Bread & Butter Pickles

About This Recipe

Pickles, whether salty, sweet or sour, crispy and crunchy, I enjoy them all. It’s funny that I have only recently acquired a taste for these briny morsels. As a child I would discard the pickles from my happy meal burgers as being limp with no flavor. It wasn’t until I tasted a quick pickle that my taste buds were awakened. I love the briny flavor and crunch of a good pickled veggie whether it is cucumbers, onions, carrots or beets. Oftentimes I will make a quick pickled onion, radish, cuke and carrot slaw to top sandwiches… delicious. The key is the salty crunchy flavor, which McDonald’s pickles lack.

Pickles date back as far as 2030 BC when cucumbers from India were first pickled. But the word pickle is derived from either Dutch PEKEL or German POKEL, both meaning salt or brine, very important components of the pickling process. Throughout history, pickling has served as a necessity, as a way to preserve food for a long period of time. Pickles are now the darling of the food industry trending with pickle juice sports drinks and deep fried pickles as high end appetizers.

My daughter, Elizabeth decided this year to try her hand at making pickles as Christmas presents for the family. She went beyond refrigerator pickles and canned them for a longer shelf life. Unfortunately, she was clueless that canning became the number one past time in COVID activities, right up there with baking bread. Her quest for canning jars took her to the holy grail of jars in a hardware store down in Sanford.

Proudly she presented on Christmas Day, her pickled presents swimming in a sea of Apple Cider Vinegar. Little did she know how well her choice of food gift would be received by her Uncle Dennis, a self proclaimed “Pickle-Aficionado.” Half the jar was consumed before the final presents were opened and the Christmas goose dinner served.

The next day I received a photo of the empty jar with this poem.

“There’s nothing sadder near or far… than having an empty pickle jar.

There’s nothing tastier, in the west or the east,

than the pickles made by my lovely niece.”

Not to be outdone, another recipient of the pickles picked up pen and wrote:

“May the Fates decry any man so fickle …

Who might disparage my daughter’s pickles!”

I would say that the pickles were a hit. Please check out the recipe and let me know about your canning success story.

Fun Fact: Did you know that we may eat pickles due to dehydration? That’s why pregnant women seem to crave pickles because they experience nausea and morning sickness which can lead to dehydration. I only craved butterscotch pudding and KFC mashed spuds with gravy. Wonder what that craving meant?

IMPORTANT TIP: This recipe makes a BIG batch of homemade bread and butter pickles (8 one-quart jars). These can be made as refrigerator pickles, or they can be canned for later!

Ingredients & Instructions

25 cucumbers ¼-inch slices
6 onions thinly sliced
2 red bell peppers thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic chopped
1/2 cup salt
3 cups cider vinegar
5 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons mustard seed
2 teaspoons celery seed
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
2 teaspoons ground turmeric

Mix cucumbers, onions, red bell pepper, garlic and salt in a large bowl or dutch oven and let stand for 3 hours.
In a large dutch oven or large saucepan bring cider vinegar sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, cloves and turmeric to a boil. Drain liquid from the cucumber mixture and add to the boiling vinegar. Remove from heat just before the mixture comes back to a boil so not to cook the cucumbers.
Transfer to sterile containers and refrigerate or can your goods.

We used this recipe from foodiecrush as a guideline.

Source: https://www.foodiecrush.com/zesty-bread-and-butter-pickles-plus-a-homemade-pickle-recipe-round-up/

Hope you find this recipe delicious. Please share your thoughts and any suggestions on the recipe. We would love to hear from you.