I’ve had cravings lately.

(No, I’m not pregnant, but thank you very much for asking.)

First it was supreme pizza. It needed to have all the meats – pepperoni, sausage, ham, bacon – plus bell peppers, onions and mushrooms.

But not black olives. I positively draw the line at black olives.

Anyway, that craving finally passed. I was a normal person for a precious few days, and then the next one hit: pickles.

I needed pickles. But not just any pickles.

I needed crispy, crunchy pickles. The kind from the refrigerated section. The kind that haven’t been cooked.

But then I took a look at the prices for refrigerated pickles in my grocery store app.

Y’all. I know companies have to pay grocery stores for a spot in the fridge and all, but I was not prepared to see prices of more than $7 for a jar of pickles.

Soon thereafter, I ran across a recipe for these refrigerator pickles. I have made refrigerator pickles before, but always with rings of red onion and slices of big cucumber. Those “quickles” were meant to be made up a few hours before suppertime and eaten as a side.
They are delicious, but they weren’t what I was craving.

So when I stumbled across this recipe for refrigerated spears, I figured trying it was worth a shot. I could get a package of small cucumbers for just about $2. We have dill in the backyard. We have mustard seed leftover from some long-forgotten pickling project of yore.

And, of course, I have jars. I have so many jars. I have hundreds of extra jars. Until I start a canning project. Then I immediately have too few jars.

Anyway. I had all the stuff. So I tried it. And I am so glad I did.

I messed this recipe up six ways to Sunday.

The recipe claimed that they’d be ready to eat after 24 hours. While they were perfectly edible after 24 hours, at that point they still tasted partly like cucumber and partly like pickle.

That’s not a problem for me personally. But if you – like me – have a cucumber-hating pickle lover in your home, wait a good 48 hours before you feed one to him or her.

That’s the point at which these pickles really taste fully like pickles.

I predict I’ll be making these on repeat this summer, especially considering that I can toss a few cucumbers into a jar of used brine and wait a couple days and boom! Pickles.

Note that this is not a canning recipe. You can make two quart jars of pickles, place them in the fridge and enjoy them when you want to.

For that matter, if you do not have jars, feel free to use any type of crock or container that won’t spill in your fridge: whatever containers you use to store your leftovers would be just fine.

REFRIGERATOR PICKLES

(adapted from Once Upon a Chef)
Makes 2 quarts of pickle spears

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups distilled white vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons salt (canning salt is not required)
2 tablespoons sugar
About 2 pounds small pickling cucumbers
2 tablespoons coriander seeds (optional; I omitted)
6 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced lengthwise
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional; they do not make the pickles hot)
Handful of dill sprigs (I used about 6)
Water to cover

Instructions:
■ In a nonreactive saucepan over medium-high heat, combine vinegar, salt and sugar. Heat and stir until salt and sugar dissolve; remove saucepan from heat.
■ While the vinegar mixture cools to room temperature, wash cucumbers and slice lengthwise into halves or quarters. Cram as many pickle spears as will fit into the quart jars. (For me, 2 pounds of spears fit perfectly into two wide-mouthed quart jars.)
■ To each container, add the coriander seeds (1 tablespoon per jar), garlic cloves (3 cloves, split, per jar), mustard seeds (1/2 teaspoon per jar) and a few dill sprigs (I used about 3 per jar).
■ When the vinegar mixture has cooled to room temperature, split it evenly between the jars. (A measuring cup helps.) You can also add 2 cups of fresh water to the vinegar mixture before dividing it to make eyeballing the portions easier.
■ After the vinegar has been added to each jar, pour fresh water into each jar to cover the cucumbers. (If a spear of cucumber or a sprig of dill peeks out a bit, that’s OK.)
■ Secure lids onto containers and shake to mix ingredients. Place in the refrigerator and allow to cure for about 48 hours before enjoying. Pickles will keep in the refrigerator for about a month. When the pickles are gone, you can reuse the brine a time or two with new cucumber spears.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].

Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.