Summer is in its final throes, which means there are buckets of produce to deal with—I mean, savor and cherish. Pickling and preserving can help with that, but you know what super-duper sucks? Standing over a pot of boiling water in an already swampy kitchen for hours sanitizing and sealing slippery glass jars. No thanks. I made the switch to frozen pickles years ago and haven’t looked back since. If you have some available freezer space, this is a great technique to have in your arsenal.

The purpose of pickling is to preserve the texture and flavor of fresh produce, and high-temperature pickling ruins both. Freezing pickles in their brine does much of the same work as canning, but without the heat. How? As with many of the world's wonders, it comes down to the unique chemical properties of water—in this case, its ability to expand when it freezes. As the water in the pickles and brine freezes and crystallizes, it rearranges and breaks down the fibers in the pickles, causing them to soften slightly. This step is physically impossible to overdo, because once the pickles are frozen, that's that—they don't freeze again. As a result, it's extremely difficult to create mushy, overcooked frozen pickles. Even better, because there's no heat involved and the "cooking" process occurs in a largely anaerobic environment, the vegetables don't oxidize and turn gray. They won't keep in the refrigerator, but frozen pickles do come out nice and crisp and colorful. That's why I prefer canned pickles over the traditional canned pickles.

Now that I've hopefully convinced you, here's how to make frozen pickles. This method works with any fruit or vegetable and is infinitely adaptable — you can even make freezer jam if you want.

Use any brine recipe you like for this step, just make it first so it has plenty of time to cool before you continue. The freezer does all the “cooking” here, so pouring boiling brine over the vegetables is completely unnecessary. Plus, hot brine will make for discolored, mushy pickles.