6K Shares

I need you to put your Laura Ingalls bonnet on now because you’re going to learn how to make old-fashioned fermented dill pickles in a crock.

Not the vinegary kind. The kind that ferments slowly on your counter. The kind that develops flavour, character, and makes you look homesteadey.

Overhead shot of an antique pickle crock filled with pickles on a rough, grey painted wood floor.

Table of Contents

What Is a Kosher Dill Pickle?

It’s not about religious dietary rules—it’s about Jewish deli style: garlicky, sour, and fermented naturally without vinegar.

Vinegar pickles = fast, shelf-stable, no probiotics
Fermented pickles = slow, naturally sour, full of gut-friendly bacteria

Kosher dills are what dill pickles want to be when they grow up.

My First Pickling Attempt? A Salty, Sad Mess.

I tried fermenting pickles when I first moved into my house about 25 years ago and I have never been so excited to rot something.

(O.K., fermenting isn’t rotting. But it sounds more daring. Less hippie, more mad scientist.)

Whatever salt-to-water ratio I used must have been pulled from a salt lick, because what I ended up with were soft, inedible salt bombs.

The Book That Saved My Pickles

Overhead shot of Fermentation book resting on antique crock sitting on porch floor.

Eventually I switched to a recipe from Sandor Katz’s Wild Fermentation. Since the book helped me create my own sourdough starter, I figured it could handle pickles. And with a name like Katz, he clearly understands both fermentation and a good pastrami sandwich.

And I was right—these pickles are the real deal. If you're around me, and remember Strub's pickles ... these are like those.

What You Need to Make Crock Fermented Dill Pickles

Two baskets of fresh pickling cucumbers set on a white tea towel with antique crock in the background and dill laid about.

Pickling cucumbers (small and firm)
Salt (non-iodized: kosher or pickling)
Fresh dill (or dill seed/dill heads)
Optional: garlic, peppercorns, horseradish/grape/oak leaves (for crunch)
A fermentation crock or large glass jar
Water (unchlorinated is best)

I use a classic 2 gallon crock with the weights to keep the pickles down.

Step-by-Step Fermented Dill Pickle Recipe

Pouring water into antique brown and cream crock filled with pickling cucumbers.

This is a traditional half-sour recipe using a 3.95% brine.*

I used to make a saltier brine because it helped the pickles store longer. But I prefer this lower salt ratio—it just tastes better. And since I now process my fermented pickles, I don’t need the salt for preservation anymore—just for flavour.

1. Soak Your Cucumbers

Soak them in ice water for 2–4 hours before fermenting. It helps with crunch.

2. Cut Off the Blossom Ends

Karen Bertelsen prepping cucumbers at butcher block countertop.

The blossom end (narrower tip) has an enzyme that causes softening. Get rid of it.

3. Make the Brine

Use a 3.95% brine:
🧂 5 tablespoons of pickling salt per 8 cups (2 quarts) of water
Make enough to just cover 8 lbs of cucumbers in a 2 gallon crock.

4. Pack the Crock

Layer in dill, garlic, and cucumbers. Shove it all in there. Add optional leaves or spices.

5. Pour in Brine & Weigh Down

Cover everything with the brine.
Use pickle weights or a plate + clean rock to keep cucumbers submerged.

Would you like to save this stuff?

We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.

6. Cover & Ferment

Water in antique crock at the first stages of fermentation with bubbles forming on the surface.

Cover the crock with a lid or towel so flies don't get in. Let ferment at 65–75°F.
After 3–4 weeks, your pickles will be fully fermented. Start tasting around Day 10 if you like.

7. Store

Move to the fridge when they taste good. They’ll last months chilled.

