns, coriander seeds, mustard seeds and bay leaves.
-This recipe uses a half gallon mason jar. The ingredients and amount of water to salt ratio in this recipe is for this sized jar.
-For premium crunch and crispness, I suggest using Ball Pickle Crisp. It works great to keep that fresh crunch and prevents they from becoming soft.
Fresh kirby cucumbers just picked from the garden!
One of the yummy herbs in this recipe is coriander seeds. If you have a cilantro plant and you neglect it, it will turn into coriander seeds. Awesome, right? I always do this every year so I get fresh coriander to last until next harvest season.
You can use a mortar and pestle to crush your dry ingredients or you can be like me and just use a tool (I don’t know the name of this so let’s just go with “tool”) to bash it all together. A rolling pin works great too. So does a hammer.
Put your cucumbers in the jar, then add your garlic.
Then your crushed dry ingredients.
Pick a few pieces of fresh dill. Doesn’t it smell great?
Then add your salt water and fresh dill.
Keep filling your jar with water until your cucumbers are completely covered. In the jar above, a little bit of the salt water still needs to be added.
Now it’s the hard part.. waiting for a few days to eat them!
But when it’s time… it will be worth it!
If you are making batches as you harvest, and you use similar jars sometimes it gets confusing to keep track of the ones that have been sitting the longest. To do this I use chalk or a Sharpie and write on the lid. #1 = eat first, #2 = eat next, #3 = eat next next.. etc.
Enjoy! 🙂
If you try this Half Sour Pickles recipe, please leave a comment or share it on Instagram with tag #brooklynfarmgirl – I’m always looking for photos to feature and share!
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Half Sour Pickles
PrintIngredients
- 5 kirby cucumbers or however many you can fit into your jar
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
- few pieces of fresh dill
- 3 bay leaves
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 cup sea salt
- 6 cups water
- additional whole coriander seeds and peppercorns to add on top
Instructions
- Wash your cucumbers.
- Dissolve your sea salt in the water.
- Grind up all the dry ingredients (coriander, mustard seeds, peppercorns, 2 bay leaves). If you don’t have a mortar/pestle, throw it in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush them.
- Put the cucumbers in your jar.
- Put the minced garlic in the jar, then ground up spices, then pour the salt water mixture on top. If you have any water left, disregard it.
- Add a few pieces of fresh dill on top.
- Add in your additional coriander seeds, peppercorns and bay leaf. If you're using pickle crisp for extra crunch (see recipe notes), I put them in right now.
- Make sure your cucumbers are completely covered in water and close the jar. Give the jar a shake to mix.
- Put in the refrigerator. Let them sit for at least 4 days before eating.
- Enjoy!
Video:
Notes
For a crunchy pickle add 1/4 teaspoon Ball Pickle Crisp Granules at the end.
Jason B says
my brine turned brown. any thoughts? also, how can i get them a bit more sour. they still taste like cucumbers. thanks!!!
Bob Vance says
The half-sour style pickles don’t actually get sour. If you want them to get sour, add vinegar (you can replace the brine with vinegar of your choice, or you can make the brine with 50% water and 50% vinegar. 🙂
sheryl says
They actually do get sour the longer you let them sit the more sour they get your trying to compare dill pickles with half sours which are two totally different pickles
Andrea Eisen says
The best pickles come from this recipe, especially when the cucumbers are fresh off the farm
Jeremy P. says
I cannot get decent half sours where I live. This recipe is a life saver!
Maia says
Found this recipe online after seeing @dougbudin talking about them on instagram and I’m so hooked! Didn’t even wait for more than two days to try and they were great. I will try to re-use the brine for a second batch, hopefully itll work so I’ll get more pickles soon! I also added extra garlic since I looove it!
