How To Make Crispy Crunchy Sweet Pickles

It has been a regular pickle avalanche around here.  I put-up a batch of dill pickles at the beginning of the week and mid-week a batch of the signature crispy-crunchy sweet pickles.  Ordinarily, everyone gets a pint of dill or sweet pickles during the holidays replete with a festive bow on the lid. There's also homemade tomato juice, salsa, pickled beets, dilled green beans and raspberry jam.  This is a medium-sized batch - 7+ pounds of pickle cukes yields a dozen pints of finished product.. 

Begin with a sink-full of freshly-picked, scrubbed and rinsed pickle-size cucumbers. 

Slice your cukes.  The use of a mandolin makes the job go fast and results in uniform slices.  I like the crinkle cut.  Take care with the fingertips as the blade is sharp! 

Toss your cuke slices into a five gallon food-grade plastic bucket filled with a couple of gallons of cold tap water.  

Everyone should have a five gallon bucket.  My recollection is hazy but there is a possibility my bucket originally held cat litter.  It also appears to be food-grade as it doesn’t stain or absorb odors I’ve used it to brine meats and fish, haul butchered venison and assist in pickle-making. I even made sauerkraut in it one year.  In a pinch you can sit on it in your deer stand and keep your thermos, lunch and toilet paper inside where it won't get wet.  Like I said - they're indispensable. The secret to really crunchy pickles is liming them.  

Combine one cup of pickling lime with the two gallons of cold water and mix thoroughly.  If required add to the bucket additional lime and water  as you want your cuke chips float freely and uncrowded in your pickle barrel. Cover the sliced cukes with a dinner plate, snap-on the lid and let it set overnight. 

 

The following morning drain your limed cuke chips in the sink.  They'll be nice and crispy but you have to soak them to remove the excess lime.  Fill the sink full of slices with cold tap water and drain.   Repeat three more times.  Leave your slices to soak in cold water until noon -  3 to 4 more hours. Next - make your brine. 

This is easy peasy. In a non-reactive pot combine equal parts of sugar and vinegar.  For a dozen pints of pickles figure on 12 cups of sugar and 12 cups of distilled white vinegar - stir until dissolved.  Add a single 1 ½ oz bottle of pickling spice and a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt.  Heat to a boil.  Add your pickles slices, cover the pot, turn-off the heat and allow to rest on the stove top for five more hours. 

Following dinner return to the stove-top and return the pot to a boil. Since this is a hot-pack method of pickle-making keep a low fire under your pot and your lids should seal just fine.  When in doubt process in a boiling water bath for an additional 10-15 minutes.  

 

Ladle slices into sterile pint jars. The use of a canning funnel will facilitate a no-mess operation. You might use a tablespoon to organize the slices in your jars but don’t cram them too tightly. Top each jar with additional brine leaving a half-inch of head space. Add a lid and a band and set aside to cool. When the lids 'pop' your jars are sealed and your cukes are officially pickles. 

These pickles are awesome. You're going to want to put these on top of almost any sandwich you make.  Particularly a crunchy peanut butter, toasted cheese, burger, hot dog or a tuna sandwich.  Want to spice them-up?  Add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes to a jar.

__________________________________________________________________________
 * A word about the jars and lids.  Sterilize your jars by immersing them in boiling water or running them through the dishwasher on the 'sanitize' cycle.  Lids are easy - in the microwave heat a Pyrex measuring cup full of water to a boil. Drop your lids in the hot water.  Fish them out with a sterile tongs.

 

How To Make Crispy Crunchy Sweet Pickles

I've  pickles in abundance so I figured it was time to make another batch of the signature crispy-crunchy sweet pickles.  Ordinarily, everyone gets a pint of sweet pickles during the holidays replete with a festive bow on the lid. With COVID it is difficult to predict if canned goods will be distributed to the family over the holidays. We’ll have to wait and see. Anyway, here is an easy to follow recipe for making sweet pickles with some crunchy snap.  It is easily scalable depending on how much volume you’re seeking. This is a medium-sized batch. 

Begin with a sink-full of freshly-picked, scrubbed and rinsed pickle-size cucumbers. 

Slice your cukes.  The use of a mandolin makes the job go fast and results in uniform slices.  I like the crinkle cut.  Take care with the fingertips as the blade is sharp! 

Toss your cuke slices into a five gallon food-grade plastic bucket filled with a couple of gallons of cold tap water.  

Everyone should have a five gallon bucket.  My recollection is hazy but there is a possibility my bucket originally held cat litter.  It also appears to be food-grade as it doesn’t stain or absorb odors I’ve used it to brine meats and fish, haul butchered venison and assist in pickle-making. I even made sauerkraut in it one year.  In a pinch you can sit on it in your deer stand and keep your thermos, lunch and toilet paper inside where it won't get wet.  Like I said - they're indispensable. The secret to really crunchy pickles is liming them.  

