I have been making these Easy Bread and Butter Pickles for years. They are so easy to make because they are not canned technically. You just pour the boiling vinegar mixture over the cucumber slices, seal and store in the fridge. Now that you can buy those baby cucumbers in stores year round I even make these in the middle of winter if we have run out. You can also make them with English cucumbers.
You store them in the fridge and they are ready when they change colour. I have opened and eaten them after one week and they were excellent — crunchy and sweet!
You will need to sterilize the jars you are going to use. I have all kinds of mason jars but in a pinch you could re-use commercial pickle jars or spaghetti sauce jars. Just sterilize them before you re-use them.
To sterilize them I put a roasting pan on my stove top. I put about 3-4 ” of water in the bottom of the pan, turn the jars upside down and bring the water to a boil. Let them simmer for 15 minutes. Sometimes the jars will suck the water up inside them. If that happens just tilt the jar to let the water release back into the bath. Put the lids in to simmer for the last 5 minutes. Tongs work best for removing the jars and lids from the bath.
This recipe makes about 4 half liter jars. I wouldn’t double it because they are so easy to make you can just make more when they run out. I love these pickles on sandwiches or burgers, in chopped into deviled eggs or on the side of anything. You can save the juice when the pickles are done and use it to jazz up salad dressings for potato salad, cauliflower salad etc.
If you like these you might also like my Easy Dill Pickles!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
PIckle
- 6 cups unpeeled cucumber slices (I use the thin slice setting on my mandolin)
- 1 medium sweet onion thinly sliced and quartered
Brine
- 3 cups white sugar
- 2 cups white vinegar 5% solution
- 1/4 cup coarse pickling salt
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp celery seed
- 1 tsp mustard seed
Instructions
- Sterilize canning jars by inverting in a 3 " water bath and simmering on the stove for 15 minutes. Simmer snap and ring lids 3-5 minutes.
- Clean and slice cucumbers and onion.
- Mix all brine ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for a few minutes.
- Pour hot brine over cucumber & onion slices in a bowl. Stir and let them cool.
- Spoon pickle mixture into sterilized jars leaving 1/2 - 1" of head space. Position the snap lid and dry the top. Dry the ring and twist on until finger tight.
- Let cool and store in the fridge. They will keep several months.
Notes
