Homemade Sweet PicklesWhen I was a kid my mother and grandmother always made sweet pickles that they called 14 day pickles. Yes it really does take 14 days to make them, but none of it is difficult to do, and except for the first and last day, it takes less than 30 minutes a day of your time. I could eat those things by the bowl full when I was growing up, and I still love them today. They're sweet, crisp, and refreshing. I made it a point to get Grandma's recipe when my wife and I started our garden, and we have been making them ever since. Making sweet pickles involves both a chemical and biological transformation that changes cucumbers into pickles. If you have ever wanted to try your hand at homemade pickles, here's how its done... Supplies and Ingredients
Ingredients: -About 3 gallons of fresh cucumbers of varying sizes the smaller the better -Canning & Pickling Salt or un-iodized table salt -Alum - 1.9 oz container -Apple Cider Vinegar -Pickling Spices -Sugar Supplies: Sweet Pickles - Days One through SevenDay one is all about the preparation work. But the rest of the week requires no work at all - just waiting...
Small to medium sized (1 1/2" - 2" long) cucumbers should be sliced in half lengthwise. Medium sized (2" - 3" long) cucumbers should be sliced into quarters lengthwise. Cucumbers an inch in diameter up to about 1 1/2" diameter can be sliced into discs about 1/4' thick. I don't recommend using cucumbers larger than that for sweet pickles.
Cover the bucket with a dish towel or some similar cloth to keep dust and insects out. Leave the whole thing sit for 7 days. The brine solution does three things: Sweet Pickles - Day Eight On the eighth day you will need to pour off the brine solution. It's best to do this outdoors. Remove the dish cloth and the quart jar/rock. While holding the plate in place with one hand, tip the bucket with the other hand to pour off the brine solution.
NOTE: Sometimes, large colonies of blue green and gray mold will form on top of the brine solution - even covering the entire surface. This looks ugly (or really cool depending on your perspective...), but doesn't do any harm. Just remove and discard it before you pour off the brine.
When it is boiling, pour in a 1.9 oz container of alum. Alum can usually be found with spices in most grocery stores.
Replace the dinner plate, quart jar, and dish towel and let the whole thing sit for 24 hours. Alum will cause the pickles to firm up, and is what makes them crisp instead of mushy. Sweet Pickles - Day NineOn day nine, you have to pour off the alum solution and replace it with the final pickling syrup solution.Pour off the alum solution just like you did the brine solution the day before. Rinse the pickles one time and drain.
Bring this solution to a boil. Stir regularly to help dissolve the sugar.
Sweet Pickles - Days Ten through ThirteenOn each of these days, pour the syrup off of the pickles into the 2 gallon pot. Bring it to a boil and pour it back onto the pickles. Heating this syrup reactivates the spices, and allows more of the spicy flavor to work it's way into the pickles themselves and not just in the juice.On any of these days, you can sample the pickles to get an idea of what they are going to taste like when they are done. They just get better each day!! Sweet Pickles - Day Fourteen - Canning DayFirst thing you have to do is wash and dry your canning jars lids and rings. This recipe usually makes right at 9 quarts or 18 pints, so to be safe wash at least one or two extra jars.Fill water bath canner with water and begin to heat it up. By the time your pickles are in the jars and ready, the canner should be ready to use.Pour off the pickling syrup, reheat it and pour it back on the pickles, just like you did on days 10 - 13. While it's still hot, pour off the pickling syrup a second time, and reheat it to a rolling boil.
OPTIONAL When I was a kid, I remember that when my grandmother was making pickles, she added 2-3 drops of green food coloring to each jar at canning time. The idea was to make the pickles look greener and fresher. The actual result was unnaturally bright green pickles. It didn't affect the taste of them at all. If you want to try it, give it a shot. I did this with one jar from the batch that I made for this web page. You can see the difference in the center jar in the photo below.
And here's the finished product - Home made fourteen day pickles. One batch actually makes around 9 quarts of sweet pickles
These sweet pickles tend to taste even better after they have sat on the shelf in their own juices for few months. Fourteen day pickles are a home made taste treat. They don't taste like anything that you can buy in any grocery store that I can find. I was nearly grown up before I realized that you could actually buy pickles in the store! I thought everybody made their own. Once you've made some and tried them yourself, you'll wonder why more people don't make their own. Learning to make your own pickles is yet another step along the path to self sufficiency, and one less thing that you have to buy from the grocery store. Return to Food-Skills-for-Self-Sufficiency Home Page from
|