Combine one cup of pickling lime with the two gallons of cold water and mix thoroughly.  If required add to the bucket.additional lime and water  as you want your cuke chips float freely and uncrowded in your pickle barrel. Snap-on the lid and put it in the cellar overnight. 

The following morning drain your limed cuke chips in the sink.  They'll be nice and crispy but you have to soak them to remove the excess lime.  Fill the sink full of slices with cold tap water and drain.   Repeat three more times.  Leave your slices to soak in cold water until noon -  3 to 4 more hours. Next - make your brine. 

This is easy peasy. In a non-reactive pot combine equal parts of sugar and vinegar.  For a dozen pints of pickles figure on 12 cups of sugar and 12 cups of distilled white vinegar - stir until dissolved.  Add a single 1 ½ oz bottle of pickling spice and a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt. Heat to a boil. Add your pickles slices, cover the pot, turn-off the heat and allow to rest on the stove top for five more hours. 

Following dinner return to the stove-top and return the pot to a boil. Since this is a hot-pack method of pickle-making keep a low fire under your pot and your lids should seal just fine.  When in doubt process in a boiling water bath for an additional 10-15 minutes.  

Ladle slices into sterile pint jars. The use of a canning funnel will facilitate a no-mess operation. You might use a tablespoon to organize the slices in your jars but don’t cram them too tightly. Top each jar with additional brine leaving a half-inch of head space. Add a lid and a band and set aside to cool. When the lids 'pop' your jars are sealed and your cukes are officially pickles. 

These pickles are awesome. You're going to want to put these on top of almost any sandwich you make.  Particularly a crunchy peanut butter, toasted cheese, burger, hot dog or a tuna sandwich.  Want to spice them-up?  Add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes to a jar.

__________________________________________________________________________
 * A word about the jars and lids.  Sterilize your jars by immersing them in boiling water or running them through the dishwasher on the 'sanitize' cycle.  Lids are easy - in the microwave heat a Pyrex measuring cup full of water to a boil. Drop your lids in the hot water.  Fish them out with a sterile tongs.

In A Pickle

The cucumber vines are about finished for the season - looking yellow and played-out as a consequence of the drier than normal summer of late.  I'm going to keep them around for purposes of salad and dipping cucumbers - as for the pickles I'm done!

A couple of weeks ago I put-up a batch of 27 pints of the ever-popular crispy, crunchy dill pickles. 

And this weekend I shoehorned another batch of crispy, crunchy sweet pickles and today a final batch of crispy, crunchy kosher-style dill.  Yeoman's work considering there was a wedding and all of the attendant festivities to work-around as well.

Technically, they're not officially kosher as I don't have access to a rabbi.  Nevertheless, the recipe is faithful to the faithful's recipe.

That makes something on the order of 64 pints of homegrown, free-range, organically-raised and hand-packed pickles. 

Beets are on deck. 

And it is beginning to rain.  Flash flood warnings are issued.  Let the monsoons begin....

Crispy, Crunchy Sweet Pickles

Remember those nice-looking pickling cukes I obtained from the Sturgeon Bay farmers market Saturday?

They're officially pickles.

I sliced them on the mandolin and limed them overnight on Saturday.  

 click on the cukes for a better view

Sunday I soaked them and drained them three times in cold fresh water and introduced them to a kettle of boiling brine (equal parts of cane sugar and vinegar) along with two bottles of pickling spice and a scant handful of kosher salt.  Turned-off the heat and let them set all day on the stove top.  

Later I brought the pot to a boil and cooked them for thirty additional minutes and stuffed them in dishwasher-sanitized pint jars with boiling-hot brine.  Add sterilized lids and locked-down the bands.  This is a hot-pack method and doesn't use an additional pasteurization step in the canner.  The original recipe was originally published on September 7, 2011 on the old Tosa Gas Pains Blog.

Nineteen pints of crispy, crunchy sweet pickles.  Great on a burger, in tuna or egg salad, a grilled cheese or just about anywhere.

How to Make Crispy Crunchy Sweet Pickles

Five years ago I tapped-out a whimsical post over at the WauwatosaNOW blog about how to make my popular crispy crunchy sweet pickles.  Little did I know that before too long that recipe would rise to the top of internet searches and that I would be come something of an infobahn pickle sensation.  Don't believe it?  Google:  How to Make Crispy Crunchy Sweet Pickles.

That blog went dark earlier this year after Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel publication group was sold to Gannett newspapers.  Nevertheless, the archive (for the present) lives-on in cyberspace.  Inasmuch as redundancy is a good thing the interweb favorite pickle recipe is reproduced here.

