Bread & Butter Pickles

With the heavy rain and wind today, it was a good day to stay inside and make pickles.  I'll always remember my grandmother's Bread & Butter Pickles, one of my favorites from her canning cellar.  We're fortunate to have a good crop of cucumbers (Marketmore 76) this year and I was able to harvest 16 for her recipe which calls for 15 cups of sliced cukes, making 5-6 pint jars of pickles.

Marketmore 76 cucumber variety climbing a trellis

Wash and scrub the cucumbers until they are absolutely clean.  

Then, slice the cucumbers into about 1/4" slices, leaving the skin on. Combine with 1/4" sliced medium sized onions (I used Vadalia, since they're mild) in a large bowl or pan, together with 1/4 cup canning salt and about 6 cups of ice cubes.  Mix up the ingredients real well to coat the cucumber and onion slices and refrigerate for about 3 hours.

After 3 hours, discard the ice cubes and rinse the cucumber/onion mixture in a colandar to remove all of the salt.  Drain well.

In a large pan combine 2-1/2 cups cider vinegar, 2-1/2 cups sugar, 1 tablespoon mustard seeds, 1 teaspoon celery seeds and 1/2 teaspoon turmeric.  Bring to a boil until the sugar dissolves.  To this mixture, add the cucumber/onion slices and combine well.  Bring to a boil and remove pan from heat.

With a slotted spoon, fill hot, sterilized pint jars with cucumber/onion mixture. After all jars are filled, add the vinegar/sugar/spice mixture to the filled jars, leaving about 1/4" headspace in each jar.

Process the jars in a hot water bath canner for 15 minutes to seal.

ENJOY!