Canning cucumbers is not only a fantastic way to preserve their crisp texture and vibrant taste but also an incredibly rewarding venture. In this collection of easy cucumber canning recipes, we’ll share delicious easy pickle recipes ensuring that every jar is packed with the goodness of the season. You can use cucumbers from the grocery store, farmers market, or garden. Whether you’re a seasoned canner or a beginner, you’re sure to find one your whole family will love.
Cucumbers are one of the most prolific vegetables in the garden. Every little bit of help to preserve fresh cucumbers will make this time of year less frustrating for the home gardener who hates wasting any garden produce. Canning cucumbers as pickles is the main way we preserve them.
If you could see our kitchen counters, you’d find them layered with small cucumbers, large cucumbers, mason jars, a jar lifter, my large pot, and all the other essentials to make our favorite recipes.
For over 30 years, we’ve had a go-to recipe for garden cucumbers. Mrs. Minnie’s Icebox Pickles have been my family’s favorite refrigerator pickles for more than a generation.
Mrs. Minnie was one of those sweet and saucy, little old Southern church women whom everybody loved.
When I was a teenager, we were both members of the same church. She loved young people and enjoyed mentoring the young girls in our congregation. She gave me this recipe when I graduated high school {we won’t talk about how long ago that was}.
She was famous in our community for her Icebox Pickles. At every church function, she was “required” by popular demand to bring her icebox pickles. They go with positively everything! Those recipes handed down to us by family or friends are treasures.
Whether you go with pint or quart jars, this pickle recipe is easy, delicious, and sweet. These are super easy and make a great side dish for almost any meal. You can get the full recipe here.
Easy Cucumber Canning Recipes
Mrs. Minnie’s Icebox Pickles
Mrs. Minnie’s easy recipe for canning cucumbers and onions says they’ll keep in the refrigerator for up to one year. I can’t verify this since they’ve never lasted that long at my house!
Mrs. Minnie’s Ice Box Pickles
Equipment
- You'll need an 9×13 pan with a lid. Use whatever you have that's at least that large.
- 2 quart jars with lids
- 2-quart pot
Ingredients
- 7 medium cucumbers sliced paper thin
- 3 medium white onions sliced paper thin
- 2 Tablespoons real salt
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon celery seasoning or seasoning of your choice
Instructions
INSTRUCTIONS
- Slice your cucumbers and onions paper thin and set them aside.
- In a pot, combine your sugar, vinegar, and seasonings.
- Heat while stirring continuously being careful not to let it boil. You only want to melt the sugar thoroughly.
- Pour the liquid into a glass jar and let it come to room temperature. Put a lid on it and refrigerate.
- Next, place a layer of cucumbers in the pan, then add a layer of onions, and sprinkle with salt. Add another of layer of cucumbers, another layer of onions, and sprinkle with salt. Repeat this until all of your cucumbers and onions have been used.
- Put the lid on the pan and set it in the refrigerator overnight.
- Next day, drain all of the liquid from the cucumber pan.
- Once thoroughly drained, pour the refrigerated liquid over your cucumbers and stir well.
- Reseal the pan and refrigerate for 24 hours more.
- After 24 hours, put the pickles into a glass quart jar and pour the liquid on top of them and close the lid.
- Store them in the refrigerator.
- They're ready to eat!
Notes
Nutrition
If you want to preserve cucumbers by canning them to perfection, here are three great cucumber canning recipes that each have a little something special to offer.
Bread and Butter Pickles
This classic bread and butter pickles canning recipe is one of the best I have found. If you are a person who loves pickles with delicious, crunchy sweetness this may just be one of your yearly choices to make. No mushy pickles with this recipe!
Lovers of sweet pickles will enjoy the taste of these well-preserved pickles for years to come! My husband doesn’t like sweet pickles, but I enjoy the perfect balance of both sweet and sour varieties.
Granny’s Bread and Butter Pickles from Grow a Good Life
Fermented Dill Pickles
If you know the benefits of fermenting foods, then you’ll want to check out Angi’s great recipe. She shares everything you need to know to make a healthy pickle with a wonderful crunch.
Fermented pickles are easy to make and full of probiotic goodness for your gut. This recipe shows why fermenting is the only preservation method that increases the nutrition of the produce instead of reducing it.
If you have the time it takes to ferment pickles (4-6 days) and the fermenting containers and lids, this may be the recipe for you. Angi is very easy to follow in this recipe and very helpful.
You will be making your homemade dill pickles in no time!
Probiotic Rich Canned Fermented Cucumbers from Schneider Peeps
Crunchy Dill Pickles
This last cucumber canning recipe comes from Sharon at Simply Canning. She includes everything you need to know so you can enjoy the crisp snap of pickles around your table in no time.
She includes altitude charts to show you how to make adjustments to the recipe depending on your geographical elevation. Sharon also tells you why you need to be careful to follow this step in canning your shelf-stable store.
With the aroma of fresh dill from the dill seed coming from the jars ready for a hot water bath, you will begin to look forward to eating these best pickles.
Crunchy Dill Pickles Recipe from Simply Canning
Tips for Preserving Cucumbers
- Use freshly harvested cucumbers, the firm flesh and smaller seed cavity help them stay crisp.
- Harvest in the morning while temperatures are cooler is a great way to help prevent a bitter taste.
