How to make pickles
Sterilize the jars.
Make a brine: 12 cups water, 2 cups white vinegar, 3/4 cup salt.
add to a sterilized jar one or two dill heads, some garlic, some peppercorns, and half a teaspoon alum (for crispness).
Fill that jar with cucumbers. Cram them in. top off with brine.
Boil 10 minutes. It’s the brine, not the cooking, that preserves this food.
Wait a minimum of two weeks, and then you may dive in.
My only regret is using ordinary sea salt, which ended up looking a little cloudy. You might try kosher salt or pickling salt or something like that. Dill + garlic + peppercorns = a mighty good pickle. I know this because I’ve been eating them.
They are delicious pickles. Make an excellent tuna salad addition.
last night we opened some of your pickled beats. they were very delicious. the kids took little tiny tastes and spat them out which means bad kids good beats. the cloves were a nice addition.
I hate to say it, but we don’t remember ever pickling beets. Carrots maybe. Cucumbers, sure. But never beets. Someone else must have given those to you.