Old Fashioned Bread & Butter Pickles

If you don’t care to bother with canning, simply place the lids on tightly and let the jars cool to room temperature before storing them in the fridge. They’ll be ready to eat after a few days, and will keep for weeks.

Ingredients #

Instructions #

Thoroughly rinse the cucumbers under cold running water, scrubbing off any dirt that may be stuck to them.

Slice off 1/8 inch from both ends of each pickle and discard. Slice the cucumbers in ¼” slices and place in a large glass or stainless steel bowl. Add the sliced onions, sliced bell pepper, and salt. Toss everything together so that the salt is distributed evenly among and between the cucumber slices. Refrigerate for 3 hours.

Place your jars on the rack in your pot. Fill the jars and pot with water, enough to cover them by 1”. Carefully move the pot to the burner and bring it to a simmer over medium high heat. Turn off the heat and cover to keep warm. We’re not sterilizing the jars here — that is not necessary unless you are processing the canned food for 10 minutes or less; we’re processing for 30 minutes.

In a large saucepan, combine the cider vinegar, sugar, water, mustard seeds, turmeric, celery seeds, ground cloves, and pepper flakes. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, making sure the sugar is fully dissolved. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm.

Drain the vegetables in a large colander (the salt will have drawn out a lot of water from the cucumbers). Shake the colander to drain thoroughly, but do not rinse the vegetables. Set aside.

Very carefully (this is one of the operations that present many opportunities to burn yourself!) remove the jars from the kettle, drain them empty, and place them upside down on a clean kitchen towel. Allow them to dry thoroughly and cool until they can be safely handled. Turn them over.

Place 1/8 tsp of Pickle Crisp in the bottom of each jar. This is calcium chloride, a harmless additive that helps pickled vegetables stay crisp. It’s entirely optional, but makes a big difference.

Distribute the drained vegetables evenly among the 4 jars, packing them full. Ladle the hot brine over the pickles, leaving a 1/2 inch of clearance at the top of the jar — there must be a certain amount of air in the jar to achieve a proper seal. The first ridge above the shoulder of a Ball jar is a good fill-line.

Using a clean skewer or chopstick, work down into the jars to dislodge air bubbles in the pickles. You will probably need add a bit more brine after this.

Using a clean, damp kitchen town, carefully wipe the rim of the jars — they must be clean for a seal to form. Place a new Ball lid on each jar. Screw a ring over each lid, aiming for only as tight as you can go with just your fingertips. This is important: the lid must be secure enough that water can’t get in, but not so tight that air can’t escape during the water bath. That escaped air allows a semi-vacuum to form when the jars are removed from the kettle. This keeps the jar tightly sealed, and pulls down the little button on the lid so you have a visual indicator of safety.

Make sure the canning bath is still warm, at least 140°F. Using the jar-lifting tongs, place the jars back into the pot. Make sure you’ve got about an inch of water on top of the jars.

Turn on the heat and bring the bath up to 185°F. Controlling the burner to maintain this temperature, process for 30 minutes. Carefully remove the jars to a clean towel on the countertop and allow them to cool for 24 hours.

Inspect each jar carefully by removing the ring and checking that the lid is tightly sealed to the jar. Also verify that the little indicator bump on the lid has inverted. If a jar has a loose lid or the indicator button hasn’t popped in, you can just refrigerate it and enjoy the pickles right away. Otherwise, they’re shelf-stable and ready to eat. Store in a cool dark place.