Try The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich, Ball Blue Book of Home Preserving, or the National Center for Home Food Preservation website below.

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation

This is my favorite recipe:
Kosher Dill (Heinz Recipe)

4 lbs pickling cukes
14 cloves garlic, peeled & split
1/4 cup salt
2 3/4 cups distilled or apple cider vinegar 5% acidity
2 3/4 cups water
12 to 14 sprigs fresh dill weed
28 peppercorns

Wash cucumbers; remove 1/16 inch from blossom end, cut in half lengthwise. Combine garlic and next 3 ingredients; heat to boiling. Remove garlic and place 4 halves into each clean jar, then pack cucumbers, adding 2 sprigs of dill and 4 peppercorns. Pour hot vinegar solution over cucumbers to within 1/2 inch of top. Immediately adjust covers as jar manufacturer directs. Process 10 minutes in BWB. Makes 6-7 pints.
I actually prefer dried dill, I use 3 T. per pint.

Just make sure any recipe you use for a quick pack pickle is at least half 5 % acidity vinegar to prevent botulism. Cucumbers are low acid foods and must have that much added acid to make them safe. Lots of old recipes do not require that much because vinegar back then was much more acidic than ours. If they seem too tart, add a bit of sugar to offset the flavor. Cider vinegar tastes less sharp than white vinegar.
Also, I add Pickle crisp to each jar. It is same thing the commercial industry uses to keep them crisp. Buy with canning supplies in some stores.

Thanks linda lou

Additionally, for those you like easy, give the pickle mixes a try. I like the sweet pickle mixes from both Mrs Wages and Ball, but I use small amount of Splenda instead of sugar. There are also dill pickle mixes. For most, I add extra spices in the form of fresh dill seeds and dill weed. Also add brown mustard seed and celery seeds to sweet pickles. Don't forget the garlic too. Recipes are out there, read through these threads too..

Thanks ksrogers.

Recipes arent really what Im looking for. I obviously need them, but what I'm looking for is a resource that has info on different types of pickles, how they're made, maybe the science behind it so I can understand it better, and maybe some DOs and DONTs.

Thanks.

Nick

Ball BLue Book is a basic, and does cover pickles of all types, as well as relishes. Its not a complex process to make pickles. I make vinegar based and half sour fermented salt brine types. Sweets usually call for dill, celery, and mustard seed as spices. Sweet mixed, call for a little ginger, clove, allspice, cinnamon, bay leaf, mustard seed, celery seed, and dill seed. Relishes are also fairly simple and use almost the same items, but minced cukes, and onions. There are not many 'don'ts' as far as I am concerned, but one definate 'do' is to taste the pickling brine prior to adding it to cukes. Also, pickling cukes are used, and should be VERY FRESH, like just picked from your garden. Using store bought cukes result in a softer pickle in some cases. To help the cukes to retain some crispness after a long term of canning, the use of Ball Pickle Crisp is a great help. It helps to buffer the acidic vinegar so it will not soften the cukes as quickly. Canning, and processing is done usually in a water bath, for the barest minimums in time indictated in recipes. Processing longer in high heat can only help to soften an otherwise crisp pickle. Pickles are made either by a raw pack of cukes in jars, or a salt brine soak overnight to remove some of the excess water inside the cukes. The latter can make a very salty pickle, unless the brine is made with less added salt, and the cukes are rinsed well. You can pickle peppers, onions, beets, carrots, cauliflower, and several other items like stringbeans, garlic cloves, and a host of other favorite combinations that are posted in these threads. Pickle making might be called a 'science' to an inexperienced beginner, but after a few batches and maybe a possible failure, the 'science' turns into common sense.

I know what you mean, Nick. My pickles aren't my best thing, either, and I've been canning forever. There's something about the blossom end, Linda Lou's recipe says to cup off 1/16" from that end. I think that's really important to crispness, and soggy pickles are a throw-away. Also I think it's important to use fresh cukes rather than store them or refrigerate them for a couple of days. National Pickling is a good variety, and County Fair. Some varieties are not bred for pickling at all. There's a book from the National Seed Savers Exchange listing all known varieties of everything and the characteristics of all. It's a reference book and when I asked my library if they had it, they said it sounded like something they should have and ordered it into inventory. You may be able to get it at your library or even log on to Seed Saver's Exchange website, since choosing a variety is no longer an option -- they're already in the ground!

Do you have an extension office nearby? Be worth a call. Or phone 1-800-ext-info to find one.

if you have soft pickles. Just run in a food processer for a few seconds to chop them up, and add a bit of fresh onion. You now have a nice relish to put on burgers or hotdogs, or what have you. Pickle Crisp does help to reduce the breaking down that vinegar does to cukes.

Here's a great little booklet (available as pdf file) I've recommended before on pickling from Wisconsin Extension.

It explains the various kinds of pickles from fermented to quick process to refrigerator, covers issues such as cucumber freshness and prep, types of salt, brine proportions, water to use, etc. and also provides troubleshooting info.

The recipes are all tested and offer beginners a good range of pickles and relishes to try.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Homemade Pickles and Relishes