Water Bath Canning Pickles: 12 Tips for Crunchy Pickles That Never Disappoint
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Home-canned pickles are a go-to method to preserve those summer cucumber harvests. Unfortunately, a lot of folks end up disappointed when they crack the first jar open to find the pickles have gone mushy. I’ve had people tell me they’ve switched to only making refrigerator pickles for that very reason.
Refrigerator pickles are nice, but they won’t stay good through the winter. They’ll also steal fridge space, if you’re getting a bunch of cucumbers that need preserving. Canned pickles are shelf stable, they’ll last you through the year, and they don’t have to be soggy. If you follow some simple best practices, you can turn out ultra-crunchy, delicious pickles from your water bath canner.
In my pickle-making experience, go-to remedies like “pickle crisp” and grape leaves aren’t the real secret for good pickles. The tips below for smart harvesting, handling, and canning are what really matters to ensure homemade pickles that store well in your pantry and stay crisp and tasty once preserved.
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1. Grow the Right Cucumbers
Growing your own cucumbers is the best way to get the freshest cucumbers for pickling, which is really important for making good pickles. While you can technically use any cucumber you want, those meant for pickling tend to have smaller seeds and firmer flesh once they reach a harvestable size. They also have slightly tougher skin than many slicer varieties, which helps retain some crunchiness after canning.
There are lots of pickling cucumber varieties to choose from. My hands down favorite is an heirloom variety called Homemade Pickles. The vines grow fast, start producing heavily early in the summer, and scoff at the 90-degree heat that shuts most cucumber plants down in July, in the South. In our garden, we’ve had vines planted in May crank out cucumbers until late August. Most years, I end up pulling them because I’ve already made 74 jars of pickles and I want to plant something else.
Homemade Pickles also produces nicely shaped, uniformly sized cucumbers, which are perfect for pickle making (especially if you want to pickle them whole or in spears). I get my seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. A few other pickling cucumbers with a reputation for high production and quality cucumbers are National Pickling Cucumber, Calypso, Boston Pickling Cucumber, and Wisconsin SMR 58. While Kirby is another famous variety for pickle making, I couldn’t get them to produce much for me (maybe it’s a climate thing).
2. Harvest at the Right Time
Oversized cucumbers that were left on the vine too long have big seeds and a spongy middle, which leads to mushy pickles. For crisp pickles, you’ll want to harvest cukes when they’re 5 inches long max for making slices or spears. For pickling them whole (gherkin-style), get them while they’re smaller.
A cool thing about cucumbers is that once the vine sets a fruit, that fruit will grow REALLY fast. A one-inch baby cuke can turn into a whopper in just a few days. It’s best to peek at your cucumber patch every day when the vines start producing so you don’t miss the harvest window. If a cucumber goes unnoticed on the vine until it gets huge and turns yellow, that vine will usually slow or stop production.
3. Store Properly Until Canning Day
Unless you happen to have like twelve plants, chances are you won’t get enough cucumbers in one harvest for a whole batch of pickles. You’ll need to save them up over several days to a week. Storing them the right way until you have enough (or have the time) to can them is a super important and often overlooked part of getting crisp pickles.
First of all, cucumbers are something like 95% water, which means they’re prone to drying out once off the vine. As they lose moisture, their once-firm flesh will start to soften within just a few days after you toss them in your fridge drawer. If you’ve got fresh fruit sharing a space with your cukes, the ethylene gas it releases will cause them to go soft even faster. Slightly squishy cucumbers taste just fine in a salad, but they’re the downfall of home-canned pickles.
To prevent moisture loss, seal your cucumbers up in a gallon sized zip-lock bag or a large lidded container. They’ll keep for at least a week when completely sealed this way. If you need to keep them for longer, wrap them in a dry paper towel before sealing. I’ve had pickling cucumbers stay perfectly firm for close to two weeks when wrapped and well-sealed in the crisper drawer.
*I’ve found the paper towel wrapping isn’t necessary if you’ll be canning the cucumbers within 4 – 5 days. In this economy, it’s preferable to not waste paper towels if you don’t have to!