A half dozen years ago I went on a tour of a lighthouse and happened upon an itemization of the perks that the US Congress allotted keepers employed by the Light House Service back in the 1800's.  Aside from lodging there was an annual salary of $600.  There were also consumable provisions including sacks of potatoes and onions.  A barrel of salted pork, sacks of flour, dried beans, sugar and salt.  Coffee, tea - and of all things - barrels of vinegar.
Which reminds me - what do you call a cat that drinks vinegar? 

A sour puss. 
 
I digress.
 
What on earth does somebody do with barrels of vinegar?  Since I've been canning up a storm recently I now have a reasonable notion about the connection to all of that vinegar.  Back in the 1800's preserving your own food wasn't a hobby - it was a way of life.  I suspect that the light house keeper, the Missus and the children supplemented the light-keeper's munificent salary and government provisions with fish, game and homegrown produce.

Here's the clue.  Aside from vast amounts of water a couple of the principle ingredients used in preserving food are vinegar and salt.  I swear I have been going through enough vinegar lately that I should probably be purchasing it by the barrel-full.

In a single day last weekend I packed a dozen quarts of spicy, garlic dill pickle spears.  Big ones that fill the entire length of a quart Ball jar.

click on images to enlarge

That same day I picked enough tomatoes to make eight quarts of salsa.  

Chock-full of garden tomatoes, green peppers, sweet onions, diced carrots, garlic, a couple of jalapeños and plenty of herbs and spices.  Ordinarily, I call it Garbage Salsa since you sort of make it as you go (or until the pot is filled to the brim).  Inasmuch as the Packers are returning to the Super Bowl the salsa has been rechristened - Super Bowl Salsa Superb Owl Salsa.
 
Speaking of  football - do any of you readers know what the Minnesota Vikings have in common with a stolen automobile?
 
Neither has a title.
 
In any event I have pickles in abundance so I figured it was time to make a humongous batch of the signature crispy-crunchy sweet pickles.  Everyone gets a pint of sweet pickles during the holidays this year.  Replete with a festive bow on the lid.
Here is an easy to follow recipe for making sweet pickles with some crunchy snap.  Just scale it back proportionately if you wish to reduce the volume. 
Start with a sink-full of freshly-picked, scrubbed and rinsed pickle-size cucumbers.

Slice your cukes.  The use of a mandoline makes the job go fast and results in uniform slices.  I like the crinkle cut.  Take care with the fingertips as these blades a sharp.

Toss your cuke slices into a five gallon food-grade plastic bucket.  Everyone should have a five gallon bucket.  My recollection is hazy but there is a possibility my bucket originally held cat litter.  It also appears to be food-grade so maybe not.  I use it to brine meats and fish, haul butchered venison and assist in pickle-making. I even made sauerkraut in it one year.  In a pinch you can sit on it in your deer stand and keep your thermos, lunch and toilet paper inside where it won't get wet.  Like I said - they're indispensable.

The secret to really crunchy pickles is liming them.  Combine one cup of pickling lime with two gallons of cold water and mix thoroughly.  Add to the bucket.  Add additional lime and water until your cuke chips float freely in your pickle barrel.

Snap-on the lid and put it in the cellar overnight.

The following morning drain your limed cuke chips in the sink.  They'll be nice and crispy but you have to soak them to remove the excess lime.  Fill the sink full of slices with cold tap water and drain.  

Repeat three more times.  Leave your slices to soak in cold water until noon -  3 to 4 more hours.

Next - make your brine. 

This is really easy - combine equal parts of sugar and vinegar.  Stir and heat to a boil.  For a humongous batch like this add two - 1 1/2 oz. bottles of pickling spice and a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt.  

Put all of your cukes into the large pot of the boiling brine.  Turn-off the heat, cover and let it set for the balance of the day.  At least 5 hours - Preferably overnight.

Assemble all of your jars, lids* and rings and heat the soaked chips to a slow boil.  Cook for a half-hour.  Stuff your jars with the cooked chips and add the syrupy brine leaving a half-inch of head space.  Install a sterilized lid and screw-on a ring.  

Since this is a hot-pack method of pickle-making keep a low fire under your pot and your lids should seal just fine.  When in doubt process in a boiling water bath for an additional 10-15 minutes.  Remove and allow to cool.  When the lids 'pop' your jars are sealed and your cukes are officially pickles.

These pickles are awesome. You're going to want to put these on top of almost any sandwich you make.  Particularly a crunchy peanut butter, toasted cheese, burger, hot dog or a tuna sammich.  Want to spice them-up?  Add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes to a jar.

A friend of mine put vinegar in his ear. 

Now he suffers from pickled hearing.
___________________________________________________________________________
 * A word about the jars and lids.  Sterilize your jars by immersing them in boiling water or running them through the dishwasher on the 'sanitize' cycle.  Lids are easy - in the microwave heat a Pyrex measuring cup full of water to a boil. Drop your lids in the hot water.  Fish them out with a sterile tongs.