The members of my family are big fans of the pickle. Really, fans of anything that is pickled. And I’m not just talking about adults. As a toddler, one of the few vegetables my great-nephew will eat is my dilly beans.
Every summer when the pickling cucumbers were in season, Mom would make her delicious Three-Day Dill Pickles. My assumption is that they were called Three Day Dills because once you made them, you were supposed to wait three days to eat them. They never lasted three days in my family. In fact, after about an hour, one of us (usually my father if he was home) would quietly take one of the barely-pickled cucumbers out of the brine and begin snacking. By the third day, there was nary a pickle to be seen.
At one point, she had a big porcelain jug into which she would submerge her cukes. I don’t know what happened to that jug. I mostly remember her placing the cukes into a big green porcelain mixing bowl, pouring over the hot vinegar, adding the dill, and putting a dinner plate over the cucumbers. She would set a big can of tomatoes on top to make sure the cukes remained submerged. We got good at fitting our fingers under this plate.
Three-Day Dill Pickles
Ingredients
1-1/2 lbs. small pickling cucumbers
2 pints water
1 c. vinegar
1/8 c. salt
4 large sprigs of dill (or two fresh dill heads)
Process
Wash the cucumbers in cold water. (I let them soak for a couple of hours in ice water. My mother never did.) Cut the cucumbers in quarters and place them in a large non-metal bowl. Place the dill over the top of the cukes. Bring your remaining ingredients to a boil and pour over cukes. Cover with a plate so that the liquid covers the cucumbers.
Let sit for three days on your counter. Right. On the off-chance that you have any left after three days, they may be stored in a jar in the refrigerator.
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