Grandma’s Quick Pickled Cucumbers – Refrigerator Pickles
on Jul 08, 2017, Updated Oct 23, 2024
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These Quick Pickled Cucumbers with green onion are made in the refrigerator for a simple summer snack!
My grandma was a wiz in the kitchen and always created the most incredible recipes for her family of 13 kids (11 of whom were boys!). I got this recipe for quick pickled cucumbers from her. She is an incredible woman, and thinking about her makes me happy. She’d create a simple brine and throw anything from the garden in—not just cucumbers, but onions, bell peppers, and whole cherry tomatoes.
It tastes like summer in a jar, and whether you’re an avid gardener or more of a grocery store frequenter, anyone can make these easy refrigerator pickles in no time.
Try these recipes if you’re looking for more pickling options: Quick and Easy Refrigerator Pickled Banana Peppers, Quick Pickled Cucumbers and Onions, and Sweet and Spicy Cucumbers and Vinegar
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- One of the best things about Refrigerator Pickles is that you can make them quickly and then let them sit in the fridge.
- Unlike traditional canning, this recipe doesn’t require any special equipment.
- If you have an abundance of fresh cucumbers, this recipe is a fantastic way to preserve them and enjoy them longer.
Recipe Ingredients
- Vinegar – apple cider, white, and rice wine are all good options
- Sugar – optional, but it takes a little of the “bite” out of the vinegar
- Garden Cucumbers
- Onion or Green Onion
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Quick Pickled Cucumbers
- Combine the water, vinegar, sugar, and salt.
- Add the cucumber and onion.
- Cover all the cucumbers with the brine.
- Place in the refrigerator until ready to eat!
What are the Best Jars for Pickling?
There’s nothing better than a classic, which is why I love to use the Ball Wide Mouth Mason Jars for my quick pickled cucumbers. Available in a pack of 12, they’re affordable and top-quality thanks to the extra tight lids and durable glass. The 32-ounce size also holds plenty of cucumbers, and you can also use them for other recipes like my Pickled Red Onions and my hot water bath canned pickle peppers.
Recipe FAQs
Most recipes call for distilled white vinegar—it’s clear, colorless, and has a mellow aroma and tart acidic flavor. But you can really use whatever vinegar you like and have on hand, like apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar. This recipe is flexible!
If you ask my grandma, you can pickle any vegetables you like! A few common ones to pickle are cucumbers (of course!), radishes, carrots, red onions, asparagus, jalapenos, cauliflower, and green beans.
To pickle something, you must soak the vegetables in a vinegar brine. My brine calls for water, vinegar, sugar (optional), and salt. You let the cucumbers rest in the brine in the fridge until you’re ready to eat them. Letting them sit longer helps the flavors develop more, so an overnight soak is ideal, but they’re also okay to eat right away!
You want to choose a cucumber with thicker skin, as the thick skin helps the cucumber stay crunchy. Stay away from the English cucumber, as its skin is too thin.
Expert Tips
- White vinegar is the traditional vinegar for this recipe and a great place to start. Apple cider or rice wine vinegar are also good.
- These are delicious on our favorite pulled pork sandwiches (made easy in the slow cooker!), as a side for everything summer, and to eat for a snack. You can’t go wrong with this simple dish all summer long.
- Want to add a little spice? Toss in a jalapeno cut in half (delicious!).
- I love these glass containers with lids to have things like this in my fridge. I also use a mason jar and one of these reusable lids really often.
More Preserving Recipes to Consider
Canning Recipes
How to Can Food: Learn the Basics
Freezing Foods
How to Blanch Green Beans
Freezing Foods
How to Freeze Fruit and Vegetables
Soups, Stews & Chowders
How to Make Chicken or Turkey Broth
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Quick Pickled Cucumbers – Refrigerator Pickles
Equipment
- small bowl : I love these because they have lids and double as serving bowls.
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1/3 cup vinegar, (apple cider, white, and rice wine are all good)
- 2 tablespoons sugar, optional
- 1 to 2 teaspoons salt
- sliced garden cucumbers, (about 2 cups)
- sliced onion or green onion, (about 1/2 cup)
- additional vegetables as you like, (bell pepper, whole cherry tomatoes, etc.)
