Store-bought pickles are a world apart from the homemade delicacies that take hours to make. But what if we told you there’s a way to turn those store-bought pickles into the flavor-packed old-fashioned recipe you love to eat!
With this simple recipe, you can make unique pickles that are the perfect balance of sweet, salty, and dill. Why start from scratch when you can be smart and upgrade your store-bought pickles! All you need are a few simple ingredients and you can make the perfect dill pickles at home. Now you can get that homemade taste without scratching from scratch. It’s the best of both worlds!
Read on to find out exactly what you need to do, which ingredients to buy, and how long it’ll take for your pickles to soak up the new mix. This step-by-step guide will teach you everything you need to know about how to make hot pickles from store-bought pickles.
How To Turn Store Bought Pickles Into Hot Dill Pickles
Step 1: Get whole pickles
The first thing you need to do is go to the store and buy a huge jar of dill pickles. You can pick any brand you like as long as they are whole dill pickles.
Step 2: Making sweet pickles
Next, you need to separate the pickles from the pickle juice. You can use a strainer for this, tongs, or even a slotted spoon. Your utensil doesn’t matter as long as it gets the job done! Once you’ve separated the pickles slice them in half.
Cutting up the pickles is an optional step, but a necessary one. The trick to making pickles is replacing the discarded juice with your own special mix. When the pickles are cut up they’ll absorb the new juice faster and you can get hot dill pickles in less than 3 days! That’s right the pickles start sucking up the new brine within 12 hours of when you’re done.
Now you’ll need to take the jar and add half a cup of pickle juice, half a cup of vinegar, and around 3 cups of sugar. Put on the lid and give the mixture a good shake. At this point, you may want to place your mixture on the stove. A medium-high burner should do the trick. Letting the pickle juice heat up till it’s warm helps the sugar dissolve easily. However, this is an optional step and you’ll want to make sure that you turn off the stove before the juice starts simmering.
This step is the most important.
Next, you need to add some pickling spice to the mix. How you do that is up to you. One option is to throw them in straight, but that gives you a strong zesty taste. If you want a milder pickle you can tie up your spice in muslin or cheesecloth so only some of the flavor seeps into your juice.
In the next step cut your pickling cucumbers into thin slices. The thickness of the pickles is really up to you. Then you can put them back in the pickle juice jar.
Step 3 (optional): Making spicy pickles
You can also add other optional ingredients like jalapeno peppers, red pepper flakes, fresh garlic, hot sauce, tabasco sauce, and parsley depending on the spice level you want. Apply this dry mix to the cut pickles before putting them back in the juice jar. This recipe makes the best spicy pickles.
Step 4: Waiting 3 days for your pickles
Twist the lid back on and leave them on the counter. Make sure you squeeze the lid on tight so the juice doesn’t leak out. At this point, you’ll begin to see some undissolved sugar collecting at the bottom of the jar. This is nothing to worry about. There’s a greater chance you’ll see the granulated sugar collect if you skipped the optional step of warming it on the burner.
Just flip the jar over and stand it on its head for a few hours. You’ll need to continue flipping your jar every few hours so the sugar doesn’t settle.
While you can leave your pickle jar on the counter during the day you should put it in the fridge before you go to sleep. You’ll need to continue to move it around for at least 24 hours. All in all, this entire process shouldn’t take more than an hour. You can expect expert hot pickles within 3 days, even though the pickles will start sucking up the brine after just 1 day!
The homemade taste will make heads turn at every dinner party. No one will even know they were made from store-bought pickles and not from scratch. These dill pickles make for an excellent appetizer, snack, or even a side dish to spruce up your table. While hot pickles make for a delicious solo snack they taste even better with a burger or some barbecue.
Final Thoughts
Follow this recipe to make some of the best homemade sweet or spicy pickles in the world. The pickles you’ll make from this recipe are leagues ahead of store-bought dills, in terms of taste, aroma, and nutrition calories.
The recipe is super easy to follow and only takes around an hour per batch. Of course, you can always make bigger batches with multiple jars of pickles once you have the recipe down! The best part about this recipe is how customizable it is. People who like their pickles sweet just need to load up on the sugar.
On the other hand, people who prefer spicy pickles can add all sorts of ingredients from Tabasco sauce to jalapeno peppers to get to the perfect spice level. And if you love both just split up the batch into two jars! So what are you waiting for? Head on down to the store and get the biggest jar of pickles you can find. You definitely won’t regret it!
