This dill pickle recipe for canning was handed down by my grandmother {who has been making them for as long as I can remember} and has ruined store bought pickles for me forever. If you like a crunchy, salty, slightly spicy, delicious dill pickle and like to can, this post is for you! 
I’m sharing this recipe with you because I love you. But you better not tell anyone else because these pickles are my key to fame and fortune! 😉
Grandma’s Secret Dill Pickle Recipe for Canning
These pickles are such a family favorite that when I was a kid in Germany, we used to take boxes of them home with us on the airplane after our summer visits. The customs agents thought we were insane every time they inspected our pickles. I guess we’re really lucky they never broke!
You won’t regret making this dill pickle recipe if you like salty, spicy, sour pickles! Here’s how to get started.
To make these pickles, you need a lot of cucumbers. Preferably, straight, small ones (4-5 inches or so). I like to grow my own, but for whatever reason, I have not been successful growing cucumbers the last few years. These beautiful cucumbers were given to me by a friend and this is the first time I have been able to can pickles in several years. If you have any small, extra cucumbers, please send them my way!
First, prepare your water bath canner and get your pickle solution ready {recipe below}. Then, wash cucumbers well and cut off any bad spots. Also cut off just the blossom end tip to help the pickles stay crunchy after canning.
Pack cucumbers very, very, very tightly into quart size jars. Squeeze in as many as you can because once they are canned they will all float to the top and make it look like you could have fit at least 50% more in! It never fails.
Add garlic, hot pepper, dill, and alum. Don’t skimp on the alum ~ it’s one part of crispy pickle. You can add more peppers to this dill pickle recipe if you want – up two two hot peppers for a super spicy pickle.
Ladle prepared, boiling pickle solution (water, pickling salt, apple cider vinegar) into your jars. Leave 1/4 inch head space.
Add one washed grape leaf per jar. The tannins in grape leaves also help keep these pickles crispy. If you can’t find any, I have read you can substitute an oak leaf or loose black tea, but I have never tried that myself.
Put the lids on and tighten. Use pot holders because the jar will be really hot.
Put the cans into boiling water in a water bath canner and can for ~10 minutes, just long enough to help the jars seal. Remove jars from canner, make sure they seal, then let them sit for 24 hours to cool. After they’ve cooled completely, store them for at least three weeks before eating.
Dill Pickle Recipe Ingredients
- 1 Peck cucumbers, straight, skinny, and small, cut off the very tip of the blossom end. (about 10 – 14 pounds of cucumbers)
- 3 pints apple cider vinegar (6 cups)
- 1 1/4 cups pickling salt
- 4 1/2 quarts water (18 cups)
- Fresh dill (one spring + a few fronds per jar)
- grape leaves (1 per jar)
- 7 large cloves of garlic (1 clove per jar)
- Alum ( 1/2 tsp per jar)
- Hot peppers (1/2 – 1 per jar)
Dill Pickle Recipe for Canning
- Prepare water bath canner and bring water to a boil.
- Sterile quart size canning jars. (I wash mine in dishwasher or boil them in the canner).
- Heat up lids and rings.
- Combine water, salt, vinegar in a large pot and bring to a boil.
- Wash cucumbers and cut off any bad spots.
- Pack cucumbers extremely tightly into canning jars. Wide mouth jars are easier to pack.
- Add hot pepper, alum, dill, garlic to the jars.
- Ladle pickling solution into jars leaving 1/4 inch head space.
- Wipe off mouth of jars.
- Tighten lids on jars.
- Place jars in waterbath canner and boil for 10 minutes.
- Remove jars from canner.
- Let sit to cool for 24 hours.
- Store pickles for 3 weeks before eating.
- Enjoy!
Printable Dill Pickle Recipe for Canning
Grandma's Secret Dill Pickle Recipe for Canning
This dill pickles recipe canning tutorial makes the most delicious homemade dill pickle ever! Even beginners will love this dill pickles canning tutorial!
