There are two reasons that such a low ratio of vinegar to water is no longer considered safe. 1) in grandma's day much stronger vinegar was used, often more than 10% vs. the 5% vinegar we have today, and 2) research since grandma's day has proven that pH rises over time during shelf storage. So a pH that may be safe but marginal at processing time can rise into the unsafe zone over time.

Add to those facts that there is additional water contained in the vegetables themselves, especially cucumbers, and that additional water further dilutes the vinegar/water you began with as it leaches out of the pickles into the brine.

Vinegar (acidity) is the only safety factor in pickling. The salt added to pickles plays no role in safety, its just for flavoring unless you are fermenting them before hand. And 10 mins of BWB processing does not kill many of the bacteria and fungi that may be present. Only internal temps of 240 degrees under pressure can kill them.

So the simple answer to your question is grandma's vinegar made it safe as long as she used more than 5% vinegar. When the recipe was made with modern vinegar you have been lucky. Fortunate that bacteria were apparently not present as if it had been then once the pH rose above 4.6 it would have begun to grow, reproduce, and create toxicity.

It always boils down to your personal choice but the current guidelines recommend that old family recipes which do not use a MINIMUM of 1:1 vinegar to water brine be retired and higher levels of vinegar are preferred.

Hope this helps.

Dave

okay thanks ill have to try to find a different recipe or modify mine! i like the way they taste, but im thinking the extra vinegar (we use apple cider) is going to make them too sour. maybe ill try adding a bit of sugar.

What Dave said. The manufacturers of vinegar "dumbed down" the strength. I had heard it was because too many people were tossing the stronger stuff in their eyeballs, but I have not verified that. What makes me wonder is that you *can* get stronger. You can get 10% (Allen's brand) but it's marked "cleaning vinegar which I wouldn't take personally to mean food grade. (Heinz cleaning is 6% and says can be used for cooking.) And I see Heinz has released a "new" 7% "pickling vinegar." The label says you can use 2 tablespoons less of it per cup. I wouldn't do it, because today's tested recipes which I use exclusively are tested to 5% and the extra strength isn't needed, plus, I always find I'm short a bit of brine, anyway, so I wouldn't want to start off with less.

Heinz apple cider vinegar is apple-flavoured distilled vinegar. If you want the real stuff, you have to smuggle the big jugs of Heinz Apple Cider Vinegar in from Canada, where by law it has to be pure, or pay the extra for the smaller bottles of Heinz's unfiltered Apple Cider vinegar which is pure, or go with another brand I guess.

I have noticed that a lot of those "old family recipes" are in many instances old Ball Blue Book recipes, for which an update might have been released. Was there any name attached to the recipe?

Take your serving size out of your jar and soak them in a little water. It will dilute the taste. I do this when I pickle loquats. Eat all no put backs.

no...none. the exact recipe is 6 cups vinegar, which someone wrote "brown - apple cider" right beside, 13 cups water, 1 cup canning salt, 1 tsp sugar and 1/4 tsp alum, and a few sprigs dill and a few cloves of garlic. i skip the sugar because i dont like sweet pickles, but if i adjust it to 10 cups water and 10 cups vinegar im thinking i may have to idk

1 tsp sugar isn't going to make that into a sweet pickle. ;) But that sure is an awfully lot of salt! And so little dill and garlic for 19 cups of brine would be a very bland dill pickle compared to so many other recipes out there. Plus it is more than 2 to 1 water to vinegar so even more bland. Honestly it barely qualifies as a pickle recipe (no offense to grandma). It's basically cukes in water with a hint of vinegar and dill.

Dave

sorry i shouldve been more clear...a few sprigs of dill and a few cloves of garlic in each jar....

How long do home made canned last?

Elizabeth Andress, project director at NCHFP :

We do say we recommend using within a year for best quality; that also is not intended to indicate you should throw anything out that is over a year old. It says, use within a year for best quality. Beyond that, just like with commercially canned foods, you might start to see some quality deterioration." (( Andress, Elizabeth. "History, Science and Current Practice in Home Food Preservation." Webinar. 27 February 2013. 1:15:45. Accessed January 2015.))

We cannot give you an exact date for expiration. Theoretically, if the food was processed safely, for example for canning, and stored properly and shows no sign of spoilage, until that vacuum seal is broken, there should be no way that it becomes further contaminated or becomes unsafe. The one issue with keeping foods too long is you will get quality deterioration, you can get real darkening of colours of many foods, you might get some cloudiness that occurs as starches settle out of the foods, all these extended quality changes over time can start to interfere with our ability to detect spoilage even though it may not be actual spoilage, it may just be deterioration of the food quality, so it's not a good idea to me to try use things really old or try to look at 25 year old food and assume that it's safe...We just don't have absolute expiration dates to give people and neither does the commercial industry, quite frankly. But if it was safe at the time it was originally canned, until that seal is broken there should be nothing else happening to make it unsafe." (( Ibid. At 1:26:50. ))

'How long do home made canned last?"

In addition to all of the above, it also depends on the specific type of food. The quality in some foods will decline much faster than others. But as for safety, essentially indefinitely.

Dave

I would also like to mention that when people say "We've done it for years and nobody got sick," I cringe a bit. It's an honest question, I know. Not every jar that has been processed unsafely is a sure bet to illness. I know I've processed some "unsafe" jars through the years whether due to ignorance or a slip-up on my part with the recipe or processing times. I think of it this way: Not all people who drive impaired get into an accident, but why take the chance? Some take the chance and get by with it but others end up hurting themselves or others with no intention of doing so. A strange comparison, I know, but things aren't always finite. Processing old recipes may be fine until they're not. I applaud that you are asking for updated information! Hope you find a fix for your recipe because I do know it is hard to grow up with certain foods and flavors then be told they may not be safe. Lori