Gherkins (or small cucumbers) are easily grown in the garden, and can be pickled with a variety of flavours.

Ideally the cucumbers should be no more than 100mm in length, as they can start to develop bitter seeds if too large.

There are two methods for pickling gherkins, Dry Brine (click here for blog post) which produces a crunchy pickle, and Wet Brine (shown in this post) which produces a softer pickle.

Both methods take around the same amount of time and use the same ingredients, so the choice is yours.

  See here for the wet brine gherkin recipe in more detail.

Recipe Costs

£0.00 1.5kg small gherkins (equivalent cost around £2 if you can find them - try Polish Delis)
£0.05 150g salt
£1.88 approx 1.5 litres spiced clear pickling vinegar
£0.04 2 tsp dill seeds / tarragon seeds
£0.05 1 clove garlic or 1 chilli
£2.02 Total
£1.35 per kg of pickles (about the same as buying from tesco)

The first step is to make a brine mix, this is done by stirring 100g of salt into each litre of cold water. The whole cucumbers are then left to soak in this for 24 hours, drawing out some of the water (about 375ml from the 1.5kg of cucumbers I used)

Once drained and rinsed well in cold water the cucumbers can be sliced if wished. I chopped the larger ones into spears reasoning I could pack them tighter in the jars that way.

The traditional herb using when pickling gherkins is dill seed, but tarragon, caraway and garlic can also be used. Bay leaves, peppercorns of chillies work as well, but small amounts should be used as they will continue to flavour the pickles until eaten.
I just went with a teaspoon of dill in each jar.

The slices are then packed into clean sterilised jars and covered with simmering spiced vinegar. You can use malt vinegar of distilled vinegar, both of which are available ready spiced, or you can spice your own vinegar using this recipe.

Seal with an airtight lid and store in a cool dark place for at least several weeks.
The gherkins will soften with age, so are best eaten within 6 months.

Recipe Timings

10 minutes Preparation
12 hours in brine
25 minutes Draining & Bottling

Taste Test

These had a good taste, but did not taste much of the dill. This maybe because I only left them for a few weeks before eating. Next time I will try more flavouring.