Instructions
- In a small bowl add the water, vinegar, sugar, and salt. Stir to combine and until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Add the cucumber and onion. Taste and adjust the ingredients to your liking.
- All the cucumbers should be covered in the brine, if you have lots of cucumber or are making a big batch, make more brine.
- Let the mixture rest in the fridge until you are ready to eat. The flavors develop over time, so an overnight soak is great but mine are normally gone by dinner.
Video
Notes
- I love adding the sugar and my mom does too, but my grandma doesn’t add that much (she only adds a few teaspoons). I say try it and see what you like.
- White vinegar is a great place to start but if you like apple cider or rice wine vinegar, they are also good. You really can’t mess this up. Just adjust to the taste and enjoy!
- The pickles will last at least a week in the fridge but get less crisp with time.
- You can reuse your brine for a time or two; add more cucumbers!
Getting ready to try these, had some at a restaurant that still had a distinctive cucumber taste and just a slight pickle taste. How long would you suggest I soak in brine?
At least a few hours, 2-3 before serving but they are great even 10 minutes in…
Can you make these and store to use through the fall/winter??
Nope, this isn’t a great canning recipe, it’s just for the fridge. I use a recipe out of the Ball Blue Book for canning longterm pickles!
Hi! I like your blog! It looks like my Sumter cucumbers are ready to pick. I am going to try your recipe. It is almost the identical recipe that I use when I’ve purchased cukes from the store and sliced them with onions et al.
I could make the longer and more involved brine recipes, but you know what?! My family will not be able to wait that long!!! 🙂
Wish me luck….
Good luck! Let us know how they turn out.
Well, i made these under the mistaken impression they would be long term pickles, i.e. last a whole year.
Sorry, i dint read your note about them lasting only a week and neither did i read any comments.
I did try them a day after making and they were great, however after leaving them for 3 months sealed in the fridge, um, not so much, smell was a little off, slight fermented taste and they fizzed a little in my mouth and just tasted a bit funky.
Ive since learnt long term pickles need at least a 1:1 ratio of vinegar to water, not 1:3 as in this recipe, and using entirely vinegar with no water is optimal for the longest shelf life.
Also using pickling cucumbers is best as opposed to regular long green cucumbers because they maintain a crunch when pickled long term.
So no pickled cucumbers in my sandwiches this winter. 🙁
Yes, these are definitely meant to be eaten within a few days of making them!
Thanks for this! I wanted to make some pickles because I couldn’t find the store-bought kind in time. The recipes I saw on the Internet all kept using “Kirby” cucumbers and I only had the regular kind in hand. :'( Looking at your recipe gave me the confidence to pickle regular cucumbers. 😀
It’s in the fridge right now. Hope it turns out well. I added some turmeric in my vinegar brine!
How did they turn out?!
How many times can you reuse the brine before the brine goes bad or is unsafe?
I feel like it depends on how fast you eat your pickles! I normally keep my brine around 2 weeks. Sometimes that’s refilling it daily or sometimes that’s only a batch or two, depends on our eating habits for sure!
Thank you so much for a quick, simple recipe! It’s exactly what I was looking for…to pickle my garden cucumbers in the fridge. Thanks again.
my son and I are trying out your recipe for the first time, we just picked our cucumbers from the garden and are excited to see how it turns out! They look delicious! I added garlic to it.
I’d love to hear how you liked them! That garlic is a great idea! I like to add it when I have some too.
This recipe is great, and so easy! I used a large cucumber that didn’t have much flavor. I doubled the recipe and used about 2 tbs. of sugar, since the cule didn’t have much natural sweetness. After a few days, what a difference! They were crisp and flavorful! This recipe is very versatile, too. I used a blend of vinegars, the cucumber, onion and chives, but you can vary that, of course. The most important thing to remember is the ratio of vinegar to water, and to keep the vegetables covered by the solution. I recommend this recipe!
Yes to all of this! This is why I love it too, you can make it your own, use what you have, and enjoy it over and over again. Thank you for the great review Laura!
Got some cukes from a coworker and was slicing them up when I remembered that I didn’t have mom’s recipe. She’s in memory care, so I can’t ask. This is a taste from my childhood! Thanks so much.
Thank you so much for leaving that comment. I read it out-loud to my husband because it was so sincere, really made my night.