This summer presents a prime opportunity to get picklin'! Whether you're making your own for snacks, sandwiches, or gifts, here is the dill to perfect your craft.

Fermented Pickles

Prefer to pickle the ol' fashioned way? You'll need the Mason jars you bought for hip drinking glasses and a fermentation airlock. A few popular options are the Pickle Pipe and the traditional airlock that both fit on Mason jars. Place your pickling cucumbers – or whatever veggie you prefer – in the jar with garlic, a bay leaf, mustard seed, fresh dill, and peppercorns. Pour a 2% brine – a mixture of sea salt and water – over it all, and let that puppy sit out for 5-7 days to ferment. Here's a Romanian-inspired recipe to give you an idea, but don't get too caught up in the specifics. The beauty of pickles is you can make them to taste!

Quick Pickles

A quick pickle uses vinegar instead of a fermentation process to make a tasty pickle snack on the fly. You can also do canned vinegar pickles but they can get mushy fast, so for best pickle practices, we won't be talking about them. For quick pickles, you will make your brine with vinegar and water, starting with equal parts of each and adjusting as you go for your preference. The beauty of quick pickles is you can try different flavors and vinegars to get the taste you want without having to wait days on days. Try rice vinegar, white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar … just steer clear of concentrated vinegar, aged vinegar, or malt vinegar.

You'll find many recipes out there that tell you to heat the brine to motivate your veggies to soak up the vinegar quicker – but it's not needed. Add garlic and fresh dill to the jar with your picklin' vegetable of choice and pour the brine with seasonings over the top. Stick in the fridge until you like the taste. Here's a recipe to get you started. Feel free to branch out for different flavor profiles.

Looking for more fun ideas for this summer? Read more at the Olympus Corsair blog.