Jacob Lawrence Archer says
I came across your recipe for half sour pickles back in 2016. I have been making them ever since. These are the pickles I am used to having with my pastrami or corned beef since they taste like the ones at the deli.. I am glad to see that folks are making these pickles because to buy them at the store, the prices are ridiculous! Eating a vinegar pickle doesn’t come close to the crispness of making your own pickles.. I am making them now to have with my pastrami.
Desiree says
I have made this recipe several times for my husband. He really loves them. We were having a hard time finding half sour pickles in the store. When he came across this recipe he asked me to make them. He was hooked. Now he always asks when am I going to make them again. Are they ready yet? I am in the process of making them again today.
Pamela says
Hahaha that makes me so happy to hear Desiree! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Irene J says
Made it a couple of times and they came great. I’m hooked. Thanks for sharing.
Dan says
Can you tell me how long these may last in the fridge? Love the freshness of the recipe.
Pamela says
These will last in the fridge for a few weeks, I have some in my fridge now (I made a bunch!) that are about 6 weeks old and still great. Good luck not eating them all quickly though! 🙂
Michael Blick says
This looks like a great recipe. Are these technically fermented?
Jeff Goldner says
My go to recipe for my favorite pickles – I grew up in a deli! Quick and easy, but no compromise on the flavor. These are better than what I can get in a jar, which is infrequent.
Now that the cukes are in abundance, I put up a quart jar at a time. I use the full quantity of spices above (ground in a spice grinder for a few seconds), and half the garlic and half the brine.
Ronnie Dinin says
I just tasted mine My half sours are much too salty Anything I can do yo fix it now that they’re done
GJF says
I really wish that Americans would learn to use the metric system so the majority of us could actually figure out how to make these without spending a good 30 minutes trying to do the conversions.
Fatso Pockertix says
Google is your friend, here. 1 minute tops to convert the recipe to metric, or any other conversions you may need. Feet to rods or hands? Yup. Cups to liters? Yup. Pounds to metric? Yup. Pounds Sterling to the yen? Yup. Lazy dumbasses who would rather complain than thank someone for an excellent recipe? Well one doesn’t need Google for that.
Dave Lipstreu says
How much water is used to make the brine? Im using quart jars, but the cucumbers only permit the addition of so much brine, perhaps 2 cups? I tried 1/8 cup of salt to 3 cups of water, and it was insufficiently salty. Using 1/4 cup of salt to the same amount of water is far too salty! what is the salt to water mixture for quart jars? Thank you so much!
David Kapral says
the salt to water ratio is a part to total calculation. It all depends on the strength you might be looking for. We have settled in on a brine strength of 4.32% . I make up a whole gallon and use what is needed for the amount of pickles that I happen to have, and discard the remaining. I find that easier to do than to try to figure out how much to add to a pint jar when the amount of water suddenly becomes a variable and my ratio goes out of whack.
BRINE STRENGTH ON A PART TO TOTAL WEIGHT BASIS
Tablespoons salt Converted to Grams Salt Grams water (1 gallon) Total Sol’n wt. (grams) Calculated Brine Strength, part to total
7 Tbsp. 119 3785 3904 3.05%
8 Tbsp. 136 3785 3921 3.47%
9 Tbsp. 154 3785 3939 3.91%
10 Tbsp. 171 3785 3956 4.32%
11 Tbsp. 188 3785 3973 4.73%
12 Tbsp. 198 3785 3983 4.97%
The Excel calculation for 10 Tbsp. ,171-gram salt, in one gallon of water is shown below
Brine Strength =(171/(3785+171))*100 ═ 4.32%
DESIREE BERGER says
I have made this recipe three times. My boyfriend really loves the pickles. I use quart jugs instead of a gallon jug. I measure the water in a gallon pitcher and divide the spices evenly with a tsp.
Gary bishop says
Love the pickles as do all my friends, can brine be used on sliced Jalapeño, radishes and onions?
Pamela says
I don’t see why not!
Daniel says
Great recipe! I do something quite similar, but leave my jars at room temperature with airlock fitted lids. Once the airlock goes down, into the fridge.