4. Slice Off the Blossom Ends
There’s a long-standing theory that slicing off the blossom end of your cucumbers helps keep them crunchy after pickling. This is because the blossom end contains the ripening enzymes meant to eventually break down the fruit as the seeds mature. I’ve always sliced both ends on my pickling cucumbers, so I can’t compare results from removing or not removing it. However, most people agree that it does make a difference.
5. Add Bay Leaves (or Grape Leaves)
Okay, I know what I said earlier, but hear me out. Supposedly, leaves that contain tannins, such as bay leaves and grape leaves, help to prevent softening when you add them to your jarred pickles. Personally, I think the steps mentioned before this contribute a lot more to crunchiness than the leaves. That said, I do always add a bay leaf (or two if they’re small) to each pickle jar. It definitely can’t hurt, it looks cute, and it probably adds some flavor, too.
Bay leaves in the regular spice aisle can be a little on the pricey side. In many grocery stores, you can find little packets of them in the Latin American section for a couple dollars or less instead of paying $10 for a jar. If you have organically grown grape vines, you can wash and use grape leaves as well (just don’t use them if they’ve been sprayed with pesticides).
6. Use Pickling Salt and 5% Distilled Vinegar
In addition to following a tested recipe for your brine, it’s also essential to use the right type of ingredients. Regular old salt, a.k.a. table salt, is fortified with iodine and usually contains additives like anti-caking agents. Both can alter the color and texture of your canned pickles in ways you won’t like. To make good pickles, use pickling salt specifically meant for pickling and preserving. It’s non-iodized and free of additives.
In a pinch, you could also use pure sea salt or pure kosher salt for pickles. However, any coarsely ground salt can throw off your measurements, meaning you’ll need to figure out how to measure by weight instead of volume. It’s a lot easier to just grab a box of inexpensive pickling salt for your canning projects.
It’s also worth mentioning that you should use distilled vinegar that’s labeled 5% acidity for canning pickles in brine. The vinegar in the brine creates the acidity needed to safely preserve pickles by water bath canning. Raw or homemade vinegar can vary in acidity levels; if it’s not acidic enough, you run the risk of growing bacteria in your pickle jars.
So, what about Bragg’s ACV? Even though it’s raw, this pantry staple in health-conscious households is totally safe for pickle brine. That’s because each batch is tested to ensure it’s at 5% acidity. The only drawback to using it is that the “mother” in the unfiltered vinegar will make your brine look cloudy.
7. Use a Funnel and Wipe Jar Rims
Home-canned pickles are prone to mysteriously failed jar seals and rusting lids. Since the salt and vinegar in the brine is corrosive, it can eat through the lid’s seal and keep it from “sticking.” Sometimes, the jar might not seal at all, or it might randomly pop loose in the pantry later on. Lots of brine ending up in the canning water can also cause the top of the lid to rust in storage.
To prevent seal failure and reduce rust, use a canning funnel to ladle the brine into your jars. This way, it isn’t getting on the rim or in the canner water from the jars. Once each jar is packed and filled, carefully wipe the rim with a clean, damp cloth before putting the lid on.
*Pro Tip: Another good way to prevent rusting on your pickle lids or failed seals is to use good quality canning flats. Generic flats (and, sadly, even some well-known household brands) have had recent quality issues. I’ve been using Superb canning flats for several years now, and I’ve yet to have a single failed seal.
8. Keep Jars and Brine Hot While Filling
Glass jars can and do break from thermal shock, or sudden temperature changes to the glass. It’s not a myth or a rare occurrence. If you’ve got a cold jar and you pour hot brine that just came off the stove into it, there’s a fair chance it’ll crack near the base.
Used to, folks would boil the empty canning jars in the canner to sterilize them before filling, heating them in the process. The USDA now says you don’t need to, as long as you intend to process them for at least ten minutes once packed. The thing is, it’s still necessary to heat those jars up before adding piping hot brine. I like to bring my empty jars to a simmer in the canner, then set the burner on low to keep them hot while I pack them one at a time.
