Could someone explain "fresh pack" dill pickles?

[Michael_in_TX]

I like dill pickle slices/chips on a variety of burgers and sandwiches. I discovered that my local HEB's store brand is pretty good. When I exhausted that jar, I picked up another jar. They were terrible....limp and flavorless. I chalked that up to store-brand weirdness.

However later, I gave them another try and they were perfect. When I exhausted that jar picked up another. Yet again, limp and flavorless.....what on earth is going on here?!

Paying attention at the store, I noticed something really peculiar. HEB sells two types of dill pickle slices in a 16 oz jar. Here they are. Can you spot the difference?

Jar #1:


...and Jar #2:


Yeah, I know, right? One has the "sea salt & fresh pack" and the other doesn't. The first jar sells for $1.85 and the second for $2.34.

The second jar with the fresh pack are crisp, intensely dill, and my favorite. The other far they are thinner, floppy, and lacking in flavor. I mean it's there, but weak. They remind me of the pickles McDonald's uses.

It's annoying that these jars are right next to each other on the shelf and easy to mix up. (They are identical except for that little yellow blurb!)

So it begs the question.....what the heck is 'fresh pack' and why do I like it so much?

[Jerod Broussard]

Not sure, but I know someone from Dilley, TX.

[Donw]

Regular packed pickles are called fermented pickles because they soak about 6 weeks in a brine solution before packing. These are your limp pickles. Fresh packed are either cured for a few hours in vinegar and spices or packed directly and then covered by hot vinegar and spices. These are your crisper pickles. I know people in Mt. Olive.🙂

[SheilaAnn]

What he said …^

[Mosca]

And they’re on the shelf, not in the refrigerated section? My understanding has always been that shelf pickles were cooked, and fresh packed pickles were not, and were sold in the refrigerated section, like Claussen’s.

My local store, Wegman’s, sells shelf pickles:

And fresh pack pickles:




That are over with the cheeses and butter, etc.

[Michael_in_TX]

Yeah, these are on the shelf and not with the refrigerated pickles.

[jfmorris]

I've seen this before myself, but never knew the difference. My wife is a picky pickle person. She likes DILL, but detests "kosher" dill. Or even store brand pickles that don't have that right "dill" taste she expects. She has this perfect dill flavor in her mind apparently.

One of the few she seems to like are the Mt. Olive dills (but not their kosher dills). Me, and the kids when they still lived here, loved the koshers. Go figure. I just gotta be choosy in getting hamburger dills, as she will end up tossing the ones she doesn't like!

[Mosca]

My daughter is the same way. When the kids last visited, we bought 6 different kinds of refrigerated pickles to blind taste and see what we liked best. I liked all of them, but she was making faces at anything that wasn’t Claussen. Go figure.

[Michael_in_TX]

Regular packed pickles are called fermented pickles because they soak about 6 weeks in a brine solution before packing. These are your limp pickles. Fresh packed are either cured for a few hours in vinegar and spices or packed directly and then covered by hot vinegar and spices. These are your crisper pickles. I know people in Mt. Olive.🙂

Fascinating! Astonishing that there is such a huge difference and product marketing just does such a little packaging change. I would be willing to bet that most shoppers are randomly getting one type or the other, just like I was.

A few years ago I was playing around with fermented hot sauces and pickling. For the few pickles I did, I was always dismayed at how uncrisp they were after a few weeks. It sounds like that is normal.

[DennyWoo]

My wife and I like a good pickle. We've been buying these from our local Hy-Vee, and they are in the refrigerated section. The dill spears have a bit of garlic going on, which we love, and the chips are nice and spicy. You can see the fresh dill in the jar, and both the spears and chips have a nice crunch to them. I'm assuming these fall into the fresh pack category.

[STEbbq]

How interesting. I am not a pickle person. I remove them from all fast food burgers. Amanda knows this.

So she made dill pickles homemade from the garden this year and what she calls sweet pickles. The sweet pickles are the only pickles I have eaten (I like relish go figure) ever. They are excellent. I suppose they would qualify as fresh packed as they only need a week in the fridge. So I get the distinction between pickles!

[jfmorris]

I’m the opposite. Can’t really stand sweet pickles, and I grew up in an era that my mom and grandma were always canning stuff, and made a lot of what they called bread and butter pickles, which were sweet. Dill all the way for me…

[Clawbear57]

I really enjoy a crisp pickle.

[texastweeter]

I like pickles and pickled things, period.

[SheilaAnn]

I loves me a good bread and butter pickle. But cold, from a dish/plate. Not warmed on a burger or sandwich. I love the super crisp ones and the soft ones you get at a great deli. In LA, we have Canters, etc. they put out a dish prior to the food arriving. I’m in heaven. I love piccalilly (sp) and/or sweet relish on a dog. When I get a Chicago dog, I pull the pickle off and eat it on the side. I know, I’m dang near certifiable. 😝😝

so basically, I have not answered your question.

[Mosca]

I like pretty much any vegetable that is pickled or fermented. And growing up, my sisters and brother thought pickled pigs feet were disgusting, but I thought they were awesome.

[FireMan]

I like pickles, crunchier the better. I know hardly anythin bout packin em cept whut I read here.
I know someone in Oconomowoc.

[Donw]

I understand Oconomowoc is world famous for pickled rhubarb. 🙂

[Santamarina]

You learn something every day! I’d never heard of fresh pack until this post…now it’s got me thinking. 🤔

My wife and I are big fans of Grillo’s Pickles. A little digging on their website tells me they’re fresh pack pickles. I guess I know my preference now!

[Dan Deter]

Grillo's are great!

[CandySueQ]

I think the dill pickles I make are fresh packed. Cook the jars, cook the brine, pack hot jars with seasonings (garlic, black pepper corn, fresh dill and a grape leaf), pack in cukes, then process jars to seal. I do a minimum time to hot water can so the cuke isn't cooked. The grape leaf adds tannin, which keeps the pickles crisp.