Bread & Butter Pickles
(Makes two pints)
2 English cucumbers or six pickling cucumbers (about six-ounces each)
1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced into rounds
1/2 cup pickling salt
1 quart distilled vinegar
4 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons yellow (or brown) mustard seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons celery seed
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons pickling spice
Slice the cucumbers into slices about 1/4-inch thick. Place the cucumbers and onion in a colander and rinse with cold water. Generous salt the cucumbers and allow them to drain, refrigerated, for three to four hours. Rinse the cucumbers with cold water and dry.
In a medium stockpot combine the salt, vinegar, sugar, mustard and celery seeds, turmeric and pickling spice. Bring to a boil and cook for ten minutes.
Add the cucumbers and onion and return the liquid to a boil. Once the liquid comes to a boil, turn off the heat and, using a slotted spoon, ladle the cucumber and onion into sterilized one-pint wide mouth canning jars. Ladle the hot liquid into the jars leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Seal and process the jars in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.
Remove the jars from the canner and place on a kitchen towel in a draft-free area. Allow the pickles to mellow for one week before using. After opening, the pickles will keep in the refrigerator for up to one month.
(If you have any pickling liquid remaining – which you probably will – it may be stored for future use within a month.)
Cucumbers being salted
Into the brining solution
Ready for canning
Letting them mellow for awhile
