THE CHICKEN LADY'S CLAUSSEN KOSHER PICKLE CLONE
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds pickling cucumbers
4 teaspoons dry minced onions
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon dill
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons table salt
Quarter the cucumbers lengthwise and put in a quart canning jar or 2-3 pint jars (see my note below) . Bring all of the remaining ingredients to a boil for 5 minutes to dissolve the salt; cool. Pour the brine over the cucumbers; cover and let stand at room temperature for 3 days. Occasionally flip the jar over and then back upright to redistribute the ingredients. After the third day, refrigerate them and they should keep for up to a year. Alternately, you can refrigerate them right away and they can be eaten within a day or two (see my comments below).
Makes about 24 pickle spears
Per Pickle: 7 Calories; trace Fat; trace Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 1g Net Carb
The Chicken Lady at Low Carb Friends posted this recipe and she makes large batches of them with cucumbers from her garden. You can read the thread here. I was nervous about keeping them on the counter for three days because of my husband's immune system being depressed by his anti-rejection meds so I "processed" mine in the fridge. This seemed to work perfectly fine and they were actually ready to eat by the next day. My pickles taste good and came out nice and crunchy but I might leave out the dried onions next time. They have a strong flavor that seems out of place to me. I just happen to have a jar of regular dill pickles in the fridge so I did a side-by-side taste test. There's no comparison between the two. The flavor of "cooked" pickles that you can buy off the shelf is nowhere near as nice as the flavor of fresh refrigerator pickles and they don't have the same crunch. The only reason that I gave these a 3-star rating because I'm not a big pickle eater.
NOTE: I had trouble finding jars that would hold all of my pickles with the right amount of brine to cover them. Two pint jars or 1 quart jar weren't enough to hold 1 1/4 pound of cucumbers. If I divided them into 3 pint jars there wasn't enough brine. I ended up having to leave out the equivalent of one cucumber (I had six). Next time I will double the brine and use 3 pint jars.
