Canning chow chow

Before filling the jars, you should do the following:

• Place the jars (right-side-up) on a rack inside a boiling-water canner
• Fill the canner and jars with water to one inch above the jars
• Boil for 10 min (or more for higher elevations)
• Remove and drain the jars, one at a time

I toss the lids and rings in there as well, since the lids seal best when the rubbery-stuff is softened first anyway.

I have read that some people use their dishwasher's "sanitize" cycle instead, but you should contact the manufacturer (or check the user's guide) to see if it really gets hot enough. I don't know much about using the dishwasher for this purpose; perhaps someone else can elaborate.

If you're looking for great canning instructions, check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation. They will explain how to can safely, botulism-death-free.

Evidently, despite your not doing so intentionally, the evidently the brine was in fact hot enough to heat the air in the head space enough that when it cooled, a partial vacuum was created. The jars are truly sealed as you noted from your description.

While they are sealed, since you did not process the pickles, they are not certain to be safe for long term storage, even in the refrigerator, and should still be treated as regular refrigerator pickles--eat them within a few weeks. That probably is not a problem :-)