• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Montana Homesteader

Sharing vintage skills so you can live a simple, more meaningful homemade life- one canning jar at a time!

  • Start here
    • Home
    • About
    • Shop
    • Privacy Policy
  • Newsletter
  • Recipes
  • Forage
  • Grow
  • Make
  • Preserve
  • Raise
    • Beekeeping
    • Chickens
  • Homesteading Resources
  • Start here
    • Home
    • About
    • Shop
    • Privacy Policy
  • Newsletter
  • Recipes
  • Forage
  • Grow
  • Make
  • Preserve
  • Raise
    • Beekeeping
    • Chickens
  • Homesteading Resources
You are here: Home / PRESERVE / Easy Crunchy Refrigerator Pickles

Easy Crunchy Refrigerator Pickles

September 6, 2014 //  by Annie Bernauer//  12 Comments

Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Yummly
Yummly

Do you love pickles? I do. I’m a pickle fanatic. Actually, I pretty much love any foods that are pickled (well, maybe except for pickled pigs feet!) Today is your lucky day because I am going to share with you a family recipe for easy, crunchy, sweet refrigerator pickles. Seriously, these are the easiest pickles I’ve ever made and they are so darn tasty!Gallon size glass jar full of homemade sweet and crunchy refrigerator pickles plus pictures of whole cucumbers and sliced cucumbers and onions prepped to make pickles

This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission when a product is purchased through these links, at no additional charge to you. Thank you for your support! 

This spring I grew 36 heirloom cucumber plants from seed in my greenhouse with dreams of making a ton of homemade pickles with my homegrown cucumbers at the end of the summer. Well, like I mentioned in this post the majority of those cucumber plants died a week after being transplanted out thanks to the spring drought. Luckily my homemade pickle dreams did not die with those cucumber plants!

Fast forward a few months to the end of August. My good friend who runs her own organic farm gave us a box of produce. Inside this box was a whole bunch of pickling cucumbers. I was thrilled!

Why I make refrigerator pickles instead of canning pickles

The only problem with having all these pickling cucumbers was figuring out just how I wanted to go about making our homemade pickles this year. You see, a few years ago a friend and I made a couple dozen quart jars of homemade pickles. We made bread and butter pickles and dill pickles. There were tons of cucumbers involved as well as a whole day of work in the kitchen. This was not my first time canning pickles and I’d never had a pickle canning failure before so was confident about our creations.

I was so excited to try our homemade pickles but was devastated when we opened the first jar. Why? They were mushy. We tried to eat them but they were just gross. I ended up dumping out several dozen quart size jars of homemade pickles. It was just devastating. No wonder I’m afraid to can homemade pickles again! (I’m still baffled as to why the pickles turned out mushy so if you have any ideas, please share below in the comments!)

This year I decided to try making refrigerator pickles. I have a recipe that my mom made when I was a kid. I remember having a huge gallon size glass jar in the fridge and having delicious homemade crunchy, sweet refrigerator pickles to snack on for months. I forgot about the recipe for many years and just recently rediscovered it. When I saw it, I knew this was the recipe I was going to use for our homemade pickles this year. 

Why I love making refrigerator pickles

We’ve been snacking on these pickles for several weeks now and they are still crunchy! Now that I made this recipe, I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to canning pickles again. These were so unbelievably easy to make. There was no soaking, rinsing, cooking, or canning involved. This recipe is so easy even folks with limited skills in the kitchen can make it and not mess it up! The other great thing about this recipe is you can adjust the quantities and make it in any size depending on how many cucumbers you have. 

Our secret family recipe for easy, crunchy, sweet refrigerator pickles

This recipe makes a large jar of refrigerator pickles. I use a gallon size glass jar like this one and fill it up to the top. The cucumbers will shrink down in the jar after the first day or two in the brine but will continue to be crunchy and delicious!

Ingredients:
-10-20 Cucumbers (you can use regular or pickling cucumbers)
-3 medium white onions
-3 cups apple cider vinegar
-3 cups honey or unrefined sugar
-1/4 cup sea salt
-1 tsp Turmeric
-1 tsp celery seed
-1/2 cup water
-3-4 leaves that have tannin (such as grape, oak or raspberry leaves- this keeps them crunchy so don’t skip these!)

Directions:

  • 1. Slice cucumbers and onions about 1/4″ thick. I used my food processor (we have one like this and absolutely love it!) and had them all sliced nice and thin in just a few minutes.
  • 2. Pack the cucumbers, onions and leaves into a clean gallon size glass jar like this one
  • 3. In a bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients until the salt is dissolved.
  • 4. Pour the liquid into the jar. Put the lid on tight and put it in the refrigerator.
  • 5. Shake the jar once or twice a day for the next eight days.
  • 6. Keep in the refrigerator and enjoy!

If the pickles are in the brine, they should still be good and crunchy for a few months if they aren’t gobbled up before then! 

Other easy ways to make pickles

We had a few extra cucumbers so we also decided to try making some freezer pickles this year. I never heard of freezer pickles until a few months ago but thought we’d give it a whirl. Karen Lynn over at Little Suburban Homestead shared this recipe and said they’re tasty and crunchy so we had to make some to see for ourselves! We have four pints in the freezer that we’ll start eating once all our refrigerator pickles are gone. If you want to try making some too, here’s the recipe for crunchy sweet freezer pickles. 

