Bread and butter pickles on my mind in December…mmm…I was in the grocery store yesterday and saw a bag of pickle cucumbers winking at me from the produce shelf…perhaps they were relatives of the ones I couldn’t buy at the Broomfield Farmers Market because the woman ahead of me in line bought them all.
I remember watching as the farmer upended his entire blue storage tub, gallons and gallons of pickle cucumbers, watched them sadly, as they wiggled out and disappeared into someone else’s paper bags in front of me. She was radiant with excitement. The farmer apologized to me.
That happened in September…this is December…bread and butter pickles in December?! Why of course, just for a taste of summer! So I grabbed them off the shelf and set off on my no-boiling-water-bath method of making a few 16-ounce jars of pickles.
Note: If you are not familiar with it, you must consult the cookbook Joy of Cooking for canning in a boiling-water bath. Food must be safe when you eat it so “great care must be exercised in the canning of all foods to avoid spoilage,” which is verbatim from The Joy of Cooking.
Below I used the method taught to me by Lady Marian MacMillan, at Finlaystone Estate in 1979. I keep my pickles refrigerated after they are prepared, never on a pantry shelf. If I did intend to keep them on a pantry shelf, I would properly can them using the boiling-water method from The Joy of Cooking, as advised.
My idea of sterilization: Place 3 clean, 16-ounce Ball jars on a baking sheet in a 400 degree farenheit oven for 10 minutes. Leave them in the hot oven until use.
In a small saucepan, boil the jar lids for 10 minutes. Then turn off the burner and leave the lids in the hot water undisturbed.
Wash and rinse 8 pickle cucumbers. Get ’em clean!
Thinly slice cucumbers and discard ends and blemished portions.
Slice two sweet onions. Add these to the sliced cucumbers.
In a medium-sized saucepan make the pickling syrup by combining: 3 tablespoons salt, 2 cups white or brown sugar, 3/4 tsp turmeric, 1 Tbsp mustard seed, 3/4 tsp celery seed, 1/4 tsp ground cloves.
Add two cups of apple cider vinegar to complete the pickling syrup and bring it to the boil.
Pour the boiling pickling syrup over the sliced cucumbers and onions.
Stir the cucumber mixture and set aside.
Remove jars from hot oven. Turn off oven.
Place a metal spoon in the jar before you fill it with hot filling, to prevent the glass from cracking.
Using a clean pair of tongs, fill the hot jars with pickles.
Top the jars off with the juice in the pan.
Before placing on the lid, dip a clean paper towel into a pan of hot soapy water and remove the stickiness from around the rim of the jar.
Using a clean pair of tongs, remove the lids from the boiling-water bath.
Place lids on top of jars.
Remove screw tops from boiling-water bath and screw on lightly. You will tighten them once the jars have cooled for a few minutes.
Place in refrigerator for a week before using. Periodically turn the jars over, to mix the flavor through the jar.
Bread and Butter Pickles – Taste Summer
Makes three 16-ounce jars
8 small or “pickle” cucumbers
2 sweet onions
Pickling Syrup
2 cups cider vinegar
2 cups white sugar
3 tablespoons salt
3/4 tsp turmeric
1 Tbsp mustard seeds
3/4 tsp celery seeds
1/4 tsp cloves
3, 16-ounce Mason jars or Ball jars
Wash and slice the cucumbers, discarding the ends and any blemished portions and place in large mixing bowl. Peel and slice onions and add to the cucumbers.
In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the pickling syrup and bring to a boil. Pour over the cucumber-onion mixture.
Sterilize the Mason jars by placing the glass jars on a cookie sheet into a preheated 400-degree F oven for 10 minutes. In a small saucepan, sterilize the lids by boiling them for 10 minutes in water.
Remove the hot jars from the oven and place a metal spoon into each jar as you fill it with pickles. Top off with pickling syrup.
Using a clean paper towel dipped in soapy water, remove the stickiness from the edge of the jar-lid area.
Using clean tongs, remove the lids from the boiling water and place on the jars. Remove the screw tops from the boiling water and gently tighten. You can tighten fully once the jars have cooled a bit. Refrigerate for a week before using and keep refrigerated when not in use.
Best,
Cooky
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