Put the cinnamon sticks in a clean piece of cloth and pound it with a hammer till it’s fairly smallish but not powdered. Then I do the same with the cloves, but just barely crack them. an alternative is to drop one whole clove in each jar… that can be too strong though.

If I can get dried ginger, not powder, but dried chunks of ginger, I use that instead too. That’s kind of tough to find, but if you can it’s wonderful.

If I have fresh dill in the garden, I often place a ‘feather’ of that in each jar of pickles as well, and if it’s later in the season and the flowers have gone to seed, I may put one of them in as well. It looks pretty and boosts the dill flavor.

Increase or decrease the dried pepper flakes as desired and put a garlic clove in each jar too if you like garlic dills!