Bread and Butter Pickles

Southern cooking is more of an experience than an exact science. When I asked my mother how many pickles her recipe made, she said, “I don’t know . . . a lot of ’em. About a dishpan full.” When I asked the size of her dishpan, she said, “Well, you know how big MawMaw’s old dishpan was.”

Cucumber Preparation

5 quarts medium cucumbers, washed and sliced

6 medium onions, sliced

½ cup salt (not iodized)

Pickle Canning

6 cups sugar

6 cups white vinegar

1½ teaspoons pickling spice

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

To prepare the cucumbers, combine the cucumbers, onions, and salt in a large stockpot, making sure the cucumbers are covered with the salt. Cover the pot with a towel and allow the cucumbers to sit for 6 hours. This will pull the water from the cucumbers. Drain any liquid.

To can the pickles, add the sugar, vinegar, pickling spice, and turmeric to the cucumbers in the stockpot and bring the pickles to a simmering boil for about 90 seconds. The pickles will turn a darker green. Put the pickle mixture, with liquid, into 12 hot sterile pint jars, filling to ¼ to 1/8 inch from the top of the jar. Wipe the mouths of the jars and seal with boiled lids. To process the pickles, put the jars on a canning rack in a large canning pot half full of simmering water, making sure the water covers the sealed jars by 1 to 2 inches. Bring the water to a boil, cover, and allow the jars to boil (or “process”) in the hot-water bath for 10 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and cool the jars in the pot for 5 minutes. Remove the jars with a jar remover and store at room temperature for 24 hours on a towel. Check to make sure all seals are good (the lids should be a bit sunken-in at the center). Refrigerate jars intended for immediate use, to chill the pickles. The rest of the jars can be stored, unrefrigerated, in a cabinet or pantry for 2 years, as long as the jars remain unopened and the lids remain sealed. Once opened, refrigerate.

Makes 12 pints

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