As long as you are going to keep them refrigerated you can replace some of the brine with plain water to eliminate some of the salt or you can add some sugar to off-set the salt taste. But honestly, I have never had much luck making overly salty ones palatable. So we always taste test the brine before adding it to the cukes.

Did you rinse them several times after the salt soak? Did you use canning salt? If not the measurement was way off.

Do a search here on 'salty pickles' for several previous discussions on the causes and possible fixes.

Dave

Remember the new standard with refrigerated pickles is not to leave them sitting out at room temperature to cure before refrigeration.

There's a risk of listeria.

You have nothing to lose by diluting the pickling solution. You've already made them, so all you're out is time and water. It might work for you.

Carol

New standard?
Oh, so you make a salt brine and it ferments into lactic acid and then can become poisonous? Never heard that before. To get these to start to ferment in the fridge would take up to 6 months or more. I suspect your also saying the current method of making sourkraut is also dangerous? That is, you slice cabbaage and add salt to it and let it ferment at room temp for many weeks.

Because I use a Mrs. Wages pickle mix for my half sours instead of just plain salt, I never see mold, crust, or any failure to ferment at room temp. The Mrs. Wages products do have some added preservatives, which are fine with me.

One year, I didn't add enough salt and the cukes came out translucent and soft, and were tossed.

No, I'm speaking of refrigerated pickle recipes, not lactic acid fermented in a salt brine. Fermented pickles are an entirely different thing. I've made them many times and I know the difference.

Carol

Thank you for you help.I just made two different jars of refigerator pickles.The first was Alton Brown;s bread and butter which were pretty good. The other a garlic dill recipe from recipezar is the salty one . I'm new to this and experimenting with recipes.If anyone has a good recipe for refrigerator Dill's I'd love to try it ! The advice on alway's tasting the brine makes sense!! Don't know why I didn't think of that first. now I alway's will.

Refrigerator dill pickles are also safe, as they call for vinegar and salt. If its a fermented one, its still refrigerated after a specified amount of days at room temps. My Mrs. Wages mixes are refrigeraor types, but as mentioned before, they also contain some preservatives, but nothing that can cause any health or safety issues. Heck, I have made fridge pickles too, by simply mixing some pickling salt to vinegar and adding some fresh dill seed and seed heads and some garlic.

Suggest that you try one of the Mrs. Wages dill pickle mixes and see for yourself. Don't just pour the packet into water or vinegar, but DO taste the brine prior to packing the cukes in there. The Mrs. Wags pickle mixes are in two sizes, one makes about 1 quart of brine, while the other makes about a gallon. Here, I am hoping that some of my fresh dill will still have green seed heads once the cukes are growing. Its a race right now and the dill has already started to form the seed head clusters, while cuke plants are an inch tall.

Not only should you taste a pickle brine, but also any home canned pickle types, tomato sauces, salsa, jellies and jams. That way you don't get surprises once its sealed in jars. For the B&B, I also use a Ball mix for them, and add a bit more celery seed and mustard seed, as well as a little dill seed. I also use a little cider vinegar and to avoid sugar, I use Splenda, but in very small amounts. I found that Splenda tends to become overly sweet when mixed with vinegar. A recipe calling for 4 cups of sugar for a sweet pickle, would be way too sweet if you used cup for cup Splenda. I use maybe 1/4-1/2 cup of Splenda compared to 3-4 cups of sugar, and the end result ie very similar, but more diabetic friendly.

Thank you for the info KS.Is the Mrs. wags pickle mix a product that you send away for or do you purchase localy? Sounds like a mix I would like to try.I'm not crazy about the couple of mixes that I've tried from the spice shelf in grocery store down here in FL. I've onlt tried making just a quart sized jar since I haven't yet found a recipe that I love.

Mrs. Wages canning and pickling mixes are sold locally in many grocery stores and in most any store that has canning supplies. All the Walmart's I have been in carry them in their canning supplies section. They make mixes for several types of pickles as well as salsa, spaghetti sauce, chili, etc.