If you love pickled foods like I do, then you’ll want to check out our post on how to make and can pickled beets with apple cider vinegar and honey. They are so yummy!!

What is your favorite way to make pickles? 

 

Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Yummly
Yummly

More Homesteading Inspiration

Fresh carrots stored properly in the refrigerator to stay crunchy

How to store carrots in the fridge

Storing apples long term for winter without refrigeration

How to store apples for winter without refrigeration

Jars of homemade canned rose hip jelly and fresh wild rose hips

How to make and can Rose Hip Jelly

Oregon Grapes ripe on the wild plant and jars of homemade Oregon Grape jelly

How to make and can Oregon Grape jelly

Fermenting pickles in a crock and sliced fermented pickle to explain how to make fermented pickles

How to make fermented sour dill crock pickles

How to preserve leeks picture of leeks being chopped Montana Homesteader blog

How to preserve and freeze leeks

How to make can or freeze applesauce or pear sauce with pictures of a bowl of chopped fruit a bowl of cooked fruit and a picture of it being processed through a food mill to turn it into sauce

How to make and can or freeze applesauce and pear sauce

How to make and can elderberry jelly includes a picture of wild elderberries on the bush in the mountains and a picture of jars of homemade canned elderberry jelly

How to make and can elderberry jelly

How to make fermented sauerkraut with a picture of shredded cabbage being pounded to make sauerkraut and the final fermented sauerkraut in a handmade crock

How to make sauerkraut

How to preserve and freeze cauliflower with a picture of a bowl of chopped cauliflower and a picture of vacuum sealed packs of cauliflower to preserve and freeze

How to preserve and freeze cauliflower

How to make pesto showing a glass jar full of homemade pesto with a picture of basil in a food processor and frozen cubes of pesto

How to Make and Freeze Pesto

How to preserve and freeze peaches picture showing skin pealing on fresh peach, bowl of chopped peaches and container of peaches in light syrup topped with waxed paper to help prevent browning when freezing

How to preserve and freeze peaches

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. AisLynn McLaren

    September 24, 2014 at 11:01 pm

    Are these sweet pickles?

    Reply
    • Montana Homesteader

      September 25, 2014 at 7:29 am

      Yes, they’re sweet pickles 🙂 I would say they’re more similar to a bread and butter style pickle

      Reply
  2. KarenLynn@Lil'SuburbanHomestead

    October 4, 2014 at 6:49 am

    Beautiful pic of your pickles 🙂 I love these pickles so much they are my faves! Thanks for the mention friend!

    Reply
  3. Ashley

    July 16, 2016 at 10:53 am

    How long are they good for?

    Reply
  4. agenbolasbobet.website

    October 5, 2016 at 10:51 am

    Good ⅾay! I ϲould Һave sworn I’ve visited tһis website ƅefore butt аfter going tɦrough mɑny of thhe
    articles Ӏ realizwd it’s new tօ me. Ⲛonetheless, І’m definitely
    delighteed І came across iit аnd I’ll be bookmarking it and checking Ьack regularly!

    Reply
  5. bobbi

    August 12, 2018 at 6:24 am

    Do you put a grape leaf in each jar? I don’t understand how to use those, lol. Thanks, Bobbi

    Reply
    • Montana Homesteader

      August 12, 2018 at 8:46 am

      When I make these, I use one large glass jar (gallon size) and put all the ingredients including the leaves in the one big jar. Hope this helps!

      Reply
      • Barb

        August 12, 2020 at 6:56 pm

        I have a friend who uses oak leaves and her pickles are always crunchy. I have tried oak leaves in the past, but since they are difficult to get in my area I use grape leaves. I have grapes growing in my yard so that’s what I use. I have never used them in refrigerator pickles so will definitely give it a try. Thx.

        Reply
  6. Lbgage

    September 24, 2018 at 12:31 am

    Love your recipe. I have an outlandish pickle cleaning tip. Instead of spending time laboriously scrubbing dirt crusted fresh pickles, just put them in a washing machine (NO soap), and set the pickles to regular wash. The pickles come out sparkling clean and ready to process. Enjoy.

    Reply
    • Annie @ Montana Homesteader

      September 24, 2018 at 3:09 pm

      Now this is a time saving tip I never would have thought of! Next time we have a bunch of cucumbers I’m going to give it a try!

      Reply
    • Lj

      July 19, 2019 at 7:41 am

      I put my cucumbers in dishwasher in top rack to clean, works every time.

      Reply
  7. Gretchen

    May 6, 2020 at 8:56 am

    Where do I get the grape leaves ?

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Annie @ Montana Homesteader Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hello I'm Annie and welcome to our blog!

I was raised in an old farmhouse in the country and taught by three generations of women in my family to cook from scratch, can and preserve food, nurture plants to grow, craft with my hands, and live a simple, meaningful life. Now I'm teaching my own children these skills on our little homestead in Montana. I'm sharing these vintage skills here so you too can live a simple, more connected homemade life- one canning jar at a time! Read more...

Site Footer

Some of the posts on this website contain affiliate links. This means I receive a small commission when a product is purchased through these links at no additional cost to you. Montana Homesteader  participates in the Amazon Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your support!

Follow Montana Homesteader

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About
  • Shop
  • Newsletter
  • Homesteading Resources
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 Montana Homesteader · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Mai Theme