Flashback to the Seventies: Bread-and-Butter Pickles

by Bruce Watson, Posted Jul 2nd 2009 @ 11:00AM

Photo: Dvortygirl/Flickr

In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

When my mother, who had been raised on kosher half-sour pickles, first tried bread-and-butters, she was immediately overwhelmed. For someone who was used to the tart flavor of Northeastern dills and half-sours, the Southern sweetness of the bread-and-butters were an absolute delight.

Through a combination of compliments and guile, she managed to get hold of our friend Millie's recipe. From that year on, we had a huge picklefest every summer, when we'd spend two or three days putting up bread-and-butter pickles.

While these are extremely sweet pickles, I have kept the recipe almost exactly the way my mom made it. This is partly due to the necessities of pickling, and partially due to a sense of tradition. Mostly, though, it's due to the fact that I regularly swap these pickles out for gherkins or sweet pickle relish.

Get the recipe for bread-and-butter pickles after the jump.

These days, most sweet pickles are flavored with high-fructose corn syrup; since I don't like HFCS' flavor, it's nice to have another option. Alternately, as the name suggests, these pickles taste great on buttered bread or as a side dish for any spicy meal.

On one final note, Millie cut her pickles about 3/16-inch thick, while my mom went for about one-eighth. Personally, I like a ceramic mandoline cutter to go even thinner. Because of the ice wash in this recipe, the finished pickles remain fairly crunchy, no matter how thin you slice them.

Millie's Bread-and-Butter Pickles

1 gallon pickling cucumbers (see note)
8 small white onions, thinly sliced (see note)
1 green pepper, julienned
1 red pepper, julienned
1/2 cup kosher salt
One 8-pound bag of ice
5 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons mustard seed
2 teaspoons celery seed
5 cups white vinegar

Slice the cucumbers thinly, but do not peel them. Add the onions and peppers and mix with the salt and about one-third of the bagged ice. Cover completely with ice and let stand for three hours (if you want, you can put the cucumbers in the refrigerator). Drain thoroughly.

In a large pot or stockpot, combine the vinegar, sugar, turmeric, cloves, mustard seed, celery seed and white vinegar. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add the cucumber and onion mixture. Combine thoroughly and return to heat. Heat through, but do not allow to boil.

Place in sterilized canning jars, allowing 1/4-inch headspace. Close jars with sterilized lids and screw bands. Cook in a boiling hot water bath for 10 minutes, drain and allow to sit at room temperature until they seal. When they finally seal, you should hear a loud popping sound.

Notes:
When buying cucumbers, be sure to get ones that are unwaxed. Kirby cucumbers are a great bet. For the onions, use full-sized onions that are roughly two inches in diameter. Do not substitute pearl onions.

Filed Under: Retro cookery, Edible Gifts, Ingredients
Tags: america, bread and butter pickles, BreadAndButterPickles, comfort food, edible gifts, hfcs, retro food, southern states, summer, vegetables

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-02-2009 @5:08PM rainey Smith said... Hmmmm... Not so sure what makes these "Southern".

The recipe I've been using for 30 years or so comes from my great aunt from Maine. They had them every Sunday with baked beans made from dried beans that came from my grandfather's garden and steamed and brown bread.

I make them at the end of every summer remembering those wonderful meals.
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7-08-2009 @1:49PM john bourne said... Great article. However if you like Free Endless Pickles you should go to freeendlesspickles.com.
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7-29-2009 @4:27PM Jane said... What does "a gallon of cucumbers" mean, please? I have no idea how to measure that, and I'd love to try this recipe.
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7-29-2009 @4:29PM Bruce Watson said... Jane-

On this one, I went with my mother's original recipe. At the market, I eyeballed the volume of cucumbers; at home, I measured it by cramming them into measuring cups. Admittedly, it wasn't the easiest method, but it worked.

Best,

Bruce
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7-29-2009 @10:37PM Suzy said... 'Overwhelmed' is the perfect word for my reaction to these pickles, too! Thank you for sharing this recipe! I am trying to remember, though; in the 60s and 70s wasn't there another pickle which, in my memory, was almost identical to Bread and Butter pickles, but had a different name? I would love to find out the name and find that recipe, also. Also ~ can't the wax be scrubbed off the cucumbers if that is the only kind you can buy?
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7-29-2009 @10:41PM Bruce Watson said... Suzy-

A big part of these pickles lies in the way that the ice bath, before the curing, makes the skins a little firm and chewy. If you can get the wax off completely, I think you might be able to make it work, but you'd honestly be a lot better off using some other cucumbers.

I don't know how much help this is, but you might try taking a peek at the Local Harvest website (http://www.localharvest.org/), or a similar farmers' market site.

Best of luck!
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