Ingredients
- 1 Peck cucumbers, straight, skinny, and small, cut off the very tip of the blossom end. (about 10 - 14 pounds of cucumbers)
- 3 pints apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/4 cups pickling salt
- 4 1/2 quarts water (18 cups)
- Fresh dill (one spring + a few fronds per jar)
- grape leaves (1 per jar)
- 7 large cloves of garlic (1 clove per jar)
- Alum ( 1/2 tsp per jar)
- Hot peppers (1/2 - 1 per jar)
Instructions
- Prepare water bath canner and bring water to a boil.
- Sterile quart size canning jars. (I wash mine in dishwasher or boil them in the canner).
- Heat up lids and rings.
- Combine water, salt, vinegar in a large pot and bring to a boil.
- Wash cucumbers and cut off any bad spots.
- Pack cucumbers extremely tightly into canning jars. Wide mouth jars are easier to pack.
- Add hot pepper, alum, dill, garlic to the jars.
- Ladle pickling solution into jars leaving 1/4 inch head space.
- Wipe off mouth of jars.
- Tighten lids on jars.
- Place jars in waterbath canner and boil for 10 minutes.
- Remove jars from canner.
- Let sit to cool for 24 hours.
- Store pickles for 3 weeks before eating.
- Enjoy!
Notes
If you're having a hard time finding grape leaves, take a drive in the country. They grow wild a lot!
Nutrition Information:
Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 300Sodium: 138465mgCarbohydrates: 12gSugar: 5g
Do you like pickles? What’s your most favorite kind?
For more ways to use your summer garden bounty, read these:
Homemade Strawberry Syrup and Canning Instructions
The Quick and Easy Guide to Canning Crushed Tomatoes
Homemade Gourmet Vinegar with Garden Fresh Herbs
Hi Michelle,
We’re having our inaugural Eat Make Grow Blog Hop. We are looking for folks to link up who want to share what they have been eating with their families, growing in their gardens or making with all their creative impulses. If you’re interested, I hope you’ll hop on over and link up a couple of your posts. It’s a way for you to grow your readership and find other like minded mamas.
Hope to see you there,
Foy
http://foyupdate.blogspot.com/2012/08/inaugural-eat-make-grow-blog-hop.html
Ok- Why couldn’t you post this 2days ago before I put up 9 pints of dill pickles!? 😉 Sounds like a great recipe, I will have to try it next time!
So, how bad are they when you forget the alum??? I got distracted by my “helpers” and forgot the alum in 7 out of 11 jars (also was unable to find grape leaves at the local grocery store.) Are my pickles going to be terrible???
This sounds like something I’d totally do!! Argh! Alum is a pretty key ingredient as it’s what makes them crispy. Grape leaves are optional – I’ve left them out before and the pickles are fine. You might want to open up the jars without the alum, add the alum, and re-seal them with new lids (you can re-use the jars and rings). I’m not sure if that will work, but the pickles won’t turn out without the alum, I’m afraid, unless you like really mushy pickles. 🙁
I just came back to get the recipe for this year and I had to let you know that my pickles were great!!! Even with out the alum!!! I am determined not to forget the alum this year and that means I better make more. Because if they get any better I won’t be able to keep up with the demand!!!
Yay, Amanda! I’m so glad!! Thank you for coming back to tell me. I can’t keep up with demand either, especially since my cucumbers never survive due to squash bugs. Hopefully next year!!
looks great, I am excited to do my canner bath pickles this year!!
man! i’m so jealous of everyone canning their pickles! i’m moving across the country in 2 weeks and since we pay the movers by the pound (essentially), i didn’t can much this summer because canned food weighs a TON…. that being said, i did manage to make a few jars of bourbon soaked cherries for my drinks all year. haha. priorities, i guess.
p.s. it
Thanks for your comment, Kristy! Hopping over to your blog hop. 🙂
thank you for taking the time to link up with us at the Wednesday Fresh Foods Blog Hop Michelle! We hope to see you again this Wednesday with more fantastic seasonal & real food posts 🙂 xo, kristy
Just read an article on how dangerous alum is to use.
