Bread and Butters

Nothing says mid-summer in Ohio like the smell of boiling vinegar and the pop of jar lids sealing on the counter after a bubbling water bath. Well maybe not for everyone. It is late July and the cucumbers are coming in by the bucket load. This year my father and I planted a garden in a community garden plot, where I believe we were both sure nothing would grow. We've been faithful waterers and tenders and weeders for the past two months, and wouldn't you know it, our garden is the biggest, bushiest, greenest garden of all the gardens planted there! I have to admit that we're both beaming from ear to ear about this, and in just a couple of weeks my Dad is going to be harvesting his little butt off-tomatoes, green beans, bell peppers, corn and eggplant (of which he will eat none and will surely deliver them to me for the making of delightful baba ghanoush).

I ventured up to our garden on Thursday of last week, after having neglected it for a couple of days due to the chaos that ensues when one gets a new job three hours away from where one lives. I was overwhelmed at the sight of our cucumber plants. They were bushy, bright green with dainty yellow flowers, and growing healthily up the chicken wire cages I built them to keep our cukes out of the dirt. The truly exciting thing about cucumbers (I know you didn't think cucumbers were exciting, but let me tell you how they are...) is that when you first look at the plants and prepare yourself for disappointment because you see no harvestable cukes...look again. Lift up those big, fuzzy leaves and I promise you, even when you least expect it, a big, refreshing shiny cucumber will be waiting for you, camoflauged within the strains of the plant. This is something my father is going to have to learn, because while he brought home one cucumber on Wednesday, I came home the very next day with six pounds of them. Most had blown up like balloons, as he had neglected to harvest them at their prime. Well, so what do you do with six pounds of cucumbers? You make pickles...lots of pickles.


Cucumber bushes.

That is precisely what I spent my Sunday doing. Like my grandparents before me, I stirred a boiling pot of sweet and sour goodness, sweating and my back aching, until the giant brew of cucumbers was ready to be magically transformed into my favorite bread and butter pickles. If you find yourself in a situation where you have a few pounds of cucumbers to knock off, I highly suggest making these. Just wait until you have a cook out and you pop open a jar of these, and say to your guests, "Why yes, I did make these...from scratch." They're instantly going to taste better than any store bought bread and butter pickle you might pick up off the shelf. Enjoy dear readers.



Betsy's Bread and Butter Pickles

6 lbs cucumbers, washed and sliced to 1/8 inch thick
8 cups finely sliced yellow onions
1/4 cup kosher or canning salt (no iodine)
2 heads of garlic, separated into cloves, peeled and smashed
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups distilled white vinegar
4 1/2 cups sugar
2 TBS celery seed
2 TBS mustard seed
1 TBS ground turmeric

4 quart size, wide mouth jars with bands and lids, sterilized and hot

1. In a large bowl, combine cucumber and onion slices. Sprinkle with salt, toss to coat, and cover with 2 inches of crushed ice. Let stand in refrigerator for 4 hours.

2. In a large stock pot, combine vinegars, sugar, celery seed, mustartd seed and turmeric. Bring to a boil and simmer for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. After 4 hours, drain and rinse cucumber and onion slices. Add to the prepared syrup in the stock pot along with smashed garlic cloves. Slowly return to a boil and boil for one minute. Remove from heat.

4. Laddle immediately into hot, sterilized jars. Fit with lids and bands and process for 10 minutes. Let jars sit for at least 6 weeks before serving.

Makes 4 quarts of pickles.


Pickles brewing...