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!
If I could stand on top of a mountain I would yell “I love pickles!”. I really do. They’re pretty, they’re crunchy, they’re full of flavor, they hit the right spot in the afternoon when you need a snack, they’re great on a burger, they’re great at 4AM standing in front of the refrigerator.
How to Make Half Sour Pickles
Pickles, they’re just really good.With the cucumber plants in full producing mode right now we have been picking (and pickling!) quite a few kirby cucumbers. Did you know cucumbers are one of the easiest vegetables to grow? We currently have 6 mason jars full of pickles in the refrigerator!
If you are in Brooklyn and are in need of a pickle, I’m your girl! I have been trying to get the perfect half sour pickles after years of swooning at all the NYC pickle places. Finally, I got it just right!
Half Sour Pickles Recipe
A few notes about these half sour beauties:
-These don’t have vinegar in them. You see I have a fear of the smell of vinegar, I just get freaked out. So I have been desperately trying to figure out how to make delicious pickles with seasonings to make up for the lack of vinegar. THIS IS IT! In this one instead of using vinegar we use sea salt water!
-I would leave these in your refrigerator at least 4 days before you bite into one. After that, good luck not finishing the jar in a day or 2. If you have control of your fingers going in the pickle jar though, these last for weeks.
-Kirby cucumbers are the best for pickles.
Refrigerator Pickles Recipe
-If you don’t have Kirbies, that’s totally ok, but I recommend if you are using big cucumbers to cut them up into spears first (they will fit better into the jar most likely too).
-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.
-If your pickles are soft and not crunchy when done, please check out Ball Pickle Crisp. It works great to keep that fresh crunch!
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! 🙂
Looking for more cucumber recipes? Try my Sugar Glazed Cucumber Bread (yes you can bake with cucumbers!), Frosted Cucumber Cookies and Cucumber Tomato Salad!
Update: I shared my favorite Pickled Okra recipe!
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!
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.
- Make sure your cucumbers are completely covered in water and close the jar.
- 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.
Brian says
Something is out of whack with this recipe. First of all, there is no way any human can get these made in 5 minutes, as the recipe states. It’s more like 20 minutes. Second – 5 Kirby cucumbers in a half gallon jar??? Unless you have baseball bat size cukes, a lot more than 5 will fit in a half gallon jar. I got 6 in a quart jar and 4 in a pint jar. Pickle Crisp – recipe says add 1/4 tsp. to a half gallon jar. On the Pickle Crisp jar, it says to add a rounded 1/4 tsp.per quart jar. That would equate to more than a 1/2 tsp. per half gallon jar. Are you sure this recipe isn’t for a quart Mason jar and not a half gallon jar????
Pamela says
Hey Brian. To quickly help you here – yes these are for a half gallon jar. 1) I make these in about 5 minutes but I’ve been making them for years, I’m like a pickle making machine. 🙂 2) As recipe states, “or however many you can fit into your jar” – size can really vary, especially if you’re picking them from the garden in various states of growth. 3) Do what recipe says, add 1/4 teaspoon Ball Pickle Crisp Granules to the half gallon jar. I hope you give these a taste and find out why so many people lvoe them.
Camille Thompson says
Going to try this recipe since it looks good. FYI it is recommenced to cut off the blossom end of the cucumber since there is an enzyme there that will make the pickles soft when pickling.
Vivien says
Just made them. Have to wait four days! What happens if you keep them in the liquid for five or six days? Better or worse?
Pamela says
The hardest part is waiting! 🙂 Just as delicious in my opinion – def not worse.
Sharon Darville says
Thank you for this recipe I will try this soon.
Pamela says
Enjoy Sharon! 🙂
Dianna says
Have you used fresh grape leaves rather than pickle crisp? If so, how many would you use per quart jar?
Pamela says
Hey Dianna, I’ve never tried using grape leaves. Hopefully if someone has, they will comment and help!
Malorie says
Could you process these cucumbers to save for longer than 4 days?
Dani says
Could you please give a weight for the salt (and maybe also state the brand and volume for people who don’t have a kitchen scale)? Different salts have different densities and will therefor give different saltiness to a recipe when measured by volume. Just for example, two big US kosher salts have densities such that 1/4 cup of Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt gives 33.6 grams of salt but 1/4 cup of Morton’s Coarse Kosher Salt gives 57.6 grams. That’s twice as much salt and might explain why some people found the pickles too salty.
Payton's mom says
They were awesome! Shared them today with my sister & brother-in-law. The first thing he asked was – “are they crispy” – I was four feet across from him when he took his first bite. I heard his crunch for sure. He continued by saying I had hit it out of the park. I am so glad my daughter-in-law shared your recipe with me. Waiting the four days was hard but I passed the time by going to the refrigerator to shake the jars as if the pickles were in a snow globe. Checking through Google it does say that I can reuse the brine for another batch unless it becomes cloudy. The recipe will become a family favorite. Thank you.
Pamela says
Your comment made my day! I’m so happy these pickles were a hit with your family! Don’t you love that crunch they make when you bite into one? YUM! Also I’m going to start to think of my jars as snowglobes when I’m shaking them now! – what a lovely visual reference 🙂
Steven Furst says
Hi. I love kosher half sour pickles and have never made them before. Have you tried the pickles that Trader Joe’s sells called Sonoma Brinery Manhattan Style Whole Koshers ? They are great tasting really fizzy with every bite.
I want to start making my own pickles but when I look up the fizzing aspect of pickles it seems like people see that as a deficiency or problem with the pickles. Do yours fizz. Do you know what causes them to fizz. ?