Do you have a link, Ann? I’d love to read it. Thanks!
Can’t wait to make these pickles. Having a bit of a problem… can find where you state how much dill…alum…etc goes into the quart jar. Thanks for your help
Hi Bryan, It’s 1/2 tsp alum per jar. The dill is sort of by eyeball. I just make sure I add a fresh dill flower that has lots of seeds on it as well as a lot of the whispy leaves that smell like dill. Sorry I don’t have a good answer for you on dill.
Can these be made into dill chips
You can, but they probably won’t be as crispy.
Oh… I forgot… (just like a man) … can you use dried dill (seeds?) Thanks again
Hi Bryan, I’ve never used dried dill, but you probably could? I don’t know how much you would need to add though. Sorry!
Yes you can use dried dill seeds. I have for years. Use 1 tablespoon per quart. ?
Thank you so much for this recipe.It sounds fantastic and I cant wait to share it with everyone.
Can’t wait to try this recipe. The last time I tried to make canned pickles, they came out funky tasting and soggy.
whoops-just finished making the pickles and realized I put them in pint jars and did not cut the alum in half. Will this be bad?
I think it will be fine! 🙂 they might be extra crunchy, but they’ll still taste great. Good luck!
Michelle! I am so excited to make these! Reading through the rest of this page made me happy to see you are from Iowa! (And a mom of 4!) Me too(for both)!! Thanks for sharing!
– Misty ?
That’s great!! I hope you like the pickles. Where in Iowa are you? 🙂
Thank you for the “Love” of this recipe. It is so nice to see young people sharing and enjoying the good old ways. God bless you and your family.
Can I use this recipe with cut cucumber spears and still come out with crunchy pickles?
Yes, you can, but I would add a bit more of the alum. Maybe another 1/4 tsp! Good luck!!
Thank you, I want to try this recipe this year.
It is very simlar to my Dad’s recipe. He also uses his for green peppers stuffed with cabbage. He gets one to two stuffed pepper per quart depending on size of pepper. They are delicious!
We made this and they are WAY too salty. I like salt but this was too much. 😛
I just used your recipe to make my first ever batch of pickles! I could not find any grape leaves in our tiny grocery store. What are they for?
Thank you so very much for sharing this!
I would like to know what the grape leaves are for and where can I find them. I have wild grape leaves in my yard and I grow grapes. Could I use those?
Hi Nedra, the grape leaves help with the crunchiness and you can certainly use the leaves from your wild grapes plants! Good luck! 🙂
CAn you use pickle crisp in place of alum? And can the grape leaves come straight from a vine?
Grape leaves can come straight from the vine. I have never tried pickle crisp so I am not sure.
I can’t find grape leaves!! Can I substitute something else? Will it hurt to leave it out? Add more alum? I’m just full of questions. Thanks!
The grape leaf has tannins which help the pickles stay crispy. If you can’t find any, I have read that an oak leaf might be a good substitute, but I have not tried this myself. Good luck! If you have any country ditches nearby, you might be surprise at all the grapevines growing in them!
Just tried the recipe…. will give you a verdict in 3 weeks… but I did cut the salt to 1/2 cup … made a batch with different recipe 3 weeks ago and it called for the same salt amount and it was way too salty for me…. will give an update in 3 weeks! cant wait
Hope you like it, Cindy!
Made 14 quarts and they are great. Thanks!
You’re welcome! Glad you like them.
This look so good! What a simple way to preserve a bunch of cucumbers at once!
I waiting or enough cucumbers to get going on my own this year!!
This recipe looks fantastic! I can’t wait to give it a try. Would it work for pickling other vegetables as well? Thank you for sharing!
I have not tried it with other vegetables, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. 🙂
What kind of hot peppers do you use and how many quarts do you get out of one batch typically? This recipe looks yummy!
You can use any kind of hot pepper you want. We typically use jalepenos. It makes 7 quarts, I think! 🙂
How much fresh dill do you use per jar?
One sprig or head of dill per jar – plus I always make sure to add a few of the wispy fronds as well. 🙂