Monday, July 15, 2013

Bread and Butter Pickles

As is usually the case with squash, this year were having difficulty finding a home for all of our cucumbers – I over planted and they are doing great.  We still have dill pickles from last year and I asked Bev if she’d like some bread and butter pickles to which she gave a half-hearted okay.

When I was a kid, I was fed them a lot, but always preferred the onions to the cucumbers and rather than love them, they are definitely not my favorite – I’m a garlicky dill kinda man.  I went looking for recipes and settled on one from food.com in part because it was described as “... grandmothers recipe” by the recipe writer but mostly because it had the lowest sugar to vinegar ratio I found.  I’m thinking if they are less sweet, I might enjoy them.

The recipe was from cuisinebymae on September 12, 2003 and I followed the it as written.

Ingredients:
15 cups sliced pickling cucumbers
3 onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup coarse salt
4 cups cracked ice
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoon mustard seeds

Directions:
1. Combine cucumbers, onions, salt and ice in a large bowl and mix well.
2. Put a weight on and allow to stand 3 hours. (For a weight, I use a plate with a gallon bottle of vinegar or water on top of it).
3. Drain thoroughly.
4. Combine vinegar, sugar, turmeric, celery seed, and mustard seed in a large pot.
5. Add drained cucumbers and place pot on medium low heat.
6. Bring almost to a boil, but DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL.
7. Remove from heat.
8. Seal in sterilized jars, 10 minutes in a hot water bath. (I put mine in a 3 quart jar and did not process them but will keep them in the fridge instead)


Bev tried some when they'd cooled to room temperature and said she absolutely loved them - unlike the days required for dills, these begin to taste pickled after just a few hours.  Then, rather than the half-hearted okay, she enthusiastically wanted to make some more as soon as we had enough cukes.  We both liked the yellow color given to the white skinned cukes by the turmeric and mustard seeds.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

7/5/2013 eventl date

17 comments:

  1. I too am a dill person, but they sure are pretty Larry. Love the color turmeric brings to food.
    Sam

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  2. I made some yellow pickles last summer - I think they were Zuni cafe pickles - or something like that. A really nice refreshing change. I'll have to give these a try!

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  3. I love dill pickles, but have never turned my nose up to a homemade bread and butter pickle!! YUM!!

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  4. This sounds a lot like my grandmothers recipe - I adore bread and butter pickles! I hope I get enough cucumbers this year - you are way ahead of me :)

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  5. I am so glad you have done the leg work on this recipe. I c-a-n NOT find a bread/butter pickle recipe that I like. Other than those hot cajun sweet pickles from Drick's site. Have you had those???? Did I give you a jar? I planted cucumber this year and it has a gillion blooms. I'm hoping they produce. I wish I could drop by and pick up some of those excess cucumbers. Making a cucumber salsa for tomorrow night's Wine Night. I'll send you the link.

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  6. Looks great! As we speak, I am making bread and butter zucchini! I have so many, they are coming out my ears!

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  7. Larry, These pickles are right up there for Laurie's taste buds. They sound great... Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  8. OH My Heart.... The memories are coming back!!!! This was the best pickle that my Mom ever made. They were crisp and SO delicious... Have never had any like them since ---but I'll bet yours are!!!!! YUM.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  9. I love bread and butter pickles! I seen on Mr. Food the other day where they cut them up and mixed them with vinegar and things and put them in the microwave for 5 minutes and then into the refrigerator and they were done. I don't have a microwave but I think I could do it the way you did but not sure about having 15 cups of them since we didn't get to plant this year.

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  10. They look delicious - thanks for sharing the recipe! :-)

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  11. Just ordered 40 pounds of pickling cukes for bread and butters. We love them and can easily polish off a jar in a day. I love the onions too and save the juice after the pickles are gone and add more thinly sliced onions to it. They are so good on sandwiches.

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  12. Mmmmmm....I love bread and butter pickles but have never made them. This looks easy enough and I know they would disappear quickly!

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  13. I actually love bread and butter pickles so this recipe is screaming my name. I really need to try my hand at pickling!

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  14. I love bread and butter pickles, too, although I'm not a big fan of onions. it's nice that they were ready so quickly!

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  15. Here I am trying to play catch-up again! Summer has been full of fun and very busy here but I see you are too, traveling again! I hope my cucumber plants give me plenty of nice pickling cukes soon! I love bread and butter pickles!

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  16. I've never made bread and butter pickles before but I used to love them as a kid!

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  17. I started making pickles last season... Both dill and bread and butter. It is a great way to savor your pickles all year. Yours look delicious.


    Velva

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