Bread & Butter Pickles

A sweet-and-spiced refrigerator pickle recipe that the creator's mother loved, even though the rest of the family weren't nearly as enthusiastic.

Ingredients

25 cucumbers, thinly sliced
6 onions, thinly sliced
2 green peppers, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
½ cup salt
3 cups cider vinegar
5 cups white sugar
2 tablespoons mustard seed
1½ teaspoons celery seed
½ teaspoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon ground turmeric

Notebook prep: 4 hours 30 minutes. Notebook yield: 50 servings.

Directions

Combine cucumbers, onions, peppers, garlic, and salt in a large bowl. Let stand for 3 hours.
In a large saucepan, mix vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, cloves, and turmeric. Bring to a boil.
Drain the liquid from the cucumber mixture, add the drained vegetables to the pan, and remove from the heat.
Transfer to jars, seal, and refrigerate until serving.

Family story

This recipe came from the creator's mother, who particularly loved these bread-and-butter pickles. The creator remembers helping make them, but most of the family did not especially like eating them. For the creator, it was specifically the onions and green peppers that made these pickles unappealing. Her mother made them anyway because they were her own favorite. The recipe is preserved as her mother made it, with those vegetables intact.

Storage note

The notebook instructs that the filled jars be sealed and refrigerated. This is a refrigerator-pickle recipe, not a tested shelf-stable canning process. Refrigerate promptly and do not store the jars at room temperature. For shelf-stable preserving, follow a separately tested canning recipe.

Back to recipes