Pickling Time

Pickles are like no other food. Their sharp flavors and crisp coolness delight the palate. They enhance the flavors of other foods and make us more keenly aware of texture, taste, and smell.

August days are pickling days. On late summer mornings the neighborhood is often filled with the savory tang of pickling: cucumber dills, green tomato relish, spicy chili sauce, plum or apple chutney, crab apples in sweet and sour syrups, chowchow—and always the nose-prickling, boiling-hot vinegar.

This summer, why not try one or two of the following recipes?

Bread and Butter Pickles

5 quarts small cucumbers

2 quarts small onions

1 cup salt in 5 quarts of water

1 teaspoon mustard seed

1 tablespoon celery seed

1 scant teaspoon black pepper

2 cups brown sugar

3 cups white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 cups vinegar

1 tablespoon tumeric powder, mixed with water to make a thin paste

Wash and slice the cucumbers and onions. Let the cucumber and onion slices stand for thirty minutes in the salt and water; then drain.

Combine the spices, sugars, salt, and vinegar; add cucumbers and onions. Just barely bring to boiling point (do not boil); then add tumeric. Bring to boiling point again and bottle immediately.

Carol D. Jones

Never-Fail Sweet Chunk Pickles

1 cup noniodized salt

1 gallon water

Weak Vinegar Water:

1 cup vinegar (use vinegar with 5 percent acid or more or the pickles will not keep)

2 quarts water

1 teaspoon powdered alum

Syrup:

6 cups granulated sugar

1 pint white vinegar

1 stick cinnamon

1 tablespoon whole cloves

1 tablespoon whole mustard seed

1 teaspoon allspice

Step 1:

Select firm cucumbers, three to four inches long. (Estimate how many cucumbers will be needed to fill six to eight pint bottles. Allow for some shrinkage in the finished pickle.) Wash thoroughly. Put in brine and cover. Use large earthen crock with a lid to process the pickles. You may have to invert a dinner plate over the cucumbers to hold them down in the brine. Let stand for three days. Stir twice daily with a wooden spoon.

Step 2:

Drain, rinse, and cover with cold water. Let stand for three more days.

Step 3:

Drain; cut into 1/2-inch chunks. Put them in the weak vinegar water and heat thoroughly. Return to crock and let stand for three days. After three days, drain.

Step 4:

Boil the syrup for three minutes. If you prefer not to have the spices mixed with the pickles, tie all spices in a cheesecloth bag for boiling. Pour the syrup over the pickles, completely covering the pickles.

Step 5:

Each morning for three days, drain off the syrup and bring it to a boil; then pour over the pickles again. Cover.

Step 6:

On the fourth morning again drain off the syrup. Pack the pickles in hot sterilized pint jars. Bring the syrup to a boil and pour over the pickles to within one-fourth inch from the top of the jar. Seal with hot lids.

Verna S. Allred

Green Tomato Relish

6 quarts green tomatoes

7 large onions

1 quart cucumbers

3 green peppers

1 red pepper

4 cups vinegar

2 tablespoons mustard seed

2 tablespoons celery seed

2 teaspoons cinnamon

9 teaspoons salt

7 cups sugar

2 cups brown sugar

2 teaspoons tumeric

Chop or grind separately tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and peppers. Drain the green tomatoes. Leave the juice in the other vegetables. Mix all ingredients (except tumeric) together and bring to a boil. Boil hard for one-half hour; then add the tumeric. Put in jars and seal.

Pearl R. Davis

Art by Richard Hull