Broadway Danny Rose: Aunt Syd's Kosher Garlic-Dill Pickles

Makes 1 jar of pickles

5 to 8 pickling cucumbers (depending on size)

3 cups water

2 teaspoons kosher or pickling salt

1 tablespoon pickling spice

1 bay leaf (if pickling spice includes, take out and use fresh)

2 - 3 sprigs fresh dill

3 medium garlic cloves -- or more smaller ones or less larger

4-6 baby carrots (optional)

(Picking pickles: You want to find firm, slightly curve, dark green, not bloated pickles.) Wash exterior of pickles well, then sit in ice bath for at least 1 hour (up to 3).

Meanwhile, sterilize 1-quart (large mouth, if available) mason jar - either run thru dishwasher at high temp or sterilize mode, or put in tall pot and boil for 5 minutes. JUST JAR, not LID (lid we'll sterilize separately).

When ready, boil 3 cups for water for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast pickling spice in frying pan. When you just start to smell the spices, remove from heat and shake pan a bit. Let cool.

In a separate small pot, boil lid and ring for 5 minutes. Boil a couple of extra lids & rings in case you drop them.

Remove cucumbers from water and then cut off a little from both ends (the ends have microbes - the blossom end, actually, but don't bother to figure out which is which - which will cause pickles to get soggy).

Drop garlic in jar and then pack with cucumbers (don't slice them - my results are that they get soggy, cut them when you serve them). Add carrots, if using. Add salt, then pickling spice, bay leaf and dill.

Using a funnel - pour hot water into jar. Leave about 1/2 inch clear at the top, but make sure all cucumbers are immersed.

With magnet or tongs, remove sterile ring & lid from water and seal jar tightly. Using a towel, wipe off all the jars. Shake a couple of times to distribute spices.

Now, let stand in cool, dark place for 3 days to allow fermentation. Gently turn upside down and back once a day. After 3 days, put in refrigerator to slow fermentation. Pickles will keep in refrigerator for about 3-4 weeks.

Found at: http://chef-du-cinema.blogspot.com/2010/11/movie-broadway-danny-rose.html