Refrigerator Pickles

Making the Brine

To make the brine, add the water, vinegar, salt and honey to a medium saucepan on medium to high heat.

Give the ingredients a stir and bring the mix to a boil. Once the bubbles start roiling, turn off the burner and move the saucepan to a cool burner. Let the mix cool to room temperature while you prep the cucumbers.

Prepping the Future Pickles

Weigh out your 2 lbs of pickling cucumbers. For me, that was 4 cukes.

Use a sharp chef's knife to remove the ends of the cucumbers and cut them into halves or spears.

Measure out the remaining ingredients and remove the skins from the garlic cloves.

Place one of the grape leaves (if using) in the bottom of the jar.

Add the garlic cloves, mustard seeds, and peppercorns.

Now it's time to 'build' your jar of almost pickles.

Tip the jar to a 45° angle with one hand while starting to stack in the cucumber spears with the other. As you build up layers of spears add in the remaining grape leaves and fresh dill as you go.

Once you've filled the jar, straighten it back up and add any remaining spears into any remaining spaces. Be forceful if necessary. As the cucumbers pickle, they will shrink a bit, so the more tightly packed they are in the jar, the less likely they are to float up out of the brine.

Adding the Brine

Once your brine has cooled back down to room temperature (feel free to speed that process along if necessary by sticking it in the fridge), fill the jar with brine until it covers the cucumbers completely.

There's no need to leave headspace for fridge pickles, like you would for anything to be canned.

Seal or secure the lid and you're done! Well, almost done. The only thing left to do is stick it in the fridge! The sooner the better.