Grandpa's Pickles

This is the recipe as I remember it. I found many pickle recipes in grandmas recipe box. Strangely, not a single one was the famous recipe of Grandpa Hughes' Dill Pickles. It has been many years since I last made a batch of pickles, and even longer since I stood at grandma's kitchen sink, stuffing pickle jars full of cukes, helping grandpa to prepare the ingredients and then finally, watching him measure precisely the amount of pickling salt onto each jar for sealing. Whether or not the pickles really need to be shaken for forty days and forty nights needs to be seen, but I will keep on the tradition by putting it in the instructions, just like grandpa taught me.

Wash and cut stems off medium and small sized pickling cukes.
In washed 1 qt jars place a layer of the cukes so they fill 1/2 of the jar.
Into the jar place: 2 clove pieces of garlic
1 dried red pepper corn (2 for hot)
1 head of dill*

Fill up the rest of the jar with pickles. Pour 1 and 1/2 tbsp pickling salt in each jar. Fill up jar with cold water for pickles are covered. Seal jar.

Shake the jars twice a day for forty days and forty nights.

*I often put in more dill than 1 head. I would often go behind grandpa and slip in another before he sealed the jars.