Bread & Butter Pickles

Maybe you're not a pickle fan... but I honestly think that even if you're not a fan of them, these... you will like. Or - maybe you love pickles and you've never attempted to make them before... well, now you have no excuse! I bet you find this to be so incredibly easy - you stop buying Bread & Butter pickles completely! (Plus, these just taste amazing!) Now, if you're not sure what bread & butter pickles are.... well they're sweet! Sweet and sour is how I look at them. They're delicious on top of a burger or a pulled pork sandwich.. or my favorite thing to do is just eat them straight out of the jar. You could also chop them up and put them on top of a hot dog or add them to potato salad... numerous things, but really, just eaten straight out of the jar works. Now - I have to warn you, I got this recipe initally from Smitten Kitchen, but I'm really bad at following the amounts given sometimes when it comes to recipes such as this.. so I will post something similar to what is on the Smitten site, but with a few adjustments that I did.. but, at the same time... I may not have done. I know - I'm awful... whats the point of putting it on a blog if I'm not writing down my recipes! Sometimes I just tend to throw things in without measuring so when it comes down to writing down the recipe... I have to guess. So here's my best guesses and I KNOW you will enjoy these. .. unless you hate pickles. Then you're just wrong.

Oh and one more thing. The type of pickles/onions I use are important. Its best to make these in the summer when those cute little Kirby Cucumbers are numerous in the Farmer's Markets... and Vidalia Onions are in season, too!! Kirby's are best to use for pickling as their water content is much less than a traditional cucumber and they don't have the seeds you typically like to remove. So - its so simple, no peeling of the skin, no seeding... just simple slicing. Its easiest if you have a mandolin for that slicing, though!


Bread & Butter Pickles
adpated from Smitten Kitchen and personal tastes
makes 1 quart

Ingredients:

• 1lb kirby cucumbers, sliced 1/4" thin
• 1 medium vidalia onion, sliced thin as well
• 3/4c white vinegar
• 3/4c sugar
• 2T kosher salt
• 1t tumeric
• 1T mustard seeds
• 1T coriander seeds
• 1/4t celery seeds
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed but not chopped
  
• a few cloves

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine cucumbers, onions, and salt. Toss to combine. Cover with ice and let sit at room temp for a couple hours. This will help crispen up the onions and cucumbers as well as release a little excess water.
   
2. In large pot, combine sugar, vinegar, garlic, and spices and bring to a boil.
   
3. Drain cumbers/onions (Do not wash! Leave the salty flavor to bring to the brine mixture). Add to the vinegar mixture and bring almost back to a boil. Remove from heat.
4. Pour ingredients into large 1qt mason jar or several smaller ones. *
   
5. Let cool at room temp. and then store in refrigerator for up to 3 weeks (though I still think they taste good a month later)

*This is a quick pickle recipe... not necessarily a "canning" recipe in which these will be able to sit on the shelf in your pantry for over a year. I still go through the process of sterilizing my jars/lids in boiling water and then pouring the hot pickle mixture into the hot dry jars and sealing them immediately, allowing the heat to create a vacuum and sealing the lid completely. They still need to be placed into your fridge once they've cooled and stored there until ready to use - and have a shorter shelf life because of it.

Enjoy!
Lauren