How to Make Bread and Butter Pickles

There's nothing like the fresh crunch of a juicy pickle. Here is a great recipe for making Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 4 quarts pickling cucumbers
• 1 1/2 cups onions, sliced
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 1/3 cup pickling salt
• 2 quarts chopped ice
• 4 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. turmeric
• 1 1/2 tsp. celery seed
• 2 tbs. mustard seed
• 3 cups white vinegar

1. 
    

   Look for dark green cucumbers with lots of "warts" and stay away from the yellow or white with little warts, as they will have over developed seeds and you do not want seeds.

2. 
    

   In large bowl, add sliced cucumbers and onions, garlic cloves and pickling salt and then mix well. It takes about 3 or 4 cucumbers to fill a pint jar. Each cucumber is about 4 - 5 inches long and you will cut off the ends so they will fit with 1/4 inch to spare.

3. Cover with chopped ice, place towel over and let stand 3 hours.

4. 
    

   Prepare brine by combining sugar, turmeric, celery seed, mustard seed and vinegar in large pot bringing to a boil.

5. Drain water and ice from cucumber slices and remove garlic cloves then add cucumbers to brine and simmer 5 minutes.

6. 
    

   Pack in sterile jars, which you have boiled and prepared before hand. Check out my How to Sterilize Canning Jars article if you need help. Leave about 1/2 inch space on top and then seal. See below for tips on jars.

7. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Allow to stand two weeks before opening to allow the seasoning to be absorbed into the pickle.

Tips & Warnings

• You can purchase Quick Process Pickling mix at the store. It usually goes for about $2.00 to $4.00 per packet. A packet will make about a dozen pint jars.
• Pint canning jars (Ball or Kerr jars can be found at Publix and WalMart - about $8 per dozen jars including the lids and rings). Be sure to get wide mouth jars to fit the pickles in! Pint size works best!

[pianistic]

on 7/9/2008 Yes, check out my article on bread and butter peppers.

[Psalmist4M]

on 7/9/2008 I love some bread & butter pickles. Do you know if I could use this for some butter peppers? We've started growing peppers and I need ideas and variety. Your article is a 5 star article!