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
I am making these right now. Hopefully they come out as great as everyone else’s. However, you didn’t add the celery seeds in your instructions. I added it, hopefully it was supposed to be in
Yes, Helena, the celery seeds get added. Looks like I forgot in the instructions, thanks for letting me know. I will correct it.
I've made these 3-4 years in a row now and they are wonderful!
Thanks for letting me know, RJ. They are a favorite around here this time of year, too!
I like to add some cloves to my spice mix! But try to take them out before canning!
By far my favorite recipe for bread and butter pickles
Howdy, I leave all the Garlic cloves in the mixture and sometimes add multiple colored bell peppers to the brine. I use one less cup of sugar, sometimes.
Can I use pickling salt instead of kosher. If so how much. Thank you!
Hi Sharon. I've never used pickling salt so I'm not totally sure about how much to swap out for the kosher salt called for in the recipe. It is rinsed off and not part of the brine so I would think you could substitute with maybe a little less than 1/3 cup of kosher salt in the recipe. Hope that helps.
It is indeed a wonderful recipe! Thank you Kelly
This is a family favorite and one that my friends always request!
My family, too. Always requested!
This delicious bread and butter pickel recipe is so easy. They are so good, the whole family loved them
Can I make these in spears instead?
Hi Nadia. I've only made them sliced like in the recipe. I'm sure it would also work for spears although I imagine ladling them in the jars will be a little different.
Made these last fall and all the jars are already gone. My wife just went crazy for these. A wonderful recipe. I don’t even like pickles, but I like these. Store bought? Never again. Thanks for the great recipe!
These are hands down the BEST bread and butter pickles I've ever made, and my multi generational family and friends agree..
Better than Mrs. Fanning's, if you're lucky enough to have had experience eating those during your lifetime.
ENJOY!!!!
I'm so glad you liked these pickles, Christina! I'm not familiar with Mrs. Fanning's but I think you just gave me a nice compliment, thank you.
I don’t really like pickles too much, but I made these with my wife because she wanted us to give away some homemade pickles as gifts. Wow. I actually like these pickles! My wife, who loves pickles, but is very picky, said they were perfect, and even did a happy dance. These are really, really good pickles. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks so much for letting me know, Phil. I’m so happy to hear this, thank you!
I am planning to make these pickles. But I would like to use quart jars (I have a big family). Can I do this? Thanks.
Sure can.
I want to try these, but really want to know if they come out crispy or not…what’s the difference in them if they sit a few days or the time recommended?
They do turn out crunchy, you can peruse the comments for readers' thoughts on crispness. The recommended time is for the flavors to develop. Readers have told me they opened earlier, maybe just a week later and say they tasted great.