I recently bought a bunch of cucumbers at the farmer’s market for 13.8 cents each. I was planning on making more dill pickles with them, till I remembered I hacked down most of my dill plant making my 7 quarts of dill pickles a couple weeks ago. I decided to make bread and butter pickles instead. The recipe makes 8 pints of pickles, but only 7 pints will fit in a standard water bath canning pot, so I just put one in the fridge. If you have never had bread and butter pickles before, they are sweet and sour. These are great!
4 pounds cucumbers
2 pounds onions
1/3 cup canning salt
Pickle Crisp
4 1/2 cups vinegar
3 cups sugar
3 T mustard seed
3 tsp turmeric
3 tsp celery seed
1 1/2 tsp ginger
2 tsp peppercorns
Wash and slice cucumbers. Combine with salt and ice cubes. Let sit for 1 1/2 hours. Drain and rinse. Sterilize canning jars. After pulling jars from boiling water, place 1/4 teaspoon of Pickle Crisp in the bottom of each jar. (You find Pickle Crisp in the canning section in the store.) Bring the rest of the ingredients to a boil. Remove brine from heat. Fill each jar with cucumbers and onions, and pour hot brine in jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Clean rims of jars. Sterilize canning lids and rings, but not in boiling water, just very hot water. Secure lids on jars tightly, and place in water bath. For altitudes under 1,000 feet, process 10 minutes. For 1,001-6,000 process 15 minutes, and higher altitudes will require processing for 20 minutes. You start calculating your time when the water starts at a full boil. After your pickles are pulled out of the water, you should hear a pop in the next couple of hours, which is a sign the pickles are shelf stable. Leave jars alone for about 24 hours, then remove rings and clean around rim. Date and store!
I will have to try your recipe this summer. I cheated and used the pre-made Bread & Butter Pickle mix. They were SO good.
They sound great. Love bread and butter pickles on a peanut butter sandwich. Can’t wait to taste yours; save me some!!