You can find a picture of them in the thread here called the new Ball Blue Book is out.

Dave

PS: they can also be ordered online

I have found them at Agway stores too. I don't usually buy the Ball brand as their dill pickle mixes have sugar in them, which is not something you see in dill pickles. I do use sweet pickle mixes too, for pickling beets, as well as the Bread & Butter mixes from both Ball and Mrs Wages for those pickle types. Being sliced, I add sliced onions and a bit of chopped sweet red peppers to give them color. They now have a 'Dilly bean' pickle mix too. The major difference in kosher dill and regular dill or Polish dill is the fact the one uses a few pepperdorns, and the other uses garlic as an added spice. I do add fresh dill weed and seed heads. Ideally the dill seed heads should still be green and swelled seeds for the most flavor.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mrs. Wages mixes on Amazon

I know I'm quite late to the comment game, but I just made a batch of half-sour pickles with a recipe I've used before (it's wonderful) and for some reason I put 1/2 cup salt in the water instead of 1/4 and boy was it noticeable! I ended up taking about half of the original brine out (make sure you shake up the jar before you do - that will remove some of the salt that collected on the bottom) and replace with cold water. Let sit overnight or longer (depending on salinity) and you should notice a difference - I know I did!

I’ve had to throw out too many cucumbers this year—every batch of half-sours were way too salty. Could I have your recipe Jim? I’m desperately trying to recreate the wonderful pickles that we had in Brooklyn Delis years ago. Actually, I’m sure they still make them now, though I’m nowhere near there any longer.

Enjoy!! Let me know what you think!

Half Sour Pickles

5 Kirby Cucumbers

½ tsp coriander seeds

½ tsp mustard seeds

½ tsp black peppercorns

Few sprigs of fresh dill

3 bay leaves

6 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup sea salt

6 cups water

Additional coriander seeds
and peppercorns to add on top

Optional – dried chili’s for
a bit of heat. I recommend just one!

Wash Cucumbers (you can
quarter them now or leave them whole, it’s a matter of preference)

Dissolved sea salt in water

Grind all dry ingredients
(coriander, mustard seeds, peppercorns and 2 of the bay leaves)

Put the cucumbers in the jar
with a few sprigs of dill

Put minced garlic in jar,
then spices (and optional chili)

Add additional whole
coriander seeds and peppercorns and remaining bay leaf

Add the salt water mixture,
making sure cucumbers are completely covered

Put in the fridge and let
them sit for at least 4 days

Thanks Jim...so kind of you! I will keep you posted!

What I have done with salty pickles is use them in soup. They are really good with beans. Instead of adding lots of salt to the food earlier in cooking, since I know I will add the cut up pickles just before the soup is done, and I know they are salty, the pickles will provide the salt and tangy taste. The only thing you don't want to do is add them too early where they'll cook a lot - add at the very end.

Why are my pickles to salty when I use Mrs wages pickle mixes

Hu, I don't like the mixes very much, I think they always taste too salty. If you make your own instead of using a mix, you can control the salt.

Annie

Mine were made with boiling vinegar, salt and water, pouring it into the packed jars and refrigerated after they pop down. Tried after a few weeks and WOW! Salty! So I poured out 2/3 of brine and replaced with rap water. Do I have to boil them or just put them back the fridge? I’m a widowers and new to canning and pickling. Would appreciate any advice from you pros:)!

Not rap water!! Tap water Grrr

And not widowers! Only ONCE widowed!:)

I just made some relish and it is too salty. I have added more water and sugar but still too salty. I must have forgotten to rinse a batch of soaking cucumbers. Any suggestions?

I'm not sure seeing as it's a relish with small pieces, how rinsing would work. Unless you used a super fine colander, like SUPER fine where only the water could pass through. retain 3/4 - 1/4 of the original liquid, rinse the relish ONCE only and see how it turns out. Only do this for one batch and see how they turn out and if it works, the do it for the whole lot!

Good luck!