3 doz. small pickle type cucumbers cut up. Quartered, whole or sliced.
2- 3 big onions, sliced
one big bunch of dill
2.5 cups of white vinegar Russ: See note below
5 cups of water
4 tbs salt (careful here as I have no idea of the density of the salt we had in Cali) Russ: See note below
As much garlic as you care for (We do not use less than 6 garlic cloves)
4-5 clavo dulce (cloves)
A tremendous bunch of dill
If you want the pickles a bit piquant you may put one little hot pepper in it
In a big glass bowl (she meant jar) (Ley or Tia about 40 pesos) pack the cucumber .
Alternate layers of onion slices
And on top a big bunch of dill
In a saucepan put to a boil the water, vinegar , garlic , cloves and a tremendous bunch of dill.
Put to simmer for a half or whole hour, then pour over the tightly packed cucumbers but carefully and slowly: give the glass a chance to survive!
When cool store in the refrigerator to ripen for a week or two, and you are ready to eat them.- if they have lasted that long, their aroma will tease you no end
I add 2 cups of white vinegar and 2 of water. And I make this brine for about 5 or 6 medium size pickling cucumbers.Classic recipes call for even higher ratio of vinegar to water 2:1. I believe Mom had her ratio upside down in her recipe as she always leaned towards flavor.
Also, the salt she used in Cali was table salt. If using Diamond Crystal kosher salt, as I do, you can safely add another 1.5 Tbs. So for my 4 cups recipe of brine I use about 2.75Tbs of Diamond Crystal Salt.
