Pickle Recipes

YIKES! Someone just told me that pickling destroys vitamins. The person who alarmed me didnt know if the destruction was limited to hot pickling (canning) or also included cold pickle recipes. Ive gone with 10% brine in the 3-gallon crock this summer because A:) salt doesnt affect me except to make me hold water and B:) I like crisp pickles, be they cucumbers or peppers and I havent found a crisp alum recipe that wirks yet. Not to mention I just loaded up a 2 gallon crock with peppers and cucumbers for Quick Dill Jewish Peppers (that was what was written on the recipe card my friends ma gave me--they could ultimately be agnostic pickles as far as I know.) Cover the bottom of a 2 gallon crock with about a 1 inch (4cm) layer of slices of rye bread. Pack the crock with the cucumbers and pepper slices, weaving the fresh dill leaves into the mix, add garlic slices as to taste and pickle spices if necessary; I like mustard seed) Put another 1 inch layer of the rye bread across the top of the sliced peppers and cukes. Pour hot water, salted to _taste_ only (slightly steaming, but not near boiling--itll kill the yeast as will too much salt), over the mix until the top-bread is slightly submerged. Cover with a cloth and let stand and ferment for 7-10 days at room temps. Eat pickles. They are delish (almost a Clausen, but not quite. Anyone got a Clausen recipe?)......Friends have used this amount of dill on smaller lots to no ill effect; play around. BUT......this is not a long term storage method. these pickles need refigerated and eaten. They have almost *NO* acid for canning. However, I dont know about their vitamin situation or how long they will stay good in a refegerator. Anyone got any idears on this, brine, or hot-canning as to vitamin levels?