How To ~ Make Pickles

The garden is starting to produce and if your cucumber crop is like mine you are overrun with cucumbers!!   So it is time to make pickles.  I happened upon this recipe a few years ago and haven’t looked back.  These are a bread and butter pickles instead of a deli style dill pickle.  A little side note.  These are the ONLY pickles my sister will eat.

Here are your basic ingredients:

Mrs. Wages Bread and Butter Pickle mix.  I found mine at Walmart.  For some reason my grocery store doesn’t carry this mix.

White Vinegar.  Get the big bottle.

Sugar.  Grab a 5 lb bag.

Cucumbers.  I had to laugh at the bottom photo.  Check out the SIZE of that cucumber.  Those were ones that were hiding and got a bit out of control.  Poor things look like they are going to burst.

The recipe calls for 9-11 lbs of cucumbers.  I have never weighed my cucumbers.  I just get a large amount from the garden and go to town.

Measure out 7 cups of sugar. Yes you read that correctly. SEVEN cups of sugar. This is where the SWEET part of the bread and butter pickle comes.

Add the seasoning packet.

Add in 6 3/4 cups of white vinegar.

Stir.

Put on the stove to boil.  I would suggest stirring the mixture till the sugar is all but dissolved then let it come to a boil.

Meanwhile cut your cucumbers.  I like mine on the thicker side so they still have a bit of crunch after pickling.

Now it is time to pack your sterilized jars. (For further instructions on sterilizing jars and other great canning instructions check out PickYourOwn.org    They explain it so much better than I ever could.)  When I say pack I MEAN PACK.  Put your back into it.  Keep in mind that when the cucumbers are heated up they will shrink a bit so even though you think you have the jar packed as tight as you can there will be extra pickling liquid in the jar in relation to the pickle.

See the jar on the upper left?  That is the HUGE cucumber that got out of control in the garden. Turns out it is the exact size of my wide mouth pint jars!  Who knew?

Once your cucumbers are packed and your pickling liquid has come to a boil, carefully ladle the pickling liquid into the jars.  Be sure to leave head space and remove any air bubbles. Wipe the rim on the jar with a clean wet towel. Add a canning lid, a ring and tighten.

Time to take a bath!!

This little blue jar lifter is a life saver.  I won’t tell you how I used to get these jars in and out of the boiling water.  It wasn’t safe and I don’t advocate my former method.  I didn’t want to spend $6 on a jar lifter. Penny pinching me!! Mom stepped in and gifted me with a jar lifter!  Thanks mom.  It was well worth it.

Put your jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Once the 10 minutes is up CAREFULLY remove the jars from the hot water bath.  Let the jars sit undisturbed will cooled (12-24 hours) and then remove the rings.  You will know if the canning process has processed correctly when the lid does not ‘pop’ or ‘click’ when pressed.

Happy pickling!  Let me know if you tried this and how it went.  I would love to hear!