David Kapral says
We have tried totally fermenting in the fridge compared to fermenting ~5 days at room temp then transferring to the fridge. Fermenting at room temp 1st makes for a far better and more interesting pickle.
Eve Gruskin says
I love these pickles. My only concern is they keep getting saltier as the days go by. After the 4 days of pickling can we remove part of the salty brine and add more water?
Paula Silberman says
Unbelievably perfect. I’m Brooklyn born but live in Canada now People here haven’t even known what a half sour pickle is. Now that I’ve made them, everybody does. And LOVES them. Still can’t find them in stores here.
Scotty T says
I’ve made these several times, spot on to Ted’s Montana. I don’t care for canning, make them as I want them. Now im freestyling off of it, waiting to find out how my jalapeño onion version turns out.
Laura says
I can’t wait to try this recipe! I moved out west three years ago and long for a NY pickle! I used to live in the Hudson Valley and enjoyed Gary’s Pickles. This recipe looks like it might work out just great! I have one question, do I use the Ball Pickle Crisp in addition to salt?
F says
I’m not the author but yes, you use both salt and pickle crisp. You only use a small amount of pickle crisp – the flavor and preservation of the pickles comes from the salt.
Dolores says
Can these be canned?
Carol Cuevas says
Cucumbers are coming in nice this year. I can’t give enough away. And with a solid rain everyday this week, sometimes a cucumber will come in a bit large….Like the size of my forearm…..Those are great to brag on, but will go bitter within a day or 2. So I tried your recipe immediately.
I had to cut them into spears, and packed them in the jar. Didn’t need as much brine, but as I eat them, I add a bit of the leftover brine so the pickles stay covered. Also, I didn’t have fresh dill. I used freeze dried dill which is fine, but will make sure I have the fresh next time.
These pickles taste just like the ones I used to get at the delis when I lived in the city. They are fantastic! And only after 2 days. I couldn’t help myself.
This recipe is a keeper. Thanks!
Rob q says
These are standard dill pickles. To sour pickles, they need to sit 8-12 weeks in fridge. THAT is the only way to call them sour, fermentation has to activate.
Pamela says
Hey Rob, these are sour pickles. Try making them for yourself and see if you can resist. 🙂
Jen says
When you say 1/4 cup of sea salt, do you mean coarse or fine? I only have fine. Thank you!
Pamela says
Hey Jen, I think I answered your question on Instagram too (that was you, right?) but fine sea salt is perfect to use!
Robert says
I have made these a few times with mixed results, a few great batches and one very bad batch. Someone suggested that I use bottled water, as the chlorine in city water will affect the pickling process. I wonder if you have considered that.
Pamela says
No, I use tap water every single time. FWIW, NYC has really great tap water though, so feel free to use what you feel most comfortable with.
Yulia says
Turned out really well. Delicious. 🙂
Timmy says
Been looking for a good recipe. Can the brine be used for several batches?
Pamela says
You can definitely reuse the brine, but I wouldn’t use it more than 2 batches – the brine gets weaker and the pickles aren’t as good in my opinion.
Mitzi says
First time making pickles and these came out perfect! Husband loves half sours and he gobbled these up!
Lowell Dreyfus says
after 4 days do i leave pickles in the brine??
Pamela says
Yes, just leave everything in the jar.
Mikki B says
I made this recipe exactly as written. Four days later I was reliving the days of my youth, when my Dad would take me to a famous NY deli, where I would eat them by the bowl! Absolutely delicious – crunchy, garlicky, and the best recipe I’ve tried. The only thing I would do differently is to cut the salt by a third. I’m a fairly heavy salt user, but they just had a small ‘touch salt’ aftertaste for my liking. Otherwise, GREAT! Thank you so much for this recipe. I will be making it often
Heather Upham says
Can I divide the brine equally and use two 32Oz jars?
Pamela says
Absolutely! I do it all the time. 🙂