Bread and Butter Pickles

I went away for a week to visit my uncle who was in the hospital and when I returned I had 25 huge cukes ready.  Before I left, there were only a few flowers and no cukes yet - I guess they really took off in the hot weather.  I've been eating lots of Greek Salad since my cherry tomatoes are ready as well.  http://mountaingardengleanings.blogspot.ca/2011/09/greek-salad.html

Since there are so many all at once, it is a perfect opportunity to make some Bread and Butter Pickles.  I use the recipe from my old Purity Cookbook.

Ingredients - this is the original recipe, I myself don't use the peppers and use regular vinegar instead of wine vinegar. 

16 c cukes, washed and sliced
1/3 c pickling or coarse salt
several trays of ice cubes
6 medium onions
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
3 c white wine vinegar
5 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tsp celery seed
2 tbsp mustard seed

This time since I had so many cukes, I upped the recipe by an extra half. 

Wash and thinly slice cucumbers.  Some of them were too big to use the food processor so I sliced these by hand.

The smaller ones were sliced in the food processor - much quicker.



I slice the onions in the processor as well.  Quicker and no tears!

Get a large enough container or bowl to hold the cukes, onions and ice cubes.   Start with a layer of cucumbers.



Add a layer of onions (and peppers if using them).

Sprinkle on part of the salt.

Top with some of the ice cubes.

Continue with the layers until all vegetables and salt are used.  Top with more ice.  Let stand for 3 hours. 

You can see how much moisture has been released by the cukes by how the mixture has shrunk after the 3 hours.  Drain well and place in a large pot.

Mix the sugar, vinegar and spices and pour onto cukes.  Stir well and heat to just boiling.

You can see the pickles turning colours from the turmeric.  Remove from heat and fill hot sterilized jars.  Wipe rim and seal jar.

Store in a cool place for a month and then enjoy!  The original recipe makes about 8 pints.  I increased everything by half except was liberal with the cukes and got 14 pints.



Pickled Garlic Scapes

I decided to try some pickled garlic scapes this year.  I found three different recipes on-line that I combined and adjusted.  http://onegreentomato.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/pickled-garlic-scapes/
http://healthylifehappycook.com/2011/recipes/pickled-garlic-scapes/
http://puttingupwiththeturnbulls.com/2011/06/26/pickled-garlic-scapes-an-overlooked-ingredient/
Here's what I came up with:
Ingredients
garlic scapes
2 c vinegar
3 c water
1/4 c pickling salt
1/4 tsp pickling spice per jar
1/4 tsp mustard seed per jar
scant 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
dill

Wash and sterilize four pint jars and lids.

I used kitchen shears to cut the scapes.  I cut them at the first leaf.

I also cut and washed some dill - both leaves and flowers.

I cut off the seed pod and cut the tough part of the scape off as well.  One recipe said this is similar to trimming asparagus but since I don't grow any, that didn't help.  I found you could feel where the scape was softer and where is was woody just by squeezing the scape.  The woody part was also harder to cut.

I used 1/4 tsp each of whole pickling spices and mustard seed in each jar. 

I also used almost 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes in each jar.

I added dill leaves and flowers to each jar.  If you don't have any fresh, you could probably use dried dill weed and dill seed instead.

I cut the scapes into pieces around 3 to 4 " long.  I included the curly parts as well.

I divided the scapes into the four jars.

Boil together water, vinegar and salt.  When salt is dissolved and mixture is boiling, ladle the brine into the jars.  Clean top of jars and tighten the lids. 

Boil in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.  Remove and let cool.  Brine and spices should work for several weeks to a month before trying the pickles. 

I made these mainly for my parents because they always fight for the garlic in the pickle jar.  I hope they will like them.  ;)