The canning part of this pickle situation did not go very well. Fortunately, I still have a couple jars of these lovely pickles in the fridge but they never sealed. I could try again with new lids, but I’m probably going to eat them all fast enough that I don’t need to bother with sealing them the right way anyway. They are DELCIOUS. Just the right balance of salty, sour, and sweet.
I still have not successfully canned anything. It’s my goal for August (once I’ve unpacked in our new kitchen).
My life is in boxes right now and Ellie loves them!
For the first time ever, we hired movers. It was definitely a splurge and I am still not sure it’s worth it, but since we live up a flight of stairs and have a couple pretty heavy pieces of furniture, it seemed like an okay decision. I’m sure that on Friday night when my back and arms aren’t completely dead, I’ll be happy we did it.
I’m writing the recipe for these to just be refrigerator pickles because that’s how mine ended up and I don’t feel like typing up a procedure that didn’t work for me. Once I successfully can something, trust me, I will let the world know.
Ingredients
- 10 cups sliced pickling cucumbers (1/4" thick)
- 3 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup kosher (or pickling) salt
- 3 cups white vinegar
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
Instructions
- In a (very) large glass bowl, mix the cucumbers, onion, and salt and let stand for 2 hours.
- Rinse with cold water and drain well.
- In a large saucepan, stir together the vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, and turmeric. Bring to a boil and mix so that the sugar dissolves.
- Stir in the vegetables and return to a boil.
- Ladle the vegetables and pickling liquid to cover into clean jars and keep in the fridge.
(from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving)
I’m looking at trying my first canning experiance and pickels seem to be a good way, so does the boiling liquid seal the jars? No boiling of the jars?
Amber
We finally felt like grownups when we hired movers for the first time.
If you want to seal the jars so the pickles are shelf stable, you have to boil the jars for at least 10 minutes, then leave them on the counter for 24 hours so they have a chance to seal. If you’re just making refrigerator pickles, you don’t need to boil them since having a seal won’t matter (they just won’t keep as long)