In search of the World's Best Dill Pickles...

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danmantn

danmantn

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Nov 3, 2009
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I LOVE dill pickles. I even made my own last year. Unfortunately, Vlasic and Mt. Olive dominate the market anymore and smaller brands are quickly disappearing. Long gone are the days fo Cates Pickles (Faison, NC) or Paramount Pickles (Louisville, KY). Modern day pickles just don't cut it for me.

I wanted to ask the group to recommend either their favorite brand of dill pickles, or post their favorite recipe for homemade (canned) dill pickles. Surely there are some winners out there!
 
Cates!

Cates were the best!, I remember Betty Feezor advertising them on her TV show when I was a kid,in the days before cable tv and the Food Network,whatever she said was the GOSPEL TRUTH, so we all bought Cates pickles, and they were GOOD. I make Bread and Butter, but have never made Dills, though I like them.
 
Have you tried.........

Clausen pickles..... usually in the produce area and are always in refrigerated section. I like those better than any others in the regular condiment isle. Another neat thing if you're into gardening is to plant a few hills of cucumbers and some dill and make them fresh later in the summer/fall. They're not that hard to make just have to wait a few weeks after canning them up for the max flavor and crispness. Man are those good that way!

Anyways - try Clausen. They have different versions from small whole to large whole also spears, halves and sandwich strips.
 
My mom used to put up dill pickles every summer. My sister still does, so I will get the recipe from her and post it here or email it to you directly. It's fairly easy, and people used to love my mom's pickles. I haven't yet tried the batch I helped with last August. When I eat pickles, they keep reminding me that I've done so for quite a while afterward.
 
My grandmother (dad's side) always had large gardens

and we would help her tend them - lived right up the hill from her house so we always had fresh veggies as quick as they started coming in til the frost ended the season in late Oct. We had multiple hills of cucumbers and always planted a section of dill for the pickles. Used to help her put them up and they were so good later in the year when they were well pickled. We put up just about every kind of veggies - corn, green beans, shelly beans, potatos, tomatos, okra etc. Lots of hard work but it paid off in the winter to have all those home canned veggies available. Such wonderful memories and then there was the homemade yeast bread and rolls........ wow!
 
Bubbies

A friend of mine in California served these and they are closest to my Grandmother's homemade pickles. As as kid I accidently discoverd large fermenting crock on her attic stairs. Told my mother about it. She laughed and said "did you like those pickles we had at dinner last night? That's where they come from." Nasty looking crock, but great pickles!

Here's a link to their site, and it looks like they're available at Earth Fare in Knoxville. You'll find them in the refrigerated section of your market.

http://www.bubbies.com/
 
Got to head to Earth Fare

and try those pickles and probably a few other things too! A little off the pickle topic a moment but was thinking about things natural made or made with natural insted of artifical - probably not greatest thing to drink in excess but the cane sugar sweetend CocaCola or Red Rock Colas and Ginger Ale.... the cane sugar sweetened sodas (pops) just have a better taste and bite that HF corn syryp sweetened things. Hard to find the cane sugar CocaColas - did find some at the local Kroger in the Mexican foods section - the mexican cokes... really nice tasting much like the Red Rock colas.

OK done with that - now you can go back to pickles.....lol!
 
Steinfelds (Oregon) were really good but then Vlasic must have paid off the Cdn groceries because you can't get them anymore. Vlasic are terrible imho. I won't buy them.

2nd the opinion on Clausens, very good too as well as Strubs, both are always in the refrigerator case but they're kind of expensive but worth it
 
"C&K" Clause & Krause:

Kosher Dill Pickles, or for that matter almost any Kosher Dill Pickles. We used to have a great Restaurant here called Original Mac's and they basically served Kosher Food. I would go Downtown, during the Summer Months and have Lunch with my Father, when he was working for the State. One of our most favorite places to eat Lunch was Original Mac's. We would get their Kosher Hot Dog Sandwiches, served with couple of sliced Kosher Dill Pickles and Macaroni Salad. We liked the Kosher Hot Dogs so much, that after Lunch, my Father would buy 6 or 8 Kosher Hot Dogs to give to me to take home and have our Mother prepare them for that Evenings Dinner.

Another real good place for Sandwhiches here in Sacramento was called "The Public Market" which was a kind of "Hole In The Wall" place and was known by even people not from here as with Original Mac's, when they come here in the Summer Time on Vacation Travel.

