Cranky Cukes | Easy Overnight Refrigerator Pickles

by | Jul 6, 2022 | Recipes | 2 comments

Cranky Cukes are easy, summer, overnight refrigerator pickles that you can make with a variety of seasoing and spices like curry and red pepper flakes. Use cucumbers from a farmer's market haul, grocery store produce, or crops from your own garden.

I recently made my first batch of easy overnight summer refrigerator pickles. And, yall that’s so dang easy! I called them Cranky Cukes because I kinda put my spin on the spices and flavors, but they were so crunchy and fresh. 

One of my favorite restaurants in our South Arkansas town served THE BEST pickles with their sandwiches. I loved when Mr. McKinney or Little Man ordered a sandwich because it meant I got double pickles. And, right before Christmas, I discovered the best pickles at a shop in downtown Prairie Grove, a historic town nearby. Those pickles were great stocking stuffers and I thought I’d take my chance and try to replicate the flavors. 

Cranky Cukes are easy, summer, overnight refrigerator pickles that you can make with a variety of seasoing and spices like curry and red pepper flakes. Use cucumbers from a farmer's market haul, grocery store produce, or crops from your own garden.

Somehow in my grocery order, I fell victim to that “recently purchased” screen and ordered 5 cucumbers instead of 5 bananas. Now I like a cucumber, but 5 is a lot for one lady to consume in a week. So, what do you do with extra cucumbers? You make pickles!!! 

These are perfect for a weekly growth from your summer garden, or an end-of-summer haul when you have remnants left.

Print Recipe
5 from 1 vote

Easy Summer Overnight Refrigerator Pickles

Cranky Cukes are easy, summer, overnight refrigerator pickles that you can make with a variety of seasoing and spices like curry and red pepper flakes. Use cucumbers from a farmer's market haul, grocery store produce, or crops from your own garden.
Course: Snack
Keyword: charcuterie, garden, pickles, root vegetables

Ingredients

  • 6 pint jars with lids and seals
  • 3 cups water
  • ½ cups vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons sugar or honey
  • 2 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 5 cucumbers
  • ½ red or yellow onion
  • Peeled garlic cloves
  • Fresh dill
  • Pickling spices
  • Yellow curry optional
  • Old Bay or Red pepper flakes optional
  • Dry ranch optional

Instructions

  • Add water, vinegar, sugar, and salt to a saucepan.
  • Bring to a boil.
  • Allow the liquid to boil for one minute and dissolve sugar and salt.
  • Set off the burner once it’s boiled.
  • Meanwhile, cut cucumbers and onions.
  • Cucumbers cut into spears are crispier, but slices are easier to deal with.
  • Cut onion into slivers or small pieces – big enough to be chunky, but not too big.
  • If cutting into SPEARS, hold the jar on the side and place a couple of dill stems in the jar, layer with one set of cucumber spears, add 3 garlic cloves and a handful of onion pieces. Add more cucumber spears and stand up the jar on the bottom. Fill the rest of the jar with a couple more dill sprigs, 2-3 more garlic cloves, and onion pieces. Set aside and repeat for remaining jars.
  • If cutting into SLICES or CHUNKS, add a few onion slices and 3 garlic cloves to bottom of the jar. Fill halfway with slices and sprinkle with 3 more garlic cloves and onions. Add 3-4 dill sprigs. Fill the remainder of the jar with slices, leaving a little bit of space for spices at the top.
  • Add spices to top of each jar – 1 dill sprig, 1 teaspoon pickling spices, ⅛ teaspoon curry powder (optional), ⅛ teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning (optional). sub any of these spices with dry ranch if you prefer.
  • Put saucepan liquid in a glass measuring cup with pour spout and fill each jar to cover vegetables.
  • Wipe rim of jar and screw lid down tight.
  • Place jars in regrigerator for 24 hours before eating.
  • Pickles keep for up to 1 month.
  • I did not use waterbath and sealing method for mine, you should follow your known instructions for food safety on that. Consider adding alum to you jars to keep the pickles crispy. *I'm not the canning expert so use another method to keep your pickles edible and safe if you choose to "put them up"

Notes

Note: You might use a standard water bath method to “put away”. I just picked this method because it was quicker and I eat pickles fast enough. But if I had a bigger crop, that would be my preferred method. You might resarch about adding alum to any pickes that you seal to eat later so it keeps the pickles crips and from turning to mush over time.
Flavors can be adjusted for personal flavor. Instead of curry powder, choose dry ranch or leave it out altogether. You could use fresh jalapenos or another pepper instead of dried spices. And, a few crushed red pepper flakes would be great instead of old bay.
Cranky Cukes are easy, summer, overnight refrigerator pickles that you can make with a variety of seasoing and spices like curry and red pepper flakes. Use cucumbers from a farmer's market haul, grocery store produce, or crops from your own garden.

These pickles always make a great addition to charcuterie boards and salad luncheons. Do not miss the chance to share something you made instead of something out of a can! Here are some of my snacking tray ideas:

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Zero Point Chicken Salad
Mexican Fruit Cups
Winter Wassail
Mama Sue's Easy Monkey Bread
Dollar Store Snacking Tray

2 Comments

  2. alda ellis
    alda ellis on July 8, 2022 at 2:50 am

    5 stars
    Making these this weekend. Made some similar from a church cookbook and they were so good. Cucumbers are coming in from the garden now, and these will be so good!

    • bigpitts
      bigpitts on July 8, 2022 at 1:27 pm

      I”m going to make another set this weekend with some garden cucumbers someone brought us. It’s the perfect summer flavor. And, just a little bit of curry makes you say hmmmmm. But, I’m adding more red pepper flakes than I did last time. Also, I think I might pickle some other things too – Banana Peppers would be so good in this sauce too!