Sweet Gherkin Pickles

Sweet gherkin pickles are tiny, crisp, and loaded with sweet spiced syrup, the kind of pickle you eat straight out of the jar while you are standing at the open refrigerator door. They turn a colander of undersized cucumbers into something worth saving on a pantry shelf.

Sometimes great taste is all about trusting the process, and that’s true of many old fashioned multi day pickling recipes.

This is a traditional four day recipe, and each step is important to the final result. Don’t skip steps, and make sure you read through the recipe before you start.

The cucumbers soak in plain boiling water, then salted water, and then a sweet spiced syrup that gets stronger each round. Adding all that sugar at once would pull the water out of the cucumbers so fast they would collapse, so it goes in gradually instead. It takes less waiting than old fashioned 14 day sweet pickles and more than sweet cucumber pickles, which come together in a single afternoon.

The part that trips people up is not the timing, it is knowing which liquid to keep. The plain water and salt water from the first three soaks gets poured out. The syrup you start on the morning of the third day never does. It stays with you until the last step, growing a little stronger every time you reheat it, and it is what fills the jars at the end.

I have written the steps below to make that distinction obvious at every point, because it’s the part that gets the most questions.

Choosing Cucumbers for Gherkins

Gherkins are not a separate vegetable, they are just very small pickling cucumbers picked before they size up. Look for firm ones from 1 1/2 to 2 inches long, with the skin still bumpy and the flesh solid all the way through. A cucumber that has started to go seedy in the middle will end up hollow after four days of soaking, so pass on anything that feels light for its size or has a soft spot.

Freshness matters more here than in a one day pickle, since these sit at room temperature for the better part of a week. Use them within a day of picking if you can. Scrub the prickles off with a vegetable brush, trim 1/16 inch off the blossom end because the enzymes there soften pickles in storage, and leave about 1/4 inch of stem on the other end so the cucumbers hold together through the process.

Ingredients for Sweet Gherkin Pickles

A full batch takes about 5 quarts of small cucumbers and makes 6 to 7 pints. The sugar and vinegar amounts look enormous written out, but remember they are not all going in at once. They are split across four separate additions, and the recipe card below breaks them out by day so nothing gets dumped in early.

• Pickling Cucumbers: The smallest ones you can find, 1 1/2 to 2 inches. Scrub off the prickles, trim the blossom end, and leave a short stub of stem.
• Canning Salt: Split across the first two days, dissolved into the boiling water rather than sprinkled over the cucumbers. Use pickling or canning salt like this plain canning and pickling salt, since iodine and anti caking agents cloud the liquid and darken the pickles.
• Sugar: Added in four rounds over days three and four. The gradual build is what keeps the cucumbers from shriveling permanently, so the split matters more than the total.
• Vinegar: White or cider, as long as the label says 5 percent acidity. This is the safety control in the recipe, so it goes in at full strength. I use distilled white vinegar in glass bottles for a cleaner flavor and a brighter color.
• Turmeric: Adds the warm golden color these are known for, along with a mild earthy note underneath the sugar.
• Celery Seed: A gentle savory note that keeps the syrup from tasting like candy.
• Pickling Spice: A whole spice blend, either store bought or homemade pickling spice. Look for one with allspice, cloves, mustard seed, and bay in the mix.
• Cinnamon Sticks: Whole sticks go into the syrup on day three with everything else, not into the jars at the start.
• Fennel: Optional, and it brings a soft licorice note that suits a sweet pickle well.
• Vanilla: Optional, added with the last of the sugar on the final afternoon. It rounds off the sharp edge of the vinegar.

You can scale this down without any trouble if you only turned up two quarts of tiny cucumbers. Cut every quantity by the same fraction, keep the day by day split intact, and process the jars for the same length of time. The processing time does not change with batch size.

Setting Up for a Four Day Pickle

You need two vessels for this recipe, and that is the entire setup.

One container holds the cucumbers from the first morning to the last afternoon, and they never leave it until they go into jars. One pot holds whatever liquid you are heating. Liquid moves back and forth between the two, but the cucumbers stay put. Nothing gets transferred to a fresh container partway through, and you never need a second set of anything.