Another long-time ago place was the "Capital Tamale" Restaurant Downtown. I'm curious to know even though we only have a small hand full of Club people here from Sacramento, who might also remember these places and maybe share with me and everyone else your favorite places to Eat around here, in the Past. "BTW" I'm honestly not trying to take away this Thread, from the original Posting reason, I just remembered growing up with these favorite places to eat at here and one of them especially had the Kosher Dill Pickles.

Peace and Kind Regards, Steve

Peace and Kind Regards, Steve
 
Vlasic Pickles

This was a hometown Detroit brand, and when it was the pickles were very good. Later on it was sold to some enormous national company and the quality was never the same. I still buy them because I like them better than other brands.

When I was in high school, I was a caddie at the country club where Bob Vlasic was a member. He was always a gentleman, treated us with a good amount of respect. Plus, he was an above-average tipper.
 
Vlasic is now a division of

Campbell's!!!!!!! Or, they were, last time I looked.

I just get Clausen's.

The offender is for most people is garlic OIL.

I don't can, but I might, this summer/fall. With a RECENT edition of the Ball Blue Book, it's easy and safe. I would not use a canning recipe that would be over 20 or so years old without checking first with a NEW Ball Blue Book, or a County Extension Home Economist.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
I'm in agreement with Goatfarmer - Sechler's makes my favorite pickles. Their sweet relish is the best I've ever eaten. I DO NOT like Mt. Olive pickles or relish; they have a strange off taste. Why they sell so well I have no idea.
 
Lawrence you can put up dill pickles without going through all the boiling water bath technique. Not sure if that method is in the recipe books you're looking at.. It's referred to as refrigerator canning since once you jarred them up you must keep them in the refrigerator. Worth a try. All you really need are the pickles, pickling salt and vinegar some garlics and lotsa dill weed you can get at a local market in the late summer or plant some out back or out front wherever you get some sun.
A guy at work used to make his this way and boy were they tasty.
You have to do the boiling water bath if you want to store them unrefrigerated and for years.
 
Agree....

Refrigerator canning on dill pickles is a good way too - I've been around both versons with grandmother in past years. I like them cold and crispy. I had forgotten about the frige canning of pickles..... good call!
 
I used to love Vlasic's Polish dill pickles. They said something like "Polski Wyrob" on the label. But again since Vlasic changed hands a few times, that pickle has disappeared, except for the spears, which I haven't tried but don't look the same anyway.

The Mt. Olive polish dills are ok, but not as good as what Vlasic used to make.

The story of Vlasic is kind of sad. It was a family owned company for decades, and then it was bought out by a company that sucked all the profits out and drove the company into the ground. I think it went bankrupt at one point, and then resurfaced but it's never been the same.

For a while Costco sold big gallon containers of pickles - "Home Style", that were very close in taste to the Vlasic whole dills, but even those have gone away and the new stuff is too acidic and flavorless.
 
My favorite are Heinz. They remind me of my Grandmothers which I have made. Here is the recipe.

1 Qt White vinegar
3 Qts water
1 Tbls Alum
1 Cup Pickling Salt
fresh dill tops and stems
Several cloves of garlic if you want Koshers

Clean about a peck of cucumbers, I use picklers. Wash at least a doz. wide mouth quart jars. I heat my jars in the oven set at the lowest temperature (150). Then I pack the jars with 1 whole stem of dill and enough pickles to leave 1 " at top of jar. Mix salt, vinegar, water, and alum in large pan and bring to a boil. Cover pickles with boiling brine. Place insert, that have been in boiling water in a pan, and a ring. Tighten ring as tight as possible. I place a towel on the counter and put the jars on it. I than wrap the jars with more towels and let sit over night. In the morning I check to make sure all the jars are sealed. All the sealed jars go to the basement shelves and I forget about them for at least 3 mons. usually how long it takes for them to pickle. Ball Blue Book will tell you that these must be water bathed for at least 1/2 hour. When I have tried this the pickles are mush not crisp as a pickle should be.

This recipe isn't as difficult as it sounds and is more fun with more than 1 person. The amount of pickles to jars depends on the size of the pickle.
 
Thanks Mark! I'll add that recipe to the my batch this year! I love Heinz Genuine Dill Pickles. They have been my gold standard for years...but wished they were still "Cured in Wood" barrels, but they stopped that in the early 1990s. They've never really been the same since...but still pretty good. Curing them like Jack Daniels in those barrels gave them an awesome flavor that's hard to duplicate.
 

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