I've paraphrased Ferris Bueller's Day Off before, and I'll do it again (probably many, many times): Summer moves pretty fast, if you don't stop to pickle something, you could miss it. And if you've never put up classic dill pickles before, this is the time to tackle the task (that's canners' lingo for pickling and storing: to put up).
Of course you could make quick pickles any night of the week, any week of the year. But when fresh produce is in season, it's more flavorful—cheaper, too. So right now, when farmers' markets are abundant with colorful, crisp fruits and vegetables, it's the time to take a weekend to learn how to can pickles. That way, you can enjoy those same fruits and vegetables a few months from now, when nothing is sprouting out of the ground.
The recipe we're using is a pretty basic one for kosher dill cucumber pickles—so called not because of any religious affiliation, but because they're made in the style of New York kosher delis, characterized by the addition of garlic. You could really use the same method for whatever vegetable you have on hand: zucchini would be great—or carrots or green beans. For today though, let's keep it classic. Here's how to make and can dill pickles:
1. Fill a large pot with hot water
Obviously, if you have a canning pot with a fitted rack, use it here. Otherwise you can hack it with a large stock pot. To do so, you will also need something to lift the glass canning jars off the bottom of the pot. You could use a round metal cooling rack, if you have one that fits neatly (and flat) in your stock pot. No canning pot or cooling rack? Scrunch a long piece of aluminum foil into a snake and then curl it into a spiral to fit in the bottom of your stock pot. Make the spiral loose enough so that water can circulate between the coils, but tight enough so that the canning jars can sit upright on them without tipping over. Finally, the pot should be tall enough so that you can fill it with water to at least one inch higher than the filled jars.
2. Submerge canning jars in the hot water and bring to a boil
For this recipe, you can use either 2 quart-sized jars or 4 pint-sized jars. You can easily double the recipe to make 4 quart jars or 8 pint jars if you'd like—just double the recipe below. Quart jars will easily fit whole pickles or spears, while pint jars are better suited to pickle chips. Arrange the jars (without their lids or rings) on a rack or your makeshift foil coil and add enough hot water from the tap to cover them by one inch. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, and immediately turn the heat off. Leave the jars submerged until ready to use them.