Last week I bought enough pickling cukes at the ranch market to fill a quart
jar to make Kosher dills. I prefer "new" dills and "half sour" dills so I
always make very small batches, and my usual recipe makes great dills.

The cukes looked very fresh with bright clean skins. I trimmed the blossom
ends and put them through the brine as I usually do. I waited 24 hours for a
couple of "new" dills and cut one of the pickles in spears. The interior was
wonderful...perfect. The skin was unbelievably tough. Waited another 36
hours for "half sours". Same problem...the skin was very tough.

I've used this exact recipe many times and have never experienced this
before.

Were the cukes deceptively old? Any other ideas?

TIA

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
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