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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

A Question for You Canners.

In my efforts to eat out of my pantry/freezer, I delved into a jar of hamburger dill pickles that I made this past summer.  The smells of dill and garlic were wonderful, they looked perfect, they were....completely soggy.  I have made other types of pickles and they survived the canning process just fine.  What do you think happened with these?  Were they cut too thin?  Processed too long?  They taste just fine, but there is nothing more depressing than a soggy slice of pickle.  How fortuitous that I found this recipe in my email box:  Polish Dill Pickle Soup!  Hmmm.  I have about 12 pints of hamburger dill pickles.  How many bowls of Polish Dill Pickle Soup can I eat?

9 comments:

Chicken Mama said...

My theory is that, yes, they were over-processed . . . but Mama Pea CAN tell you for sure. I think when canned goods are super old, too, the pickled ones start getting soft just due to the brine breaking down the veggie. I have several jars of mushy dilly beans. Yuck.

HOWEVER, I will take mushy pickled goods ANY day of the week over Polish Dill Pickle Soup! That sounds REPULSIVE!!!! ;)

Susan said...

Chicken Mama - of course, I didn't add that my all time favorite sandwich is a grilled cheese with dill pickles and mayo on ry bread! That should really gross you out...the pickles aren't old and I followed the processing time on the recipe, but 'they' may have been wrong.

Erin said...

I don't do sliced pickles, only the whole or thick spears, but yes maybe sliced thin combined with over processing? It seems every year we canners add more to our knowledge bank on this stuff, can't wait to hear others' answers!

Chicken Mama said...

Oh, I'll see your grilled cheese w/ dill pickles & mayo on rye and raise you a peanut butter with dill pickles and mustard . . . which was my favorite growing-up sandwich! I should try one of those NOW that my taste has refined (ha!) and see if they really were horrible or not. ;)

Erin said...

OMG you two! LOl... ew, ew, EWWWWW!

Mama Pea said...

Weeelllll, I purposely slice my Bread & Butter Pickles rather on the thin side and they are just plain floppy! (But I guess that's what I'm shooting for.) The thicker the slice the better chance it will stay crisp. My recipe for Hamburger Dills (which I haven't made in years 'cause I prefer doing them whole and slicing when I want to put them on a sandwich) has a processing time of 10 minutes for pints. How long did you process yours? How thick or thin did you slice yours? And I'll pass on the soup, too, thank you very much.

Susan said...

Erin - what a network of knowledge we all are!

CM - Okay, I'll see your PB, DP & M sandwich and raise you a PB, Banana, Mayo & Bacon on whole wheat. OMG - am I channeling Elvis??

MP - I processed them for 10. Maybe I will try them whole next time. Won't be until 2015, as I have a WHOLE lot of pickles. And just where is your sense of adventure???

Erin said...

year 2015.... (snicker, snort LOL!)

Anonymous said...

The pickle recipe my sister and I use doesn't call for processing at all and they seem to stay crisp for at least a year or two. I think the key is the fresher the vegetable canned, the crisper. Anything pickled more than a day after being picked, in my experience, gets really floppy.