Recently tried old family pickle recipe, and found out that it is weird and possibly unsafe. pickling

So, circumstances recently combined that I felt I should make some cucumber pickles. I got the old family recipe from my mom. She has been making these pickles yearly for decades and we have never had any sort of issue. I had never paid much attention to how they were made, and even if I had, I would not have known there was something off about the method. I have compared her recipe and method to a dozen others on the internet, and they are very similar, except my mom's method does not include a canning process. It seems her recipe is for basic refrigerator pickles, except she stores hers on the pantry shelf. For months at time.

Her method is as follows:

• sterilize jars in 250 degree oven for 20 minutes / boil lids
• create brine of vinegar, water and salt and boil
• cut up cukes and pack jar with dill and garlic
• pour boiling brine into jars up to neck
  
• apply lid until finger tight
• cover jars with towels so they cool more slowly
• next day check for seal - sealed jars go to cupboard, unsealed go to fridge

I asked her about the missing canning step and she said she didn't understand why it would be necessary given the inhospitable nature of the brine. I am sure there is a good reason given that every pickle recipe I see has some kind of canning method, but being new to the art, I don't know it either. Can someone explain to me why the canning step is important, and why her recipe seems to work without it?

Submitted July 26, 2015 at 01:01AM by HummusMoFoDoYouEatIt http://ift.tt/1GOR02u pickling