Thermal shock breaks can also happen if your jars cool off too much as you’re filling. No matter how many times you’ve done it, stuffing the cucumbers in the jars is an awkward process that always seems to take too long. If the jars you’ve already filled get completely cooled while you’re still playing cucumber Tetris, you increase the risk of a jar breaking when you plunge it back into the hot canner.
To keep things from going cold while packing jars, keep the canner on low heat and stick each jar straight back into the hot water after you fill it and add the flat and band. The water should be hot but not simmering (that way, you don’t over-process the pickles).
9. Don’t Forget to De-Bubble
Air bubbles can easily get trapped between packed cucumbers once you’ve poured the brine in. During processing, the bubbles will rise to the top, and your brine levels will shrink. While not a safety issue, having pickles sticking an inch out of the brine isn’t ideal, since the exposed parts can become discolored or mushy.
Once you’ve filled each jar with brine, gently poke around the cucumbers with a silicone de-bubbler to release any trapped bubbles, topping off the brine if needed. You can also use a butter knife, but it’s easy to accidentally gouge or damage the cucumbers.
10. Don’t Over-Process
Most water bath pickle recipes require processing at a rolling boil for ten or fifteen minutes, depending on jar size and elevation. If your location is more than 1,000 feet above sea level, you’ll need to add more processing time accordingly (Ball has instructions for how to adjust processing time for elevation here).
While it sounds simple enough, overprocessing can easily happen while you’re waiting for the canner to reach a proper rolling boil (i.e., a nice active boil that doesn’t slow down when you stir the water). For safe canning, you have to wait for that rolling boil before you set the timer for processing.
Problem is, some stoves, especially electric ones, will take their sweet time to bring a large canner to a full rolling boil. If your canner simmers for ten or fifteen minutes before it boils, your pickles are cooking during that time even though it doesn’t count as part of processing. This doesn’t matter so much with jelly or preserves, but it can definitely cause home-canned pickles to turn out softer than you’d like.
When I’m canning pickles on my electric range, I start gradually turning the heat up once I’m about halfway done filling jars. I want to see some bubbles starting to rise by the time I’m putting the last jar in the canner. Then, I put the lid on and crank the burner up to high. Water that’s already steaming hot will come to a boil much faster than water that’s just warm.
11. Remove Bands and Wipe Lids Before Storing
While you should always remove the bands before storing home-canned food, it’s especially important with pickles since they’re more prone to rusting. Good airflow around the lids helps to slow down any rust formation. For good measure, I also like to wipe the lids off well with a clean, damp cloth before storing. This way, you’re removing any brine that may have ended up in the canning water.
12. Don’t Be Afraid to Adjust Seasonings
Many folks find that homemade pickle recipes for canning are way too salty, over-seasoned, or not seasoned enough for their liking. Problem is, one of the big official “rules” for water-bath canning is that you should never alter the ingredients in a recipe. That’s because water bath canning relies on the acidity of the preserved food for safety.
Canning recipes from resources like the Ball Blue Book are tested by experts to make sure they fall into a safe acidity range. If you change the ingredients in a tested recipe, you might unknowingly change the pH as well, creating an environment where harmful bacteria can grow. For example, pepper jelly recipes usually call for an acidifier like lemon juice. Peppers are a low-acid vegetable. If you reduce the amount of lemon juice or add extra peppers, that jelly may no longer be acidic enough for safe water bath canning.
Pickles in brine are unique from other water bath canning recipes because it’s the vinegar that creates the acidity, not the vegetables or other ingredients. As long as you keep the ratio of water to vinegar true to the tested recipe, you can safely adjust the amount of salt, sugar, or seasonings in the brine to suit your taste. You can also add in things like hot peppers, garlic cloves, or sliced carrots to for extra flavor.
Do y’all have any other tips for preserving perfectly crunchy pickles? If so, I’d love to hear them in the comments. I’m always looking for ways to step up my pickle-making game.
