As long as it isn't sweet

I've never met a pickle I didn't love...as long as it isn't sweet.  Why is it that pickles are so polarizing?  Dill vs Sweet.  Seems like most people either love 'um or hate 'um.  Most of my "peeps" are dill fans.  But, I do have one cousin who prefers sweet pickles.  I love her anyway, but it is a serious character flaw (in my book).  My friend, Sheila, likes dills.  But, she doesn't like that they are crunchy.  So, she will add the pickling liquid without the actual pickle to her potato salad.  I think they only reason she keeps pickles in her refrigerator is because of friends who like them.

Because I'm such a huge fan of dills (my mouth just started watering when I type that), I was prepared to NOT like anything but dills.  All that changed one day when we were visiting my Aunt Faythe & Uncle Otto.  She pulled a jar out of her refrigerator and fished some round pickle slices out of the most interesting looking pickling liquid.  It was golden yellow and I could tell without even tasting that those pickle slices would be very crunchy.  They almost looked fresh.  When I asked, she told us they were refrigerator pickles.  I asked if the were dill or sweet. She smiled and said, "Try one."

You know that moment when you realize you've been "Had"?  Yup, that was the moment I experienced when I took that first bite of Auntie Faythe's refrigerator pickles.  They weren't dill and they weren't sweet.  They were kind of both.  I took another.  Crunch, crunch, crunch.  And, another.  And...  Well, we ate the other things she served for dinner, but mostly I ate those refrigerator pickles.  We polished off the whole jar.

To be clear, I still don't like sweet pickles - they're cloyingly sweet and mushy and *shudder* icky.  And I do still love my dills.  However, I made a new friend that day.  I had to have the recipe.

I have made these many times since then.  Along the way, I discovered that the secret to getting that super crunch is not in the pickling liquid.  It's in the cucumbers!  Auntie Faythe shared the best tip with me:  When buying your pickling cukes, be sure to pick the smallest, "wartiest" ones.  The more warts, the better.  It means they haven't soaked up a lot of water yet.  So, they'll be crunchier and they'll stay crunchier.

Rather than type out the recipe this time, I'm adding a photo of my recipe card.  These pickles should last for many months in the refrigerator.  Enjoy!