I use the larger ones for spears, instead of slices. I've found that the older ones don't keep as crisp as others. I noticed that Ball's pickling mix have pickle crisp included while Mrs. Wages doesn't list it.

What kind are you making? I've done Kosher Dill and Bread & Butter so far this year. I have almost a bushel of pickling cukes to do up today and tomorrow. Most will be Bread & Butter, since I've sold most of what I've made.

If you were to pull up the many making pickles discussions here the one point you'd find running through them all is that the best pickles are made using only fresh picked pickling variety cukes - less than 24 hours old - and of the proper size. Otherwise you end up with soft, even mushy, but definitely not crisp pickles. This is especially true for dill pickles where a crispness is expected..

Other types, sizes, and ages of cukes are used for things like Bread & Butter, Slippery Jacks, Chunk Sweets, etc. that are more tolerant of older cukes since most expect them to be a softer pickles.

Then there are the issues with using a prepared mix rather than making them from scratch. As already mentioned some mixes already have Pickle Crisp added to them which can really help, other mixes do not. The mixes also have less than ideal pickle-making directions.

So if you want good dill pickles and if you want to use the Mrs. Wages mix then use only the very best, very fresh cucumbers not the old, bug ones. If they are not pickling cukes but are slicer types then as Marla said cut them into spears, not slices. And buy a jar of Pickle Crisp to add to the jars per label instructions.

Most importantly use a good 12-24 hour iced salt pre-soak on them to try to improve the crispness not the usual 2-3 hours soak some packets call for.

They won't be great dill pickles but they will be good.

Hope this helps.

Dave

The package says Mrs. Wages create Dill Pickles, so I guess just "regular" dill pickles. The ingredients are salt, maltodextrin, spice extractives, citric acid. The spices in it smell great, like the kind of pickles I like. Do you think I should add pickle crisp to this?
I am thinking I should use the larger ones as spears and slice the rest. We should probably use the spears up first since they won't keep crisp.
This is my second year canning tomatoes, but first attempt at pickles. My garden isn't large, so it's hard to get a large batch of little cukes at the same time.
Thanks.

Thanks Dave. I have read posts about pickles in the past and knew the best cukes are the ones that are fresh off the vines, that's why I wanted to be sure that it was okay if they weren't. I know they won't be the best.
The cukes are pickling ones that just got a little bigger than I wanted. Thanks for reminding me about the iced salt soak. I will do that and also get some pickle crisp.

While fresher is better, I've made over 120 jars of Mrs Wages pickles, both Dill and Bread and Butter with pickling cukes up to 1 week old. Always kept in refrigerator until worked. We rinse and hold the pickles in ice cold water until we slice, then we bag them in ziploc type of bags and place back in refrigerator til we have time to brine them. I fill the jars and fill with brine, then process. None of them have went soft. It surprised me, since I tried years ago with regular pickle recipe and fresh picked, and they went soft quickly.

I do not soak in salt water. Just ICE cold water.

So it's okay to slice them then soak them in ice water till ready to put in the jars?
Here is what I thought I would do. Tomorrow morning I am going to pick the ones that are ready. Then I thought I could slice them (spears & round slices), let them soak over night and on Tuesday I could put them in the jars & process. I have the Mrs Wages packages plus I bought some pickle crisp to add to the jars. I also picked up some wide mouth jars from my Mom. Thought they would be a little easier to pack.
Does this sound like a decent "plan of attack"? I have never done pickles and figure it's better to ask before I start doing. I am also trying to work around appointments for tomorrow.

Thanks

The big advantage of adding the salt to the ice soak is the salt draws additional water out of the cucumbers making them more crisp, less watery. Then all you have to do is rinse them well after soaking to rinse off the salt.

I would encourage you to avoid using slices for dills unless really necessary since they will be the softest form of all.

Dave

We just soak between frig and slicing, then immediately bag and put the bag in frig. We use the sliced/speared ones by the next day.

I only use the pickling cukes, never tried with regular cukes. Husband like to make cukes and onions with them.

This post was edited by myfamilysfarm on Mon, Aug 26, 13 at 9:41