The Zydeco pickled green beans recipe from Joy of Pickling calls for
one head of dill in each pint of pickled green beans. I bought some
fresh "baby dill" at the grocery store, hoping this won't make a big
difference.. Then I googled "head of dill" to find out exactly how
much or what part of it is supposed to be used. Some kind of "seed
head" which seemed to be lacking from the bunch of baby dill I bought.
There was no part of it that looked like this:
i183.photobucket.com/albums/x318/turbo-1/dill.jpg

I just used a few tablespoons of leaves for each jar instead.

From what I've read, most herbs have a negligible impact on the
acidity of the recipe when used in small amounts. Will this be safe?
Will it have a stronger or weaker flavor, or just different?

Thanks for your help.

Deidzoeb wrote:
> The Zydeco pickled green beans recipe from Joy of Pickling calls for
> one head of dill in each pint of pickled green beans. I bought some
> fresh "baby dill" at the grocery store, hoping this won't make a big
> difference.. Then I googled "head of dill" to find out exactly how
> much or what part of it is supposed to be used. Some kind of "seed
> head" which seemed to be lacking from the bunch of baby dill I bought.
> There was no part of it that looked like this:
> i183.photobucket.com/albums/x318/turbo-1/dill.jpg
>
> I just used a few tablespoons of leaves for each jar instead.
>
> From what I've read, most herbs have a negligible impact on the
> acidity of the recipe when used in small amounts. Will this be safe?
> Will it have a stronger or weaker flavor, or just different?
>
> Thanks for your help.
It shouldn't affect the acidity of the product but it may not be as
"dilly" as you would like. I find the seeds have a stronger dill flavor
than the leaves, particularly if crushed a bit.

On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:57:29 -0700 (PDT), Deidzoeb
> wrote:

>The Zydeco pickled green beans recipe from Joy of Pickling calls for
>one head of dill in each pint of pickled green beans. I bought some
>fresh "baby dill" at the grocery store, hoping this won't make a big
>difference.. Then I googled "head of dill" to find out exactly how
>much or what part of it is supposed to be used. Some kind of "seed
>head" which seemed to be lacking from the bunch of baby dill I bought.
>There was no part of it that looked like this:
>i183.photobucket.com/albums/x318/turbo-1/dill.jpg
>
>I just used a few tablespoons of leaves for each jar instead.
>
>From what I've read, most herbs have a negligible impact on the
>acidity of the recipe when used in small amounts. Will this be safe?
>Will it have a stronger or weaker flavor, or just different?
>
>Thanks for your help.

If you can't get seed heads, you probably want to use seed as a
substitute. Outside a farmer's market or your own garden, you'll
probably never run into seedheads - too fragile to survive shipping.

Best bet if you want to keep on pickling with dill is to grow some
yourself.

- Mark