Bread-and-Butter Pickles

Monday is always a good day to review what’s in the fridge. So what do you do with several cucumbers just sitting there after you’ve had one too many cucumber salads … you make pickles!

And if you know me, I flirt with the sweeter side of life so decided on making the classic sweet bread-and-butter pickle slices. Using the (still borrowed) mandolin slicer, I added the fun wavy decorative slice to the cucumbers and let them sit in a bath of salt to remove water. Next, I boiled up the pickling juice of sugar, vinegar, turmeric, mustard seed, celery seed, peppercorns and ginger. Add it all together and can into jars. According to some research, to enjoy a firmer pickle, maintain the canning water around 180F for 30mins. This pasteurizes the pickles so shelf-life is the same, but it doesn’t keep cooking them as much as the boiling water.

Yum! Homemade is definitely worth the minimal effort.