Bread and Butter Pickles
By Katy Hume Sur La Table
Bread and Butter Pickles
By Katy Hume Sur La Table
Yield/Serves:
Makes about 4 (½-pint) jars
- 1½ lbs pickling cucumbers, cut into ½-inch slices
- 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup pickling salt
- 3 cups cold water
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp mustard seed
- ½ tsp celery seed
- ½ tsp cloves
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1½ cups cider vinegar, 5% acidity
- Ball 100% Natural Pickle Crisp, optional
- Start pickles: Combine cucumber slices, onion slices, salt and water in a large bowl. Mix well. Cover and let stand 2 hours.
- Sterilize jars and lids: Wash jars, screw bands, and lids in hot, soapy water, then rinse well. Dry screw bands. Put jars on a rack in a boiling-water canner or a deep 8- to 10-quart pot and add enough hot water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, covered with lid, and boil 10 minutes. Heat lids in water to cover in a small saucepan until thermometer registers 180°F (do not let boil). Keep jars and lids submerged in hot water, covered, until ready to use.
- Finish pickles: Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Drain vegetables; rinse. Drain again. Add vegetables to vinegar mixture and return to a boil. Drain jars upside down on a clean kitchen towel 1 minute. Pack hot pickles and pickling liquid into hot jars, leaving ¼" headspace. Add ¾ teaspoon Pickle Crisp to each jar after it is filled. Remove air bubbles with a nonmetallic spatula.
- Seal and process jars: Wipe off rims of filled jars with a clean damp kitchen towel, then screw on lids with screw band, just until a point of resistance is met – fingertip tight. Put sealed jars on rack in canner or pot and add enough hot water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, covered. Boil pickles, covered, 10 minutes, then transfer jars with tongs to a towel-lined surface to cool. Jars will seal (if you hear a ping, that signals that the vacuum formed at the top has made the lid concave).
- After jars have cooled 12 to 24 hours, press center of each lid to check that it’s concave, then remove screw band and try to lift lid with your fingertips. If you can’t, the lid has a good seal.