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pickling spices including cinnamon sticks and bay leaves, on a black background

Pickling Spice Recipe

4.38 from 97 votes
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This versatile spice mix has a variety of seeds from your spice rack. It is often used for pickling.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Course: Sauces and Condiments
Cuisine: American
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
  • 3 inches cinnamon sticks, total length
  • 2 tablespoon dill seeds
  • 1 tablespoon hot red pepper flakes
  • 1 tablespoon mustard seeds, any color
  • 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
  • 1 tablespoon celery seeds
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves
  • 1 tablespoon ground ginger
  • 2 teaspoons whole allspice berries
  • 1 teaspoon whole cloves
Optional Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon mace powder
  • ½ teaspoon cardamom seeds
  • 1 tablespoon juniper berries
  • 2 star anise pods

Method
 

  1. Put the cinnamon sticks and peppercorns (and the juniper berries and star anise pods, if you're using those options) in a plastic bag and smash them with a meat tenderizer or a hammer. Crumble the bay leaves into flakes about ⅛ inch (6.4 mm) in size. Mix all the ingredients together and store in a tight jar.

Notes

About the salt. Remember, Morton's coarse kosher salt is half the concentration of table salt so if you use table salt, use half as much. Click here to read more about salt and how it works.

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