Here is the important part! You pour liquid out exactly three times: the plain water on the afternoon of day one, the salt water on day two, and the salt water again on the morning of day three. That last one is the final discard. Right after it you build the syrup, and from the afternoon of day three onward every single drain gets saved.

Plain water and salted water are poured out, but sweetened syrup is never discarded, only strengthened each day.

Draining, from the afternoon of day three onward, means tipping the syrup off the cucumbers and back into your pot, adding the sugar and vinegar for that step, boiling it, and pouring it back over the cucumbers where they sit. Pouring over means exactly that, the hot syrup goes back onto the cucumbers in their container and they soak in it until the next step. The syrup you have on the last afternoon is the same syrup you started on day three, and it is what fills your jars.

Size the pot generously up front so you are not chasing a bigger one on day four. The syrup grows with every round, both from the sugar and vinegar going in and from the water pulling out of the cucumbers, and it close to triples between the first pour and the last. An 8 quart pot handles a full batch comfortably.

The soaking container needs to be heatproof and non reactive, so glass, stainless steel, or a food grade plastic bucket, never aluminum or copper.

These were often made in old fashioned fermenting crocks, simply because they’re large and heatproof, but they can be hard to find. Most years, I just split the cucumbers between quart or half gallon mason jars and pour the hot liquid into each one. It works fine, and it makes the pouring less precarious. They shrink as the days go by, so by the end you will need fewer jars than you started with.

When the cucumbers are divided among jars, treat all of them together as the one container. Divide the hot liquid among the jars each time so the cucumbers are covered, and when you drain, pour every jar back into the same pot so the syrup stays as one batch.

How to Make Sweet Gherkin Pickles

Each day has a morning step and an afternoon step spaced 6 to 8 hours apart, except day two, which is a single step. The whole thing happens at room temperature, so there is no refrigerating between rounds and no need to cover anything tightly. A loose lid or a clean towel over the top is plenty.

If a day on the schedule falls apart because of work or travel, the fix is to stall the cucumbers in the syrup rather than adding another salt soak. Finish whichever syrup step you are on, then leave them sitting in that syrup for an extra 24 hours and pick up where you left off. Sitting a bit longer in a sugar and vinegar syrup does no harm, and they come out a little more flavorful for it.

Day 1

Morning: Wash the cucumbers well, scrubbing with a vegetable brush to take off the prickles and bumps. Trim 1/16 inch off the blossom end and discard that slice, leaving about 1/4 inch of stem on the other end. Put them all in your soaking container and pour boiling water over them until they are covered. Let them stand at room temperature for 6 to 8 hours.

Afternoon: Drain off the water and pour it out, since this one is just plain water and there is nothing to save. Stir 1/4 cup canning salt into 6 quarts of fresh boiling water until it dissolves, then pour that salt water over the cucumbers. Let them stand overnight at room temperature.

Day 2

Drain off the salt water and pour it out.

Stir the remaining 1/4 cup canning salt into another 6 quarts of fresh boiling water, pour it over the cucumbers, and let them stand overnight again.

There is nothing else to do today, which makes this a good afternoon to get your spices measured out and your syrup pot cleaned and waiting. Tomorrow morning is when the recipe actually starts moving, and it goes faster if the pickling spice, cinnamon sticks, celery seed, turmeric, and fennel are already sitting in a bowl together.

Day 3

Morning: Drain off the salt water and pour it out, then prick each cucumber several times with a fork and put them back in the container. In your pot, combine 3 cups vinegar, 3 cups sugar, the turmeric, celery seed, pickling spice, cinnamon sticks, and fennel. Bring it to a boil and pour the hot syrup over the cucumbers. They may not be fully covered at this stage, which is normal, so stir them gently a few times through the day.

Afternoon: After 6 to 8 hours, drain the syrup off the cucumbers and back into your pot, keeping all of it. From here on the syrup is the recipe, so do not pour any of it out. Add 2 cups sugar and 2 cups vinegar to the syrup you just saved, bring it back to a boil, and pour it over the cucumbers again. Let them stand overnight.

