Quick Sweet Pickles
- 8 pounds cucumbers pickling, (3-4-inch)
- 13 cup salt canning or pickling salt
- 4 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 1/2 cups vinegar
- 2 teaspoons celery seeds
- 1 tablespoon allspice whole
- 2 tablespoons mustard seeds
- 1 cup limes pickling, optional*
- *(for use in variation below for making firmer pickles)
- May be canned as either strips or slices.
- Procedure: Wash cucumbers.
- Cut 1/16-inch off blossom end and discard, but leave 1/4 inch of stem attached.
- Slice or cut in strips, if desired.
- Place in bowl and sprinkle with 13 cup salt.
- Cover with 2 inches of crushed or cubed ice.
- Refrigerate 3 to 4 hours.
- Add more ice as needed.
- Drain well.
- Combine sugar, vinegar, celery seed, allspice, and mustard seed in 6-quart kettle.
- Heat to boiling.
- Hot pack--Add cucumbers and heat slowly until vinegar solution returns to boil.
- Stir occasionally to make sure mixture heats evenly.
- Fill sterile jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
- Raw pack--Fill jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
- Add hot pickling syrup, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
- Adjust lids and process according to the recommendations in Table 1 or use the low-temperature pasteurization treatment.
- Variation for firmer pickles: Wash cucumbers.
- Cut 1/16-inch off blossom end and discard, but leave 1/4 inch of stem attached.
- Slice or strip cucumbers.
- Mix 1 cup pickling lime and 1/2 cup salt to 1 gallon water in a 2 to 3-gallon crock or enamel-ware container.
- Caution: Avoid inhaling lime dust while mixing the lime-water solution.
- Soak cucumber slices or strips in lime water solution for 12 to 24 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from lime solution and rinse and resoak 1 hour in fresh cold water.
- Repeat the rinsing and resoaking two more times.
- Handle carefully because slices or strips will be brittle.
- Drain well.
- Storage: After processing and cooling, jars should be stored 4 to 5 weeks to develop ideal flavor.
- Variation: Add 2 slices of raw whole onion to each jar before filling with cucumbers.
- Table 1.
cucumbers pickling, salt canning, sugar, vinegar, celery seeds, allspice, mustard seeds, pickling
Taken from recipeland.com/recipe/v/quick-sweet-pickles-4797 (may not work)