Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Let's get pickled!


My mother always used to make bread
and
butter pickles with the cucumbers
from
our garden when I was a kid.
To this day, the
taste of bread and
butter pickles is the taste of
my
childhood.


Needless to say, I was pickled...I
mean
tickled when my friend Lynn
brought
over a jar from a batch she
had made from
cucumbers she'd bought
at our local farmer's market. They were delicious and she happily shared her recipe, which I checked against an old recipe card of my grandmother's (who taught my mom) and they are the same.

And so I share them with you! I am hoping to
hit the farmer's market next week and if the cucumbers are still in, I think I'll do some pickling myself!

Bread and
Butter Pickles
6 qts, sliced cucumbers
1 qt sliced
onion
4 large sweet peppers, diced

1 cup pickling salt poured over mixture

(you can also use Kosher salt)
1 - 2 inches of ice on top of vegetables,
refrigerate
for 4 hours

In a large pot, mix together
:

6 cups white vinegar

6 cups sugar

1 tspn mustard seed

1 tspn celery seed
1 tbspn tumeric seed


Bring just to a boil.


Thoroughly rinse cucumbers, onions and peppers from ice and salt and add to the mixture on the stove, bring just to a boil again.

In another pot, boil 8 large canning jars and their lids to sterilize. Keep the jars hot while canning, take them out of the water only when ready to add pickle mixture. Once the sugar vinegar solution has come to a boil, use a slotted spoon to fill the hot jars with the cucumbers.

Pack the jars to an inch
from the rim with the
vegetables. Then pour the hot pickling syrup
to a half inch from the rim. Wipe the rim clean.
Place a sterilized lid on
the jar. Secure with a
metal screw band.

If you are planning to store pickles outside of the refrigerator, they will need a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Return filled jars to the same canning pot with its already hot water. Water level should be one inch above the top of the cans. Bring to a boil and let boil hard for 15 minutes. Remove jars from pot. Let cool down to room temperature. Jars should make a popping sound as their lids seal. If a lid doesn't seal properly, it must be stored in the refrigerator


Enjoy!

Jenn


Quite a pickle, isn't it?
Okay, I'll stop now...;-)




12 comments:

  1. I am a pickle person. And homemade are the very best. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, Jenn. I'm pickled (I mean...tickled) -- Ahhh! Now you've got me doing it!

    Off to dream of crunching,
    ~ Cleo
    Coffeehouse Mystery.com
    Cleo Coyle on Twitter

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  2. I'm a pickle person too and grew cucumbers this year just for that purpose. Your recipe is the same as mine. All of our grandmothers must have gotten together on this one.

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  3. I'm tickled because I've not pickled yet! And this sounds like just the recipe to give it a try. I *love* pickles!

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  4. Someday, I plan to get the canning bug. Right now, don't have the stuff.

    But, I am a pickling Vet

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  5. I haven't had butter pickles in a long time. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

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  6. Terrific recipe! thanks, Jenn. Before we moved into our teeny house that we now live in, we lived in a house that had a much bigger kitchen. Mother and my buddy Nan and I would take one day a year and do jars and jars of Bread & Butter pickles. It was a fun day, and maybe time for me to do it again (on a much smaller scale).

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  7. We grow little cucumbers each year for canning. Bread and butter pickles are among our favorites! Yum!

    ~ Krista

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  8. I've never pickled, Jenn. And the process has always been a mystery to me. Pretty appropriate, considering our blog, eh? But you've explained it so well and so clearly that I might actually give it a go. Not for a while though... this book has Ollie in a pickle of her own and I'm having a hard time getting her out!

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  9. I adore pickles but have never made them myself. Am very tempted to try your recipe.

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  10. Hubster loved his mother's dill pickles. When we visited (at the right time of year) I asked her to teach me. I think I made them once. Florida is no place to deal with canning jars, sterilization, etc. But I do have recipes for pickled mushrooms that I've made quite often. I also like pickled eggs, but I just put hard boiled eggs into the leftover pickle juice from a jar of dill pickles.

    Terry
    Terry's Place
    Romance with a Twist--of Mystery

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  11. This recipe is almost exactly the same as my MIL's, except when she taught me to make them she used cider vinegar and sometimes added 2 or 3 sliced jalapenos to spice things up! They are certainly to-die-for!

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  12. So many great ideas! So little time!
    Thanks for sharing in my pickled state!

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