Started canning pickles

Got the first batch of bread-n-butter pickles put up tonight. I've been saving any kind of glass jar that takes a Mason lid for canning to save some bucks. The 24 oz spaghetti jars work great, I use one every tome I Pasta E Fagioli, and now they are pickle jars. these came out real tasty, We used the last of last year's canning in the Spring, so it's been awhile since we've enjoyed these. I added sweet onion and green pepper slices to bulk them up.

Yeah, yeah.. and I won't even ask for a jar lol

They look great, Joe.

Wow, we sure seem to have a lot of hungry people around here. I guess I should just stop tormenting y'all with my kitchen hobbies. Either that, or I could have an online cooking class. Naw, too much like work.

JEV said:

Wow, we sure seem to have a lot of hungry people around here. I guess I should just stop tormenting y'all with my kitchen hobbies. Either that, or I could have an online cooking class. Naw, too much like work.

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You're a culinary tease, is what you are!

pirate_girl said:

You're a culinary tease, is what you are!

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Everybody's gotta be sumthin.

JEV, I use a no cook recipe for sweet pickles. They keep about a year(that's how long it takes to eat a gallon). Good recipe, but takes abt 10 days till final prep/

Call me old fashioned, but I like a water bath and hearing the lids "pop" when they are done. We have a freezer pickle recipe that we love, but there's no damn room in the freezer. Our son keeps buying shit food like pizzas and corn dogs and 3 different kinds of ice cream, then he doesn't eat the shit and I end up with no room for real food and homemade bread. He's lucky I let him live here. At 24 I was already married for 3 years and owned my first house. We need to have a talk...

JEV. this recipe is about as 'old-fashioned' as you can get. Posting it here for those who might be interested.

CUCUMBER PICKLE
NO COOKING

1 gal jar(glass or plastic) 5 lbs sugar(less 2-3 cups)
1 c plain table salt White vinegar
2 Tbs French powdered Alum Cucumbers
2 drops oil of clove (find at pharmacy) Cold water


Stage 1.
Wash cucumbers and place in gallon jars whole. Pour 1 cup salt in jar and fill with cold water. Put top on jar and let set 7 days, shaking jar occasionally. Pour salt water off cucumbers and wash them well.
Stage 2.
Slice cucumbers(evenly sliced) and place them back in jar. Put 2 Tbs Alum on top of cukes and fill jar with cold water. Put top on jar and let sit 48 hours, shaking occasionally. Pour Alum water off cucumbers and wash them.
Stage 3.
Put slices back in jar and and cover with white vinegar. Let set overnight with top on. Drain vinegar off.
Stage 4.
Take 5 # sugar(minus 2-3 cups) and place layer of sugar on bottom, alternate sugar layer and sliced cuke layer until jar is full. Place only 2 drops of Oil of Cloves and put top on jar.
Set pickles aside and wait for sugar to dissolve and syrup to cover pickles. Syrup will be clear. Use pickles out of jar. Do not refrigerate jar. Refrigerate any pickles removed from jar.

Two things, during first two stages do not use a metal lid. I take plastic film, cover top and seal with rubber bands, then place tin foil over that and seal with rubber band.
Second, pickles have a kick like a Georgia Mule. Do not inhale with pickles in your mouth, will cause a coughing fit.

Those pickles look so good. I did Bread and Butter pickles last year and ate them all mostly by myself. Yummm

Do you happen to know the ratio of vinegar to water to sugar to make pickles? I tried to make a quick batch of pickles the other day, because I have just had a few cucks. to harvest as yet, it was less than a quart and I thought I'd try just "winging it" to make the brine, but I tasted them today and oh wow! were they vinegary, couldn't eat them. I guess I could mix up a full batch of brine and just use it as the cucks come on, but thought someone might have an idea to make ones own recipes using the basics.

Yachoved said:

Those pickles look so good. I did Bread and Butter pickles last year and ate them all mostly by myself. Yummm

Do you happen to know the ratio of vinegar to water to sugar to make pickles? I tried to make a quick batch of pickles the other day, because I have just had a few cucks. to harvest as yet, it was less than a quart and I thought I'd try just "winging it" to make the brine, but I tasted them today and oh wow! were they vinegary, couldn't eat them. I guess I could mix up a full batch of brine and just use it as the cucks come on, but thought someone might have an idea to make ones own recipes using the basics.

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Here is my recipe...

8 lbs. cucumbers
2 lbs. white onions
1/2 cup canning salt
1 quart vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons celery seed
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon dry mustard

Slice unpeeled cucumbers 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Slice peeled white onions 1/8 inch thick.In a large stockpot, arrange cucumbers in layers, sprinkling each layer with canning salt. Let stand for 3 hours; rinse in cold water and drain in colander.
Bring vinegar and remaining ingredients to a boil. Add vegetables; bring to a boil again and boil for 5 minutes.
Pack into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust caps. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Thanks so much for the recipe.

JEV, when you use "canning salt" are you talking sea salt? I am wondering if lite salt would hold them over time. I love them but need to reduce my sodium intake.

muleman said:

JEV, when you use "canning salt" are you talking sea salt? I am wondering if lite salt would hold them over time. I love them but need to reduce my sodium intake.

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Canning salt is pure salt used in canning and pickling, and eliminates clouding in the juice that comes with salt that has additives like iodine. The recipe calls for rinsing the salt from the pickles before final processing, which gets rid of most of it. I can't say for sure what the actual consumption would be per serving. That's not in my job description.