Spicy Sweet-and-Sour Dill Pickles Recipe for Bold Flavor

Let’s pickle some cucumbers! This spicy sweet and sour dill pickles recipe is a favorite that never disappoints.

Perfect Dill Pickle Recipe. This crunchy, spicy sweet and sour dill pickles recipe is our favorite!

During a summer visit to my parents, the garden and pantry were overflowing with cucumbers. Despite a smaller overall harvest this year due to a late spring frost, cucumbers and zucchinis rebounded and produced abundant fruit. With so many cucumbers on hand, pickling became the main activity—alongside sharing extras with family and friends.

My family has always relied on homegrown cucumbers. When you grow a lot, pickling is the natural choice, so we rarely bought store-bought pickles. After moving far away, I sampled supermarket brands but still prefer my mother’s dill pickle recipe.

The recipe combines sugar and vinegar to achieve a balanced sweet-and-sour flavor. Sometimes other vegetables like onions or carrots are added, and this batch includes chili for heat. The process requires cooking the jars, but it’s straightforward and takes about 10 minutes of boiling time.

These pickles develop the best flavor when stored for a while. For optimal taste, keep the sealed jars in a cool pantry for at least three months before opening.

Fresh Cucumber from Garden for Dill Pickles

If you enjoy spicy sweet-and-sour dill pickles, give this recipe a try. Dill pickles are a classic condiment—great with cold meats, burgers, potato salad and rice salads, or as an accompaniment to many cooked dishes.

Let’s pickle some cucumbers! This spicy sweet and sour dill pickles recipe is our favorite and never disappoints!

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Spicy Sweet and Sour Dill Pickles

Let’s pickle some cucumbers! This spicy sweet and sour dill pickles recipe is our favorite and never disappoints.

Servings:
4 Jars (700ml/24fl oz)

Author: Julia

Ingredients

4 cups Water (2l)
2.8 oz Salt (80g)
8.8 oz Caster sugar (250g)
24 fl oz Distilled Vinegar (700ml)
Fresh Dill Flowers
2.6-3.3 lb Pickling Cucumbers (1.2-1.5kg)
12 Jamaican Peppercorns
12 Black Peppercorns
8 Bay Leaves
4-8 Chili Peppers optional

Instructions

First things first:

Wash cucumbers thoroughly. Sterilize jars and lids by washing with soapy water and boiling them in a large pot for 10–15 minutes. Use jars of the same size for even processing.

Make the sweet & sour pickling sauce:

Bring water, salt and sugar to a boil and stir until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, stir in the vinegar and set aside.

The pickling:

Place in each jar: 1 dill flower, 2–3 Jamaican peppercorns (allspice), 3 black peppercorns, and 2 bay leaves. Optionally add coriander seeds or cloves.
Pack whole pickling cucumbers into the jars, fitting in as many as comfortably possible (about 400g/14oz per jar). Add 1–2 chilies if you like heat.
Pour the sweet-and-sour pickling sauce over the cucumbers, leaving about 1 cm (0.5 inch) headspace.
Seal jars with sterilized lids and place them in a pot. Cover jars with water but keep lids above the water line (leave about 1 cm/0.5 inch gap). Slowly bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes.

Notes

You can use the pickling sauce warm or cold. If preparing the sauce ahead and using it cold, fill the pot with warm water before processing. If the sauce is warm, use warm water for the water bath. After boiling, remove jars with tongs and place them upside down on a towel until the next day. Check seals—any jars that did not seal properly should be refrigerated and consumed first.

Nutrition

Calories: 328 kcal (16%)
, Carbohydrates: 73 g (24%)
, Protein: 2 g

Nutrition information is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and may vary based on ingredient brands, substitutions, and portion sizes.

Course: Condiment

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