Armed with this new knowledge, I set out on Saturday to pick up supplies. Steve already had 4 quart sized Ball jars, so I only need lids and bands for those. Easily found at the grocery store. I needed pickling salt and fresh dill for the recipe. Pickling salt was easily found too (right next to the jar lids) but I had to go to 3 grocery stores before finding one with fresh dill! I couldn't believe it. Apparently this is not a popular item. A little bit frustrating for sure. The last thing on my list was canning utensils. I went to the kitchen store in the mall and asked if they had something to easily transfer the jars in and out of the boiling water. They said of course... a jar lifter! It came in a set of canning utensils that included a lid lifter (a cool magnetic stick that lifts the lids out of the boiling water), tongs, a wide mouth funnel, and a few other toys. All my purchases, the cucumbers, jars, some garlic and vinegar and I was ready to go!
First we simmer the jars, lids, and bands to make sure they were all sanitary and ready to go. Everything stays in the hot water until you're ready to use them. We also got the brine ready. 6 cups of water, 2 1/4 cups of white vinegar, and 1/2 cup of pickling salt boiled until the salt is all dissolved. Next we cut up the cucumbers. We did half slices and half spears.
Once the jars were filled we used our nifty magnetic lid lifter to get our lids out their pot and closed them up. We used the jar lifter to transport the jars into the stock pot (which was acting as our canner since we didn't want to invest in an actual one for our first time.
We had a candy thermometer on the side of the stock pot because the water was supposed to be 140 degrees when the jars first go in. Then you cover the pot, bring it to a boil, and then process it (let it boil) for the proper amount of time. The website I linked to above has tables that help you determine your processing time by what you are canning, the size of the jars, and your altitude. Our cucumbers processed for 15 minutes.
Turns out the stock pot was barely big enough. Safe canning instructions say that the water must be at least one inch above the tops of the jars and not drop below the lid during boiling, even if that means you add more water. Also, the water must never stop boiling during the processing time or you have to start all over. The water was all the way to the top of the stock pot and the boiling made the lid jump and sputter the whole time. Clearly if we do this again in the future there needs to be a purchase of either a canner or a bigger pot!
We got through the processing time without any mishaps though. The next step was to turn off the heat and let the jars sit in the water for another 5 mintues. After that we lifted the jars out of the pot and set them on towels on the counter. The jars need to cool completely before you check the buttons on the lids to see if they sealed or not. It was recommended to cover the jars with towels so they don't cool too quickly; there is a chance the glass could crack if they do. Don't say I don't follow directions!
I was dying to check the seals the whole rest of the day, but Steve kept me in line. Finally on Monday after work I was able to check and all 4 jars were perfectly sealed. Success! I was so excited and proud after this little adventure that I couldn't stop bouncing. It was fun! One thing that was surprising is how much room there seems to be in the jars. We stuffed as many slices and spears as we could shove into the jars, but now there is a lot of wiggle room. Guess that's just how it works. Next time maybe I'll try to get more in there.
Though we could open them as soon as the next day, I hear we should wait a couple of weeks for them to become properly pickle-y. This means one more week before we can dig in and see how they taste. I can't wait! Looks good, eh? :-)
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