How to Keep Your Pickles Crunchy

Soak in ice water first
Cut off the blossom end The blossom end (it will be the more narrow end) contains an enzyme that causes pickles to soften when they ferment.
Add tannin-rich leaves (grape, oak, horseradish)
Use Pickle Crisp (calcium chloride) to keep crunch
Skip heat processing OR use low-temp pasteurization (see below)

Optional: Low-Temperature Pasteurization for Shelf Stability

If you want to process them but keep some crunch:

Instructions

🫙 - Pack fully fermented pickles into clean, sterilized jars
💦 - Bring your brine to a boil, then remove from heat
🔥 - Fill a canning pot with water and heat to 180–185°F
Use a thermometer or sous vide stick to maintain temperature
🫗 - Pour hot brine into jars, leaving ½-inch headspace
🧼 - Wipe rims, apply lids and rings
🌡️ - Submerge sealed jars in 180–185°F water
⏲️ - Process for 30 minutes, keeping temperature steady
🧊 - Remove jars and let cool at room temperature
🧺 - Store in pantry for years

Are Pickling Cucumbers Really Necessary?

You bet they are. Pickling cucumbers are shorter, firmer, and hold up during fermentation.
Regular cucumbers will turn to mush. I speak from experience.

What to Add (or Not Add)

At minimum, you need:
✔️ Cucumbers
✔️ Salt
✔️ Dill
✔️ Water

Garlic is optional. So are peppercorns, mustard seeds, and bedtime stories. But don't go overboard—fermented dill pickles are about simplicity.

Are You Sure They’re Done?

They’re ready when:

They’ve turned translucent
They taste sour and delicious
You start hiding them from people

Shelf Life

What determines the shelf life of your pickle is how much salt it contains. A full-sour pickle has a brine that is 10% salt. You could leave those for years and they'd still be preserved perfectly because of the amount of salt. They'd also taste like the Dead Sea.

For pickles that are half-sours, like these, if you want to keep them around for months store them in the fridge or process them.

Kosher Dill Pickles

Kosher Dill Pickles like the kind you'd find at a good old fashioned Jewish deli.

4.77 from 13 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Canning/Preserves

Cuisine: They say it's from New York.

Prep Time: 5

Fermenting Period: 30

Total Time: 30 5

Servings: pint jars

Calories: 224kcal

Ingredients

8 pounds cucumbers small to medium size
5 tablespoons kosher or pickling salt More if canning
9 dill heads fresh
1 handful fresh grape cherry, oak, and/or
horseradish leaves if available
1 pinch black peppercorns
8 cups water
1 head garlic cloves skinned and separated

If you want to process/can add these ingredients to the brine:

1 cup pickling salt This will replace the 9 Tbsps.
½ cup vinegar

Instructions

Bring salt and water to a boil, stirring to dissolve the salt. Let cool.
Wash your cucumbers and cut off the "blossom" end. You just need to remove the blossom part.*
Layer your cucumbers, dill and horseradish (or grape leaves) in the crock and cover with cooled salt water.
Place a plate with a rock (or something else heavy) on top of the pickles to make sure they're completely submerged.
Test pickles after a couple of weeks.
Cucumbers will be translucent throughout when they're done.
Place pickles in hot pint jars with enough brine to cover them and store in the fridge for several months.

Low Heat Processing

Fill a canning pot with water and warm it to between 180 F - 185 F.
Remove pickles from the brine and stuff them tightly into pint jars.
Pour brine into a pot and heat until it comes to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes.
Pour hot brine into the jars of pickles to ½" from the rim.
Wipe the rim of the jars to make sure they're perfectly clean and put on a sealer and rim. Finger tighten only.
Place your jars of pickles into the warm water bath and process for 30 minutes making sure the water doesn't fall below 180 F or go above 185 F.

Notes

FOR CANNING

You must add more salt (than the original recipe) and vinegar to aid in the preservation process.
Pickles get softer over time so for maximum crunch eat them within 6 months.

The blossom end portion of the cucumber is said to make the pickles soft, so get rid of it. I've done my own experiments with this and it seems to be true.

Nutrition

Calories: 224kcal

Mazel Tov! You're ready to make deli-style pickles.

Fermented Dill Pickle Recipe (Old-Fashioned & Made in a Crock)

What Is a Kosher Dill Pickle?

My First Pickling Attempt? A Salty, Sad Mess.

The Book That Saved My Pickles

What You Need to Make Crock Fermented Dill Pickles