Bread and Butter Pickles
Bread and Butter Pickles, sweet and tangy, my favorite pickle canning recipe to capture summer in a jar. These are the best!
This is the summer I tried my hand at pickling. I love it. I'm hooked. Just opened a jar of the bread and butter pickles I made and oh...my...god. Outrageously good! And I don't talk this way. So why am I? And then Meathead tasted them and he said oh...my...god, these are incredible.
I've always liked bread and butter pickles. Something about the sweet-tart flavor and the onions. I grab a fork and stand at the counter and just eat them out of the jar. No shame and sometimes that's my lunch. I'm not kidding.
These were quite a bit different in preparation than the dill pickles I made earlier this summer. I used the Kirby cucumbers but I sliced them using a mandolin and then chilled them under crushed ice for a few hours. Mandolins kind of freak me out. My mom gave me my dad's and this was the first time I used it. Seeing as my dad sliced off the tip of his finger, I was a little bit scared. But I managed with no bloody fingers and it made the slicing of all these cukes go really quickly and they were all uniform in size. Cool.
I guess chilling them under ice keeps them crisp in the jars. It works, my pickles were crunchy, both the cukes and the onions. In terms of flavoring, the brine I used had sugar, apple cider vinegar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, turmeric and crushed red pepper. These pickles are simply fantastic. Better than any store bought stuff I've tried.
So kids, some day when you have vegetable gardens and are cooking and want to make what your momma made, try these pickles. You will love them and hopefully think of me ~ Kelly🍴🐦
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Bread and Butter Pickles
Ingredients
- 4 pounds pickling cucumbers known as Kirby's, washed and scrubbed, ends trimmed, sliced ¼-inch thick
- 4 large white onions, sliced
- ⅓ cup kosher salt, I use Diamond Crystal
- 5 pieces of garlic, either whole cloves or cut in half
- 4 cups sugar
- 3 cups apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons mustard seeds
- 1 ½ teaspoons celery seeds
- 1 ½ teaspoons turmeric
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Instructions
- Wash and sterilize 6 pint size jars, lids and screw caps, either in boiling water, hot soapy water or the dishwasher. Do not re-use lids and screw caps.
- In a large nonreactive stockpot, combine sliced cucumbers, onions, salt and garlic. Cover with a flour sack towel and then cover with 2 - 3 inches of crushed ice. Put a lid on and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, up to 12 hours.
- Prepare a boiling- water canner or large pot of water, bring to a boil.
- Remove towel and ice and transfer cucumber mixture to a colander and rinse well. Discard garlic pieces.
- In the same pot, combine sugar, apple cider vinegar, mustard seeds, turmeric and crushed red pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Stir in cucumber mixture from the colander and bring back to a boil. Remove from heat.
- Pack mixture of cucumbers and onions into sterilized jars with the liquid brine to about ½ inch from the rim. Wipe jar rims, add lids and screw caps.
- Process jars in boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Remove jars to clean towel and let rest for 24 hours. You'll hear lovely popping sounds as the jars seal. If after 24 hours you have any jars that didn't seal, put in fridge and use in a couple of weeks.
- This is the hard part, let the pickles rest for 4 - 5 weeks before opening. Enjoy.
Recipe Notes
- Adapted from BHG Canning Summer 2015
- A hot water bath is recommended for proper sealing and canning safety. Please refer to USDA Home Canning Guidelines for direction.
Nutrition
Can you substitute white vinegar for the apple cider vinegar?
Yes, either works fine with 5% acidity.
The celery seed is left out of the directions. I plan to add it to the boiling water with the other spices.
Oops, thanks for letting me know, I'll fix that.
Thank you for sharing the recipe they are amazingly good
Great recipe...l added yellow squash, zucchini, lemon cucumbers and baby bell peppers to the regular cucumbers and onions! Instead of celery seed l added pickling spice.. worked out great!
But haven’t waited the 4 weeks... they were delish! 🤩😎
Would they be bad if left for more than 12 hoursunder ice?
@Nancy K, l left mine overnight.. they were fine
It should be okay.
You are right. You have to eat the whole jar. They r the best. Thanks for sharing.
This is 5 star +!
Thank you for the kind words!
I love this recipe. Easy and very delicious
These pickles are amazing I eat a whole jar with a fork I need to make more
You can reuse the screw caps just not the lids. I’ve been canning for years. Unless they are bent you can reuse them. Just not the lids.
Yes, thanks for pointing that out. I save the screw caps, but never re-use the lids.
@Kelly,
Can other Kinds of cucumbers be used?
I would specifically use a pickling cucumber, usually known as Kirby.
Outstanding! Takes a sandwich to a whole new level!
Agreed, I love these pickles on sandwiches!!
So about how much water, it just says add water to a large pot then add additional ingredients.
You mean for the hot water bath? Enough water to completely cover the submerged jars by at least an inch.
So yummy !!! It is just a smidge better than my grandmas recipe with the addition of the crushed red pepper..
I love these pickles, and definitely the touch of crushed red pepper!
@Deb, how much water did u use along with additional ingredients
I’m excited to taste your recipe. I assume you are using white sugar? Since I don’t use white sugar any longer what other sugar do you think would work? What about date sugar? Thank you
I'm not sure you can substitute the white sugar with another sweetener, and I have no idea about date sugar. I would not advise using doing so.
I made bread and butter pickles last summer and substituted Monkfruit for the white sugar and it turned out just fine. I’m making this recipe right now and will do the same.
After the 24 hours do you usually store in the fridge ?? Thank you
No, on the shelf in the pantry or basement. I refrigerate after opening.
I made two batches last summer and was able to keep two jars for myself, after family tasted them. They are so good!!