Among the fresh-from-the-garden produce that my wonderful friend gifted me with last week were some really large cucumbers. Everything else has been eaten, but I thought that I might try to make the cucumbers into pickles for Carey, because lately he has been requesting that I keep pickles in the house for his sandwiches.
My mother used to make pickles. We would drive out to a nearby farm and buy bushels of cucumbers. We had a five-gallon crock and a couple of smaller ones (maybe two gallon). She would fill those babies up, and there the pickles would cure till time to put them in the jars.
I'm not that ambitious...nor do I have the kind of storage that the house I grew up in did. So I went online this morning and looked for a recipe for bread-and-butter pickles to make in a small batch quickly. Here's what I found.
Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles from kitchensimplicity.com
In a medium sized sauce pan, combine 1 cup white vinegar, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup light brown sugar (packed), 1 1/2 teaspoons mustard seeds, 1/2 teaspoon celery seeds, and 1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric. Bring to a simmer, stirring until sugars dissolve.
My mother used to make pickles. We would drive out to a nearby farm and buy bushels of cucumbers. We had a five-gallon crock and a couple of smaller ones (maybe two gallon). She would fill those babies up, and there the pickles would cure till time to put them in the jars.
I'm not that ambitious...nor do I have the kind of storage that the house I grew up in did. So I went online this morning and looked for a recipe for bread-and-butter pickles to make in a small batch quickly. Here's what I found.
Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles from kitchensimplicity.com
Slice 5.5 cups of pickling cucumbers (about 1.5 pounds), then combine with 1 1/2 Tablespoons kosher salt and chill for an hour and a half. (I placed a shallow layer of the sliced cukes in a bowl, sprinkled it with some of the salt, and repeated the shallow layers and sprinkling of salt with the rest of the cukes.)
After an hour and a half, rinse the cucumbers in a colander to remove salt. (The salt will have drawn a lot of liquid from the cucumbers.) Drain them well.
Thinly slice a sweet onion.
Pour the hot liquid over the cucumbers and onions in a bowl. Let sit at room temperature for an hour and a half.
Then place in jars (makes about two quarts)...
...and refrigerate up to two weeks.
I'm not eating sugar these days, but I had to try a slice before I put them in the fridge, and it was really good. I think they will pass the test when Carey gets home.
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They look good, but only last two weeks? I'd hate to think how old pickles get here. I think sometimes they have birthdays!
ReplyDeleteI love all kinds of pickles. Unfortunately, salt is bad for me since I've been having high readings of BP! Boo on that! I recently ran across my late mother-in-law's recipe for B & B pickles- Your recipe sounds easy--I may have to try it!
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