Thanks for reading this. Appreciate your pickle passion!
patti says
i am not sure, but my guess is that the fizzy pickles are fermented. when fermenting anything, if it goes well you do get a fizzy tang on the tongue. i describe my fermented salsa this way. today i am going to make one refrigerator batch and one fermented batch. i hope i get the fizz in my fermented batch – you got me craving it!
Alex A says
Patti is right, they’re fermenting. These are supposed to be fresh pickles, if you like the flavor, great, personally, if I get a fermented jar it goes either back to the store or in the trash. It tends to happen with store-bought because of the time from jarring to table, usually you can tell because the pickles are not bright green, but ruddy olive colored and the brine is cloudy.
Randall Kirk says
Honey, that “Tool”, is an adjustable wrench. The recipe is great! Thanks.
Alex A says
If you’re going to be snarky and condescending sport, at least get the name right. It’s called a Crescent Wrench.
HILLEL POSNER says
HAHA, I love fermented pickles and the comments that go with it. But Alex, I believe it is an “adjustable wrench”. People call them Crescent wrenches because it was a super popular brand of them. Like Kleenex is to tissue. Better be careful before you correct someone. But… Back to those pickles…. YUM
BC says
Awesome and quick!
Pamela says
Happy to hear you liked the pickles, thanks for commenting!
Vera Acker says
I used this recipe to pickle watermelon rinds. Soooo Yummy!
Pamela says
Yum! That sounds delicious Vera! Thanks for sharing!
Kevin R Thomas says
How long will they last in fridge… I make about 50 quarts of Pickles every summer? Thanks Much
Mark says
I turned out awesome in the end. Followed your recipe. After 4 days I could not wait and I tried one. It just tasted really salty to me. So not wanting to waste anything , I dumped 80% of the liquid out and filled the jar with vinegar. Tried it 2 days later and had FULL sour pickles 🙂
Matthew says
I want to make these but I only have ground black pepper, ground coriander, ground mustard. Additionally, I have a premise pickling spice from my co-op that I could use. How much of each of these would be equivalent for your recipe?
Deb H. says
Indian grocery stores carry all the ingredients for making a pickling spice mix. A recipe for a pickling spice mix can be found at NPR’s article.
Kris says
How long will they last before going bad?
Jimmy says
FANTASTIC Recipe….Have not had pickles this good in years….Thanks for the tip about …Pickle Crisp…..Never have to buy at store again…..Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!!!!!!!
Pamela says
So happy to hear you liked them Jimmy! Thank you for commenting! 🙂
Ben says
Excellent recipe. I reused a 46 oz Great Value jar of pickles I had bought from Walmart and managed to just stuff it with 5 pickles (no more could fit). I used 3 cups of water with 1/8 cup salt (2 tblspns) but kept all the other ingredient amounts the same. We tried it after 5 days and they were awesome and crisp – they were like fresh cucumbers but with the pickled flavor. My wife, kids and I were about to finish them all in one sitting but we decided to see how they would be if we waited a few more days to compare the flavor and texture.
Christy Roppel says
I want to try this recipe and was wondering if pickle spears are as good as whole? My cukes are rather long and need to be cut down.
Also, as long as the water to salt ratio (the brine) is the same, can i use smaller jars (even if I have left over brine?
Chris hammonds says
I love love love this recipe!!!!
I make them all year to have some on hand at all times!!
Pamela says
Thanks for stopping by Chris, I love that you love this recipe! 🙂 Keep on pickling!
Sue Corvelli says
Thank you so much for supplying this recipe. Agree to yelling on mountain top. Can’t wait to prepare them.
Roy Kitka says
Im and 75 year old 100 % polish guy who has made and eatin as many different pickles as could fill a large dumpster,most from my mother and the rest from my wifes family french russian and polish ,this recipe tops them all,ask my wife and daughter .Sorry mom
Susan Cameron says
These pickles are going to be amazing
Pamela says
Thanks Susan, enjoy the pickles! 🙂
Susan Cameron says
I wanted to come back and tell you – I made them. Loved them and shared with work colleagues who also loved them. I took my last bottle and sliced them thin and dehydrated them to make chips. They were amazing
Pamela says
Hey Susan, thank you so much for coming back and letting me know! I’m thrilled that everyone liked the pickles! (PS. Pickle chips sound amazing!)
Jeff says
I live in Asia and crave those Batempte half sour pickles. Cannot wait for my recent batch of pickles to be ready. They are great for those doing the keto diet.
Pamela says
Hey Jeff, I’m glad you’re able to get your pickle fix in! Enjoy these! 🙂
Art says
Doesn’t make any sense that you say you need a certain size jar for your brine ratio..the ratio would be the same no matter what size jar
Alex A says
I love the BaTampte half sours too, the only problem is that since these are fresh pickles, the consistency at the grocery stores in MN are spotty, you can always tell when a jar is fermenting because the pickles are ruddy olive green and the brine is really cloudy. I can’t wait to make this recipe, but I’ll definitely make a bigger jar or they want last two hours
Sherri Weidman says
Will ground coriander work?
Pamela says
Hey Sherri, you can, just make sure it’s fresh as ground coriander loses it’s flavor after a few months of storage. Enjoy the pickles!
Donna says
My husband and I made these mid-week. Last night we got to taste them -they were DELICIOUS, and fun to make! We couldn’t find any Kirby cukes, so we used those little mini cukes that come 6 to a container. Can’t wait to share this recipe with my kids who now live in the south; GA and SC, where there seems to be a paucity of (good) pickles!
Thanks for sharing!