Bread & Butter Pickles
Sweet from sugar, tangy from vinegar—a perfect pickle marriage.
Hello! 👋 I am Wendy—I love to create easy to follow recipes to inspire you to create something new! Welcome to my kitchen, where I write the why and how to each creation weekly. Glad you are here 💕!
Pickles for beginners…
Sometimes you come across a recipe that you create over and over, it’s that good. I have never met MaeEast, but it is her recipe that has been hitting my Thanksgiving table since 2008.
Why Bread & Butter Pickles?
As I was organizing my thoughts and preparing what recipe to share with you, I happened to read the top of Mae’s recipe that reads.
This was my dh grandmother’s recipe. It is so good. Store-bought pickles don’t even come close. This is a good recipe for anyone who would like to try pickling but hasn’t done it before. It’s quite straight forward, not a lot of ingredients. by MaeEast
At the time, I can only imagine reading “store-bought don’t even come close” is what drew me attention to try this particular recipe. I have a dozen or so canning cookbooks, not to mention my grandparents’ recipes as well. But this recipe is true to Mae’s words—it’s straight forward, not a lot of ingredients. Perfect for my readers.
Having quarts of cucumbers gifted from a friend, and garden-fresh red onions in hand, I got to work creating one of my all-time favorites—these Bread and Butter Pickles. Everyone loves them, they are easy to make and easy to eat. You can too.
The How
You will need to plan about 4-hours. Don’t shy away from the time, as most of the time is preparing your cucumbers and onions prior to canning. I will help you along the way. And you can also refrigerate these—if you don’t want to invest in a canner.
Yields: 6 pints or 3 quarts (I like the pints; you can give them as gifts)
You will need a canner, 6-pint size Mason Jars, I prefer Ball Jars or 3-quart size Ball Jars with lids & rings. Canning tools that I cannot live without (Canning funnel, jar lifter, and cover rod).
Ingredients
15 cups sliced pickling cucumbers (about 30 small/medium size cucumbers)
3 medium onions, thinly sliced (I used red onions from the garden, 8 small)
1/4 cup canning salt (Morton Canning & Pickling Salt)
4 cups of cracked ice
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
Lots of Love
Directions
The first step is to salt brine your pickles in a large bowl. This will help draw out the moisture, penetrates the cucumbers for flavor and preserve them. It might feel like a lot of salt—don’t worry you will drain the liquid off.
Thinly slice your cucumbers and onions. I used to hand slice them. That works fine. But I purchase a Mandoline slicer and fell in love. I slice mine on the #2 setting. Add your thinly sliced cucumbers and onions to the large bowl, mix in the 1/4 cup of pickling salt and toss all ingredients with 4 cups of ice. Put a weight on and allow to stand for 3-hours. I find that if I put a dinner plate—weighted down with my gallon bottle of vinegar it works well.
While your cucumbers and onions are soaking up all that salty goodness, and draining all their extra liquid, prepare your canning jars. You will want to sterilize them. I usually run mine through the dishwasher. But I just recently read that’s not the safest. So, this time around I went the traditional route and hot water bathed them for 10-minutes in my canner. You don’t have a canner? Here’s a few options: TSC Canner, Walmart Canner. These both resemble the two I have.
To sterilize your jars place them right side up on your rack inside your canner, fill it with water, and bring to a boil. When the water begins to boil, set your timer for 10-minutes, safely remove with your jar lifter and place them on a tea towel while you prepare the next step. For more insight on safe sterilization here’s a helpful link (National Center for Home Preservation).
Your timer just went off—it’s been 3-hours, now the fun begins. Yes, it’s fun and so rewarding too. Drain your cucumbers and onions in a colander. While your cucumbers are draining, prepare your pickling brine by adding your vinegar, sugar, turmeric, celery and mustard seeds to an 8–10-quart stockpot. Now add your cucumbers & onion mixture, gently stir to combine—and place stockpot on burner. On medium-low slowly bring to almost a boil—BUT DO NOT BOIL. I stir slowly a couple of times while they are coming to temperature. You will notice that your cucumbers, onions and brine all become one.
Remove from heat, you are ready to pack them into your sterilized jars. Let’s get you organized. You will need to sterilize your lids as well. In a small saucepan boil water add your lids (no need to add rings), let the water simmer with the lids in the water. You will use your cover rod to lift them out. Have your jars, sterilized lids, rings, cover rod, jar lifter at the ready. This will be your process.
Fill—your jar by putting the canning funnel on top of the Ball Jar, ladle in enough of your pickle ingredients to 1/4-inch from the rim.
Wipe—your rim clean. Very important step to ensure proper sealing!
Cover—using your cover rod, lift your sterilized lid out of the boiling water, top the jar, and screw on the ring—snug but not too tight.
Hot Water Bath 10-minutes—place your pint Ball Jars on your canning rack, lower into water. Bring to a boil—when the water begins to boil—set timer for 10-minutes.
Cool—using your jar lifter, carefully lift your jars out of the canner, place them on a heat safe counter—I use kitchen towels, and let cool for 24-hours. Your lids will seal with a pop. Do not touch your jars while they are cooling. This might falsely seal your lids.
Store—Label date & name of pickles, store up to a year in a cool place.
Eat—grin.
That’s it, grin. I would let these tasty treats sit for at least a week before you open your first jar. I am excited for you to try. And if you are a seasoned canner may this, be a new recipe to try. I believe most of you will enjoy these pickles as these are not spicy or too tart, they are the perfect marriage between sweet and savory! Yummy!
God bless you with lovingkindness!
Until we chat again, Enjoy 💕!
Wendy
P.S. a restack or ❤️ keeps us at the top of the stack so others can find us easily too.
My fav of all pickles 🥒 Camping trips weren’t the same when a certain someone 😂 ate the whole jar 😋😂😋
I sure bet those are extra delicious!