I’m a dill pickle girl. I have been since I was a little girl. Many years ago, when we were eating dinner at my parents’ house, my Mom offered us some homemade bread and butter pickles. I quickly declined. If it’s not dill, I don’t want it. (And I really dislike sweet pickles.)
But, when Eric had some, I decided to try a little taste. Then, I had to steal them off of his plate. Who knew? Those homemade bread and butter pickles were amazing!
So, just a few days later, I had to make my own batch. I was pleased at how easy they were to make. I also loved that I could make these homemade bread and butter pickles with no special canning equipment. Score!
My Mom is pretty darn swell, so she picked up almost all of the ingredients I needed. (Mom for the win!)
The first step was to wash the pickling cucumbers that she had picked up for me. I forgot to count how many I started with. I think somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 – 16.
Next, I thinly sliced all of the pickling cucumbers. I ran out of room in the bowl I was putting them in, so you’ll see that I just stuck a cucumber’s worth in each of the big jars that I was getting ready to use.
I also chopped up the onion. And I cried. And I chopped some more, and I cried some more.
I am normally not crazy about onions, so I only used about half the amount in the recipe, but I decided that it was probably important to the recipe to actually put them in. (Plus, on the up side, the onions get pickled too, so they just taste a lot like pickles in the end.)
I filled up six jars with cucumber slices and chopped onions.
My Mom warned me many times to really jam the jars full of cucumbers and onions. I thought I had. Let me tell you — I definitely had not. Next time I make them, I am going to push much harder than this. They aren’t all that full, though they do look really full.
Update: Since I first shared this recipe in 2009, I have gotten much better at really packing things into the jars. Well, sometimes.
I combined one teaspoon Celery seeds, one tsp mustard seeds, four cups of sugar, two cups of white vinegar, and two tablespoons or salt.
(Quick note: If you don’t want to buy a whole container of the spices that you need for this, you should check if anywhere in your area sells spices by weight in bulk. I got some of mine at a local health food/natural living store.)
I boiled the mixture. I also got too close and sniffed just at the right moment, and it kind of burned my sinuses. Okay, maybe not really burnt them, but it was not pleasant.
Do you know what was less pleasant? When I did it again.
I’m funny about pouring boiling hot liquids. So, instead of pouring the boiling hot liquid from the pan straight into the jars, I used a super-sized mixing cup (okay, it’s really a bowl with measurements on the side).
Yummy! Hello pickles and onions and spices! You look so good.
So, here’s the proof that I did not pack in the jars full enough. See how each jar has quite a large area of liquid at the bottom? Yeah, you see it? Well, that’s the proof. (It got a little bit worse after this too!)
- 1 teaspoon Celery seeds
- 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
- 4 cups sugar
- 2 cups vinegar
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 1 large onion
- pickling cucumbers
- Slice unpeeled cucumbers (thinly) and sliced onion into glass jars. Pack tightly.
- Bring spices, sugar and vinegar to a boil.
- Pour over cucumbers and onions.
- (Quick note: I didn't have enough liquid for the amount of cucumbers I had, but the nice thing is that the mixture comes together really fast. So, I just whipped up another ¼ batch of the liquid to finish up my jars. So, don't worry if you don't have the right amount.)
- Store in fridge. Mix occasionally. (Keeps for many months.)
Enjoy!
Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe was originally published on September 8, 2009. It was last updated in May 2017.
The post Delicious Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe (Quick and Easy) appeared first on Real Life at Home.
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