I love spicy garlic pickles, make them every year. Tried a new recipe this year and it's the best yet. These are really easy, no boiling involved. Here's the basic recipe:

Refrigerator Garlic pickles

INGREDIENTS

� 3-4 Pickling Cucumbers sliced in half or quartered

� 5 Fresh Dill Sprigs

� 3-4 Clove Garlic crushed

� 1/2 Cup Distilled White Vinegar

� 1 1/4 Cup Water

� 1 Tbs Salt

� 1/2 Tsp Sugar

� 1/2 Tsp Dill Seed

� 1/2 Tsp Mustard Seed

� 1/2 Tsp Coriander Seed

� 1/2 Tsp Hot Pepper Flakes

� 1/2 Tsp Celery Seed

� 1 Tsp Peppercorns

� 1 Quart Canning Jar

DIRECTIONS

Mix water, vinegar, salt and sugar together in a pourable container until salt and sugar are dissolved. Arrange Dill sprigs and cucumbers in 1 quart canning jar, then drop in garlic cloves, sprinkle spices into jar, add liquid the water and vinegar mixture until jar is filled to rim. Put the lid on the jar and give it all a good shake. Refrigerate. Give it a taste test after 24 hours. If there are any left after 48 hours give them another taste, they will continue to pickle as they lay in waiting in the frig.

NOTE

These pickles should be safe in the refrigerator for up to a month.

Instead of using pepper flakes, I used my peppers, cut in half and seeded. They were Serrano, Caribbean Red Habinero, Fatalli, 7 Pot, Trinidad Scorpion, and Dorset Naga. Everything else was the same, BTW, this recipe is for quart jars.

Had several people over to test them, ranging from pepper wimps to true chili heads. Here's what they thought.

All were considered good, no one said, "you don't need to make these again", and these people know me well enough to tell the truth.

From mildest to hottest:

Serrano - used 2 peppers in this one, very mild, everyone liked them and most were gone quickly. Anyone could stand these.

Caribbean Red Habinero - Again pretty mild, non heat people loved these, just enough heat to notice.

From here on people had different opinions on the heat level so I'll put all of these in the "hot" section. All were noticeably hotter than the others.

Fatalli - very different aroma but similar taste. Much hotter then the CR habaneros. While people thought they were good, not many went back to them.

7 Pot - The favorite by far form the chili heads. Heat hit immediately but didn't linger. Most thought these tasted the best too. Several said these that the most heat.

Trinidad Scorpion - Tied for second with the Naga. People like the flavor and said the heat came on slower but lasted awhile and several said this was the hottest.

Dorset Naga - Tied with the Scorpion in second. People said it had a very slow burn but loved the flavor. Rivaled the others in heat too.

So, 7 Pot was definitely the winner but many liked the Scorpion and Naga. Most said they'd be happy with any of the top three. All of these were available for people and the only noticeable difference was the lack of people eating the Fatalli pickles. For the non heat people actually most liked the Caribbean Red the best, just a little bite but it didn't overwhelm the wimps.

Also make some hot sauce out of the 7 Pots. It's in the nuclear range, way to hot for me. Never grown this pepper before but it appears to be a winner.

If you have any questions drop me a note.

John