A while ago someone bought homemade pickles to a BBQ pot luck and I was like 'get outta town, you made pickles.' Everyone at the BBQ went fucking nuts. So I asked her for the recipe and she shrugged and just said 'water, vinegar, sugar, time'. And that's pretty much all there is to pickling. So when now whenever I have an abundance of cukes or jalopeños, I pickle them! (I also take them to potlucks and people love them. Trust me, it's a great life hack: bring pickles to a potluck).
This isn't a great recipe if you want your pickles to last forever (if you want that, you need to make the water vinegar ratio more 1:1 and also add like a cup of sugar or something.... ). But this recipe will pickle your pickles fast, they'll be ready in just 2-3 hours and will last about a week or so. For jalopeños, I add fresh cilantro and skip the chili flakes. Feel free to play around with different flavors and ingredients, depending on what you're pickling and what you like. This is just a basic recipe to show you how wonderfully simple pickling can be.
Stuff
1 medium cucumber
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
2 tbsps brown sugar
a few black peppercorns
a few coriander seeds
pinch chili flakes
Steps
Add the cider vinegar, water, sugar, peppercorns, coriander seeds, and chili flakes to a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then remove from the heat.
Cut cucumber into discs. Add discs to a jar/s and pour in the pickle mixture. Make sure all the cucumbers discs are covered with the mixture before sealing the jar. Store in the fridge for up to two weeks.