Freezer Pickles

This freezer pickle recipe is an easy and delicious alternative to traditional canned pickled.

I’m definitely not knocking canned pickles – I love them! Particularly homemade dill pickles, and Old fashioned bread and butter pickles.

These homemade pickles are just another way to preserve and enjoy your cucumbers. They’re crisp, sweet, and mildly vinegary. I like to think of them as a side dish, like cucumber salad, than a condiment just for putting on your burger.

Do frozen pickles stay crunchy?

The trick is soaking them in salt water overnight before pickling them. This has a desiccating effect, similar to the sugar soak of apples in apple pie jam, that extracts the water from the cells, so that when frozen, the cells don’t rupture as the water turns to ice.

Since the cells haven’t ruptures, the pickles are still crisp when they thaw.

Ingredients for Freezer pickles

• cucumbers – the best for pickles are tender pickling cucumbers, or baby cucumbers.
• Salt – this is essential both for flavor, and keeping your pickles from becoming mushy, as discussed above.
• Onion – another flavor, and a pickle itself
• Sugar – This is a sweet pickle. Your best option here is granulated cane sugar. Sucanat or raw sugar can also be used.
• Vinegar – another essential for pickling. The acid in vinegar creates your flavor, and is part of your preserver.
• Water – For the sake of flavor, we need to dilute the vinegar a bit.
• Mixed pickling spices. Depending on your flavor preferences, this is optional. Pickling mix has spices like coriander that enhance the complexity of flavor.
• Celery seeds. Another flavor, and aid in preservation.
• Dry mustard. More flavoring, and you can adjust them according to your preference.

Ingredients swaps and substitutions

This is an easy pickle recipe that can be customized to be just how you like it.

A lot of the seasonings can be adjusted, substituted, or simply removed. The only things you really need to keep consistent is the water, vinegar, and sugar ratio. This is important for preservation.

While we are freezing the pickles, so your ratios probably aren’t as important as they would be if we were putting them on pantry shelves, there is still an element of food preservation in this. Both in further slowing the bacterial growth while in the freezer, and keeping them fresh once you’ve moved them to the refrigerator.

Some additions you might consider are bell peppers, or other peppers, garlic, or dill to make dill freezer pickles.

How to make freezer pickles

1. Slice cucumbers. For this particular recipe, I like to slice them really thin using the slicer on my food processor. This is personal preference, so slice how you prefer.
   
   
2. Put cucumbers in a large bowl, or bowls, and sprinkle with salt.
   
   
3. Cover with water, and stir until salt is dissolved.
4. Let the cukes stand 8 hours, or overnight. Room temperature is usually fine, but if your kitchen is warm, I would put them in the refrigerator.
   
   
5. When ready, drain water off cucumbers, and rinse well with fresh water, then add thinly sliced onion.
6. Combine remaining ingredients in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer.
   
   
   
7. Remove from heat and let cool until lukewarm.
8. At this point, you can strain the spices out, or leave them in – whichever you prefer.
9. Pour pickling liquid over cucumbers, and mix.
   
   
10. Ladle cucumbers with brine into freezer containers. I usually use quart freezer bags, because they freeze flat and take up less space in my freezer.

To thaw:

Place pickles in their container into the refrigerator for 8+ hours to thaw. Store in the refrigerator for up to several weeks.

These pickles are perfect on sandwiches, or served as a summer side dish, and pair perfectly with chicken salad.

More recipes for you:

• Creamy Cucumber Salad Recipe
• Quick and easy pickled okra
• Refrigerator Bread and butter pickles
• Old fashioned pickled beets
• Summer squash pickles

 

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