- Use larger (over 4 inches) and more mature cucumbers for relishes and bread-and-butter style pickles.
- 8 pounds of pickling cucumbers fill 7-pint size wide mouth jars.
- Make sure to use pickling salt, which is also called canning salt. Avoid table salt which contains iodine and other mystery ingredients that will make your water cloudy, but you can use real salt.
- Filter your water or use purchased distilled water to make your pickles.
- Use Apple Cider Vinegar with at least 5% acidity for the best blend of taste. White vinegar is clear vinegar and is produced by distilling rye and corn. It will make your pickles taste sourer than apple cider. Make sure to buy a non-GMO organic brand.
- Saturate the pickling brine by simmering it with pickling spices, then add fresh dill weed and mustard seeds, crushed garlic cloves, and red pepper flakes to the hot jars along with the cucumbers to give them deep flavoring.
- Bay leaf adds flavor and the tannins help keep the pickles crisp.
- Adding tannins is as simple as adding fresh grape leaves, oak leaves, cherry leaves, horseradish leaves, a tea bag, loose-leaf tea, or green banana leaf, to your vinegar brine. The tannins help preserve the cell walls, leaving a crunchy pickle.
- If you don’t have fresh dill, don’t let that stop you as dill seed has enough flavor by itself.
- When canning pickles, it is important to use a recipe that has been tested and proven safe.
- Check the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving to make sure any new recipe is safe.
- Cucumbers contain limited acidity and normally have a pH of 5.12 to 5.78. Clostridium botulinum can grow in inadequately canned, pickled foods with a pH of 4.6 and higher.
Frequently Asked Questions
1.How long does it take to turn a cucumber into a pickle?
Recipes for quick pickles, like dill refrigerator pickles, are ready in 1 to 3 hours.
Canning recipes can take longer.
The actual time depends on the pickle recipe and the method of canning your recipe uses.
2. Can you pickle regular cucumbers?
You can pickle any kind of cucumber, but if you want a crispy pickle, follow recipes that use small freshly picked cucumbers and add tannins to the brine.
3. Are cucumbers just pickles soaked in vinegar?
No. There is much more to pickling liquid than just vinegar. A pickle is a cucumber that has been soaked in a pickling solution recipe of vinegar and various spices. Some recipes call for sugar, some call for apple cider vinegar, and some call for white wine vinegar. You see, there are as many cucumber canning recipes as there are pickle makers.
Find a recipe you like and follow for success.
4. How do you keep cucumbers crisp when pickling?
6 Tips for Crispy, Crunchy Pickles
- Use small, fresh, healthy cucumbers 4 inches long or less
- Place them in jars as soon as possible after picking
- Soak cucumbers in an ice water bath for 3 hours before pickling
- Make sure to remove the blossom end of the cucumber
- Add tannins to the brine and jar. Bay Leaves work great and add a nice flavor
- Use pint jars instead of quarts to shorten processing time
5. How long should homemade pickles sit before eating?
For the best flavor, allow 3 weeks of mellowing. This seems like a long time, but you can enjoy them as soon as they’re done.
6. What cucumbers are the best for pickling?
Kirby cucumbers, Chicago Pickling, and Aonaga Jibai are classic pickling cucumbers. The Chicago Pickling cucumbers are my personal favorite kind of cucumbers.
Pickling cucumbers have thinner skin and are less moist than other kinds of cucumbers which makes them a better choice for pickling.
7. Why do you boil vinegar when pickling?
Boiling your brine will help all the flavors combine better. Make sure not to add boiling hot brine to cucumbers. If the liquid is too hot, it will cook the small cucumbers causing them to lose some of their crispy, crunch.
Be careful not to overfill the top of the jar. You always need to leave at least a one-inch headspace and remove any air bubbles.
Wrap Up
Canning cucumbers is not only a great way to preserve the abundance of the summer harvest, but it’s also a fantastic way to take your meals to the next level. Now that you’ve discovered this collection of easy cucumber canning recipes, you’ll be able to enjoy the taste of fresh cucumbers year-round!
The joy of opening a jar of homemade pickles in the dead of winter or sharing your creations with friends and family is truly unparalleled. So roll up your sleeves, gather your cucumbers, and let your creativity flow as you fill jar after jar with delectable treats that capture the essence of summer’s bounty.
With these tips and tricks, frequently asked questions, and tried and true cucumber canning recipes, you have everything you need to make fresh, delicious homemade pickles! Happy canning!
can jars that didn’t seal be reprocessed? we did the vinegar only brine, boiled and cooled slightly, but several jars didn’t seal
Hi Rita! Absolutely you can reprocess those jars that didn’t seal. Be sure to wipe the rims and check the liquid portions, often the tinest bit of something on the rim will result in jars failing to seal. If my jars fail, sometimes I just keep them in the refrigerator and be sure to enjoy them within a couple of months :).
Can you safely can the cucumber juice alone no added salt or brine, just the juice from cucumbers
I would not can any juice. If you want to preserve it, I would only recommend freezing it and then would use it within a month or two. The heat of canning would kill all the nutrients. As soon as you juice a fruit or veg, it should be consumed for maximum nutrition. It will still be good if stored in the fridge but not more than 24 hours. It will begin decaying within an hour of juicing. I hope this helps.