Searching for a Perfect Pickle Recipe

Spices and cucumbers
ready to be pickled!

Have I ever mentioned how fond I am of pickles?  Some might call it an obsession.  I believe it is just good taste.  Adam and I have agreed to disagree on this point.  I consider Claussen's kosher dill pickles to be the epitome of the pickle perfected.  So delicious that I could easily finish off a jar as soon as it is opened.  Then I moved to Montreal - and horror of horrors - they do not sell Claussen pickles in any store!  This has prompted me to get serious about making my own refrigerator pickles.  I've tried in the past with various pickling spice packets, but I was never really happy with the outcome - if I am going to make pickles I want it to taste like a Claussen.

Ready for the
refrigerator!

I found what seemed to be a reasonable recipe online for copy-cat Claussen pickles and began my search for the ingredients.  Most were either already in our pantry or easily found at the store.  Except for the illusive dill seed.  Every store has dill weed, which I researched and found is not the same thing.  Tracking down dill seed took several days and an intense search guided by my iPhone and google maps to every market in the Plateau.  It took a while, but it was also a great opportunity to explore the neighborhood.  I finally tracked a jar of dill seed at a store near the mountain, picked up some mason jars, and quickly headed home to give the recipe a try.  The pickles had to sit in refrigerator for an entire week before they would be ready, so I didn't want to waste any time.

Okay, I forgot to photograph
the finished product.  Pickles
don't last very long around me.

It was a very long week, and I will be honest with you and admit I opened the jar a half a day short of the full week (I did better than I thought I would).  But the anticipation was too great.  I had been slightly suspicious when putting everything together because the combination of spices smelled nothing like a jar of Claussen pickles.  I was hopeful that after a week of chilling in the refrigerator it would transform into the great pickle taste I was after.  Sadly, it did not.  I am not saying these pickles were bad. They certainly had the crispy crunch of a Claussen pickle, but they didn't taste Claussen-esque at all... and actually were rather spicy.  But do not fear, for I did not let these impostor pickles go to waste.  I promptly ate the two jars I had made in about a week.


Thankfully there are always more recipes to try.  I am excited about a food blog I found in which another Claussen fanatic actually strained out the contents of their pickle jar in order to identify and quantify each ingredient. I have much more confidence in how these pickles will turn out - so it's back to the markets in search of some additional spices.  I'll let you know how the next batch goes!