Bread and Butter Pickles

Materials needed:
Sharp knife for slicing or sharp mandolin
Pint or quart sized jars with lids and rims
Extra large stock pot (at least 18” high) to process the jars
Smaller sauce pan to keep rings and lids hot
Plastic or glass bowl for brining the cucumbers
Large pot for cooking the pickling mixture, make sure it’s big enough to hold the cucumbers and onions
Canning tongs
Canning funnel for the size jars you bought. They are usually red
Ladle
Hot, moist towels to wipe the jar lids
Dry kitchen towels

Prep work.
Sterilize jars in dishwasher. About 30 mins before the brine is finished put on small pan of water with rings and lids to keep hot. Keep them on low. On back burner, put water in your largest stock pot and put on medium heat.

Brine:
4 Qts thin sliced cucumbers
2 Cups thin Sliced white onions
½ Cup pickling salt

Pour salt over cucumber and onion mixture. Let it stand 3-4 hours. Drain. Use your plastic or glass bowl

Pickling Mixture:
2 TBS peppercorns
4 Cups sugar
1 tsp turmeric
4 Cups white vinegar
2 tsp. powdered mustard
1 tsp celery seed.

Bring mixture to a boil in large pot. Add cucumbers and onions. Bring almost to a boil and then spoon veggies into clean sterilized jars (use your canning funnel). Wipe away any pickling juice from rims with hot moist towel. Remove lids and rings from pot with tongs. Put on lids and rims on jars and tighten. In extra-large stock pot, place as many jars as it will hold with water coming up over the jars about an inch. Bring water to boil and process jars for 10 minutes. Remove with canning tongs to dry kitchen towel (this can be tricky, so be careful. Wear oven mits to protect your hands). Repeat with remaining jars. Let jars cool on kitchen towel. When lids POP, you know the seal has been made. Pickles taste best if you let them marinate in their processed jars about two weeks.