Hi Matt

I'm in the same boat. If you check out Recipezaar, recipe 115276, that particular recipe only calls for 8 small pickling cukes. I made it last year, and everyone loved them.

I'm toying with the idea of combining everything except the cukes, heating it to boiling and storing the mixture in the fridge until the plants really start cropping. In the meantime, I'm going to try using one or 2 cukes, spooning some of the mixture over them and reheating it to boiling.

Worth a shot, I suppose.

You can check out the Harvest forum too for some really good tips and recipes.

I've been pickling for a long time and I don't use any recipe at all. Here is what I use: part salt, part vinegar, part water. Boil all toghether and pour over the cucumber in a small jar. You can cut the cucumber any way you want. For a big one, I cut in 4 for a small one I cut in half.

You could, but why not just eat it and wait a week or so for a bunch more to pickle at once?

if you already have pickles in your fridge you can cut them and toss them in there- I've done that before and it worked fine

There are safe ways to pickle and some very UN-safe ways to make pickles that pose both listeria and botulism threats to you. So go with a tested and approved recipe - see the source linked below and please take note of the warning posted there:

Caution: The level of acidity in a pickled product is as important to its safety as it is to taste and texture.

* Do not alter vinegar, food, or water proportions in a recipe or use a vinegar with unknown acidity.
* Use only recipes with tested proportions of ingredients.
* There must be a minimum, uniform level of acid throughout the mixed product to prevent the growth of botulinum bacteria.

You can always buy some additional cukes to make a proper safe recipe if you don't expect additional production from you plants anytime soon. Or you can simply save the 1 cuke in the fridge until you have enough to do it properly (and safely).

You'll find a friendly bunch of trained preserving specialists and a number of current discussions on proper techniques over on the Harvest Forum here at GW. It is linked at the top of this forum's front page.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Pickling Instructions and Recipes

If you want to preserve the cucumber by pickling, it is really important to follow a tried and true method for reasons of safety as well as palatability.

However, if you just want to flavor the cucumber and keep it in the fridge for a few days while you eat it, you have many possibilities. Right now I have a jar with some cucumber slices in my fridge. I salted the cuke slices for a while, then added vinegar and water. You could add garlic, herbs or whatever. I can't tell you the recipe because I don't have one. Coming from my garden though, it tastes good to me. Later, if I get enough cukes maturing simultaneously, I will make a serious batch of fermented garlic dills.

Jim

BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS COOKBOOK p 444
I have made this and they're not bad.

1/2 POUND 4" pickling cukes (weigh your one large one)
4 to 6 heads of dill or 2/3 TBS dillseed
1 tes. mustard seed
1 3/4 c water
3/4 c cider vingar
1 TBS pickling salt

rinse cuke

slice and pack loosely into hot sterilized 1 quart jar leaving 1/2 headroom Add dill and mustard seed.

Make a brine by adding water, vinger and salt. Bring to boil. Pour the hot brine over cukes leaving 1/2in headroom. Adjust lid.
Process in boiling water canner for 15 min. Let stand 1 week before serving.

I didn't process these when I made them. I just refrigerated. But during preparation everything must be spotless. I boiled my quart jar plus lid and seal for 10min. And my cuke was freshly off the plant. Perfect with no BLEMISH at all. I'm not recommending it.. Just sayin I have done it.

Please take what digdirt is saying to heart. It's very important.

For Kosher-Style Dill Pickes Prepare as above except substitute 2 cloves of garlic, halved, for the mustard seed.

I should have stated in my previous post that the recipe I mentioned is for a refrigerated bread and butter pickle, storage is about 4 weeks.

Below is a recipe for frozen pickles. You could make the vinegar solution and store it, as someone said above. Then just cover your cukes with it, refrigerate for five days, and then freeze. Smaller batches would work better anyway unless you eat lots of pickles.

Here is a link that might be useful: Frozen Pickles

I just now remembered seeing a few pickles "canned" one at a time. They were in individual bottles. Not jars, but narrow necked bottles. So, they had been grown in the bottles. I saw these in the window of a deli I used to go to.

Jim

Thanks to all who responded, that was a great response. I truly appreciate it. I think I will try the better homes and gardens recipe and see how that goes.

I would wait for more cukes, but I don't think I'm going to get any soon enough to wait.

Thanks again!

Just ran across this discussion on pickling problems over on the Harvest forum so thought I would pass it one to you just in case.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Refrogerator pickles