The spices can float loose in the syrup or ride in a cheesecloth bag, whichever you prefer. Loose is what I do, since a few whole spices in the finished jars look nice and keep flavoring the pickles on the shelf. A bag makes them easier to fish out at the end if you would rather have clean jars.

Day 4

Morning: Drain the syrup off the cucumbers and back into the pot again, saving all of it. Add 2 cups sugar and 1 cup vinegar to the saved syrup, bring it to a boil, and pour it back over the cucumbers. Let them stand 6 to 8 hours. This is the last of the vinegar, as only sugar gets added on the final round.

Afternoon: Prepare your water bath canner and jars before you start this step, because the syrup goes straight into the jars rather than back over the cucumbers.

Drain the syrup into the pot one final time. Add the remaining 1 cup sugar, with no vinegar this round, and the vanilla if you are using it, then heat to boiling. This is the syrup that fills your jars, so it does not go back into the soaking container.

Canning Sweet Gherkin Pickles

Have the canner heating while the last syrup comes to a boil, so the jars go in hot and you are not holding everything at temperature waiting. These are packed raw into pints, which is the only jar size tested for this recipe, so do not scale up to quarts even if you have a lot of pickles.

To can, prepare your water bath canner, jars, and lids. Pack the cucumbers into hot pint jars and ladle the boiling syrup over them, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. A canning funnel with headspace markings makes that easier with small jars. Adding a few of the whole spices to each jar is up to you.

Slide a bubble tool around the inside of each jar, adjust the headspace if it dropped, wipe the rims with a clean damp cloth, and apply two part lids finger tight. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude (see below).

Turn off the heat, take the lid off, wait 5 minutes, and then lift the jars out to cool undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours before you check the seals.

Tips for Crisp Gherkins

The crispness in this recipe comes from the process rather than an additive. The salt soaks firm up the cell walls, the pricking lets syrup move in evenly instead of collapsing the skins, and the staged sugar keeps the cucumbers from giving up all their water at once. Skipping the fork step or rushing the days is what usually costs people texture.

Beyond that, start with firm cucumbers used within a day of picking, always trim the blossom end, and do not run the jars past the processing time. If you want extra insurance you can add calcium chloride, sold as Ball Pickle Crisp, at 1/8 teaspoon per pint as you fill the jars. It is optional here and does not change the safety of the recipe either way.

Ways to Use Sweet Gherkin Pickles

Whole gherkins belong on a relish tray next to sharp cheddar and cured meat, where the sweetness plays against the salt. They are also the pickle to reach for with rich food generally, so alongside a pork roast, a plate of pate, or anything fried. Chopped fine, they go into egg salad, potato salad, and tartar sauce and do the job that sweet pickle relish would, with more texture.

They also make a good holiday jar, since a pint of tiny spiced pickles looks like more effort than a jar of jam and keeps just as well.

If you like this style of pickle on a smaller cucumber, traditional French cornichons go tart instead of sweet, and classic dill pickles cover the other end of the shelf. There are another fifty or so pickle recipes in the archives once you run out of cucumbers.

Storage and Shelf Life

Once the jars have cooled, press the center of each lid to check the seal. A sealed lid is curved down and does not flex. Take the rings off, wipe the jars, label them with the date, and store them somewhere cool and dark. Sealed jars keep well for 12 to 18 months, which puts them right in line with the rest of my water bath canning recipes, and the flavor and texture both improve over the first couple of weeks, so give them at least that long before you open one.

Any jar that did not seal goes straight into the refrigerator and gets eaten within a few weeks. Once a sealed jar is opened, refrigerate it and use it within a month or two, keeping the pickles under the syrup. Discard any jar with a bulging lid, a cloudy fizzy syrup, mold, or an off smell, without tasting it first.

Four days of soaking raises a predictable set of questions, and these are the ones that come up in my comments most often.

Sweet Gherkin Pickles FAQs

If you have more cucumbers than you know what to do with, here are the rest of my cucumber pickling recipes.

Cucumber Pickling Recipes

12+ Overripe Cucumber Pickling Recipes

Sweet Dill Pickles

Low Salt Dill Pickles

Looking for something else to put up in vinegar? Here are more pickling recipes from the archives.

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Dill Pickled Carrots