Fire-and-Ice Pickles

Do you like sweet and spicy pickles? Then you’re going to love this fire-and-ice pickles recipe. It uses just five ingredients—including the pickles themselves—to yield a sweet, spicy and all-around delightful pickle. You’ll love these pickles alongside burgers, dogs and sandwiches, chopped into a relish or however you love to eat pickles.

The process for making this sweet and spicy pickle recipe couldn’t be much simpler. The hands-on work is truly minimal. In fact, almost all the effort is spent waiting a week while they marinate. Let’s get going, so we can get past the waiting and start eating!

Ingredients for Fire-and-Ice Pickles

• Dill pickle slices or spears: You can use dill pickle slices or spears for this recipe; it’s simply a matter of preference.
• Sugar: Yes, 4 cups is a lot of sugar, but you’ll need it for the preservative properties it offers and also to balance the heat.
• Hot pepper sauce: Use your favorite hot pepper sauce, whether it’s Tabasco or Sriracha or Louisiana sauce.
• Crushed red pepper flakes: If you like things extra spicy, feel free to (cautiously!) go beyond the 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes.
• Garlic cloves: You’ll want the garlic cloves to be fully peeled but left whole and intact.

Directions

Step 1: Combine the ingredients

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Drain and discard the juice from the pickles. In a large bowl, combine the pickles, sugar, pepper sauce and pepper flakes, and mix well.

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Cover the bowl and let it stand for two hours, stirring occasionally.

Step 2: Jar and chill

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Spoon the pickle mixture into three pint jars, and add a garlic clove to each. Cover the jars and refrigerate them for one week before serving.

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Fire-and-Ice Pickle Variations

• Ease up on the spice: If you like things with just a little bit of heat, it’s fine to use just 1/2 tablespoon hot pepper sauce and 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or even less, in this recipe for sweet and spicy pickles.
• Add some cabbage: As you flavor the pickles, you can also pickle a bit of cabbage by adding some into the jars. If you add cabbage, you’ll need to add a little bit of water too.
• Pull the garlic early: If you love garlic but don’t love its sometimes overpowering nature, you can remove the garlic cloves from the jars after just two or three days, then let everything else sit for the rest of the week.

How to Store Fire-and-Ice Pickles

Once you’ve made this sweet and spicy pickles recipe, your pickles can be stored in their jars for up to one month in the fridge.

Can you freeze these pickles?

If you’re OK with chopping them up into relish, you can freeze them in freezer-safe packaging for up to six months, though the crunchy texture will be gone by that point.

Fire-and-Ice Pickle Tips

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Do I need to add water to the jars?

You don’t need to add water because you’re not truly pickling anything with this recipe; you’re working with pickles that have already been prepared and simply adding flavoring. The moisture naturally present in the pickles will be plenty to help absorb the ingredients you add.

What should I serve alongside these pickles?

Anything that sounds good to you! They go wonderfully beside a club sandwich, chopped into relish and used on hot dogs, or enjoy them on their own as a finger food snack. And there’s always fried pickles!

Does the flavor continue to get stronger with time?

Absolutely. If you’re able to wait longer than a week before tucking into your jars of freshly flavored pickles, you’ll find the pickles even more flavorful.