Bread and Butter Pickles

Bread and butter pickles you buy in the store are thinly sliced rounds of cucumber only. But most of the recipes for them include sliced onion and sometimes chopped green pepper. I like them the way they come from the store, but I like making my own.

So I adapted a good recipe I found online. I make them exactly as below, except I leave out the onion and increase the cucumber. It makes about 6 pint jars.

Recipe (Diana Rattray, thespruce.com)

• Four Five lbs pickling cucumbers
• 1 large onion, quartered, sliced abt. 1/4″ thickness
• 1/3 cup kosher (coarse) salt
• 3 cups cider vinegar
• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp mustard seed
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp celery seed
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes – optional

Wash cucumbers and cut off ends. Slice crosswise into 1/8″ slices. Toss in a large bowl with salt and onion; cover with 4-6 cups of ice cubes. Cover and let stand 4 hours or refrigerate overnight.

Boiling water bath:  Wash jars thoroughly and heat water in a small saucepan; put the lids in the saucepan and bring almost to the boil; lower heat to very low to keep the lids hot.

Making pickles: Drain cucumbers in a large colander and rinse with cold water.

In a large, nonreactive [stainless steel, glass, enamel] pot over medium heat, combine the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Add the drained cucumbers and bring to a boil.

Pack pickles in jars

With a slotted spoon, loosely pack the pickles into prepared jars. Ladle the liquid into jars, dividing evenly. With a clean damp cloth, wipe away any drips around the rims of the jars, and then cover with 2-piece jar lid and screw ring. A lid lifter comes in handy to get the flat lids out of the water, or you could use tongs. Adjust the screw on rings firmly but do not over-tighten.

Place filled jars in the prepared boiling water bath, adding more hot water as needed to bring the water up to about 1 inch above the jars. Bring the water to a boil. Cover and continue boiling for 10 minutes.

Lift the jars out of the water and place on a rack to cool. For best flavour development, store the pickles in a cool, dark place for at least 3 to 4 weeks.

The original Spruce recipe seems to be gone. However, here’s a slightly different one that looks good.

A mandolin slicer (second pic) is great for cutting cucumbers. My hints & hacks page has more on this wonderful tool. For these pickles, you can use small and large cukes. I’ve used regular field cucumbers and they worked fine. English cucumbers work well too and give a consistent width. Just get them in and out of the vinegar mixture more quickly so they don’t go too soft.