Homemade bread and butter pickles.

I know I say this pretty much every time I post something new, but it has been forever since I have posted anything on my blog. I feel bad about it because I had all these plans, but then things got crazy and super busy. I started college on a few week ago, which was crazy. It has been a long few weeks.

A few weeks ago, my grandma and I were searching for a good pickle recipe that would yield good, crunchy pickles. We had two cucumber plants, and I never knew how fast cucumbers produce until this summer. We had so many cucumber, so we thought we would make pickles. My family loves pickles. My grandma used to can pickles all the time. She'd do bread and butter, lime, and dill. However, her dill pickles never stayed crunchy, and usually ended up salty. We knew that we could make bread and butter pickles with some success. So, we did some searching for a relatively easy user-friendly recipe. And we, of course, found one. I have made three or four batches of these now and they are really amazing. My family loves them, and pretty easy to make, which is why I thought I would share them with you. 
Bonus: they only require a water bath to can, and they are required to be canned. They can be stored in the fridge. 
Good luck!

Bread and Butter Pickles

adapted from Surviving on a Teacher's Salary

Ingredients:
14 medium cucumbers
2 large onions, sliced
2/3 cups canning salt
6 cups sugar
2 tsp. Turmeric
1 tsp. whole cloves
2 1/2 Tbs. mustard seed
7 cups white distilled vinegar

Directions:

1. Cut unpeeled cucumbers thinly (I do a 1/4 or smaller, depending on the size of cucumber). Place sliced onions and cucumbers in a large pot. Mix in salt, evenly. 
2. Refrigerate for 3 hours. 
3.  Clean (sterilize) the jars, if canning.
4. After 3 hours, rinse salt off cucumbers and onions and drain. 
5. In a large pot, combine sugar, Turmeric, whole cloves, mustard seeds, and vinegar. Scald (a hard boil). Stir regularly. 
6. Add cucumbers and onions. Bring to boil and then remove from heat. 
7. If canning, spoon cucumbers into jars. Add the liquid to the jars covering the cucumber and leaving about 1/2 an inch of head space (just to the lip) in each jar. If you are not canning, just place in a container to store in the fridge. 
8. If canning, boil in a water bath for 25 minutes. Let cool for 24 hours. 
9. Serve and enjoy!

Even if you don't have any experience canning or pickling, I believe you can make these. The recipe is really straight forward. If you have any questions or just want to comment, please do. Thanks! 


                                                                                         Andrea