Cooking Recipe Quick Sweet Pickles
Recipe Ingredients
Directions
*(for use in variation below for making firmer pickles)
May be canned as either strips or slices.
Procedure: Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch off blossom end and discard,
but leave 1/4 inch of stem attached. Slice or cut in strips, if
desired. Place in bowl and sprinkle with 1/3 cup salt. Cover with 2
inches of crushed or cubed ice. Refrigerate 3 to 4 hours. Add more
ice as needed. Drain well.
Combine sugar, vinegar, celery seed, allspice, and mustard seed in
6-quart kettle. Heat to boiling.
Hot pack--Add cucumbers and heat slowly until vinegar solution
returns to boil. Stir occasionally to make sure mixture heats evenly.
Fill sterile jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. For more information
see "Jars and Lids".
Raw pack--Fill jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Add hot pickling
syrup, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process according
to the recommendations in Table 1 or use the low-temperature
pasteurization treatment. For more information see "Low-Temperature
Pasteurization Treatment".
Variation for firmer pickles: Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch off
blossom end and discard, but leave 1/4-inch of stem attached. Slice
or strip cucumbers. Mix 1 cup pickling lime and 1/2 cup salt to 1
gallon water in a 2- to 3-gallon crock or enamel-ware container.
Caution: Avoid inhaling lime dust while mixing the lime-water
solution. Soak cucumber slices or strips in lime water solution for
12 to 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Remove from lime solution and
rinse and resoak 1 hour in fresh cold water. Repeat the rinsing and
resoaking two more times. Handle carefully because slices or strips
will be brittle. Drain well.
Storage: After processing and cooling, jars should be stored 4 to 5
weeks to develop ideal flavor.
Variation: Add 2 slices of raw whole onion to each jar before filling
with cucumbers.
Table 1. Recommended process time for Quick Sweet Pickles in a
boiling-water canner.
Style of Pack: Hot. Jar Size: Pints or Quarts. Process Time at
Altitudes of 0 - 1,000 ft: 5 min.
1,001 - 6,000 ft: 10 min.
Above 6,000 ft: 15 min.
Style of Pack: Raw. Jar Size: Pints. Process Time at Altitudes of 0 -
1,000 ft: 10 min.
1,001 - 6,000 ft: 15 min.
Above 6,000 ft: 20 min.
Style of Pack: Raw. Jar Size: Quarts. Process Time at Altitudes of 0
~ 1,000 ft: 15 min.
1,001 - 6,000 ft: 20 min.
Above 6,000 ft: 25 min.
======================================================= === * USDA
Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539 (rev. 1994) * Meal-Master
format courtesy of Karen Mintzias