I have a soft spot for pickles. Obsession is more like it. Some people crave sweet—and sometimes I do too—but most of the time, give me salty and give me sour and I am a happy camper. My family comes from Eastern Europe. I suspect I might have vinegar running through my veins.
This means every September or so, it’s time to make pickles.
This could mean a long day spent by yourself in the kitchen—which can be nice with the right music and podcasts to keep you company. I’ve done my share of solo kitchen marathons. But this year, for the second time, I got together with friends to make pickles. This is the better way.
Because really, it’s nice to have friends to split the case of cucumbers and the huge bunch of dill with. In our case it was more like two cases. That’s a lot of cucumbers.
Two years ago, Kimberly and I headed up to Laura’s house in the country. We got to see her garden and the chickens and the horses and the back pasture. Then we pulled out our paring knives and lay waste to forty pounds of cucumbers and several gallons of vinegar.
This year we met in the city, in Kimberly’s beautiful remodeled kitchen, and did the whole thing over again. More cucumbers, more vinegar, more dill, garlic, salt.
It was a great day.
We made two different kinds of pickles—a slightly sweet bread and butter pickle that includes onion and peppers and requires the veggies to be salted and iced before cooking briefly in a brine that includes mustard and turmeric, sugar and salt.
The other pickle we made was a spiced dill, with garlic and cloves and fresh dill heads and some red pepper flakes and even a slice or two of jalapeno in some of the jars for added kick. These are based on Laura’s grandmother’s recipe.
But the really best part of the day is to spend it with friends—especially friends you don’t get to see very often. There is a slow unraveling of conversation that happens when you work on something methodical together. It’s different than the catch up chats that take place over lunch or drinks, an intense blast that lasts an hour and a half.
I like it when conversations begin to meander. When the chat stops and starts as you pause to trim cucumber stems, measure ingredients, consult recipes—or even, at one point, to lie on the floor or couch to rest your weary back. This is the way it used to be, community members gathering together for the seasonal work that would support their lives.
We used to come together with more regularity—to birth babies, make hay, raise barns, celebrate harvests and weddings. Neighbors, family, friends. We used to work together, for the good of the community, of the family. For our survival. There used to be more gossip in kitchens, more planning of projects.
Nobody has asked me lately to help with their barn, harvest, or slaughter, and maybe that’s okay (if the neighborhood wi-fi network ever goes down, we’ll all be talking to each other). But I think something gets lost along the way, the deep connection and pleasure in the sort of work that allows for meandering catch up chats; that allows three busy friends to spend time together in the kitchen.
I know whenever I break open one of those jars of pickles this winter, I will think of the day spent with friends, preserving a little bit of summer to see us through the darker months.
This year’s tally: 40 lbs of cucumbers; 28 quarts and 22 pints of pickles; three tired but happy friends.
Are you pickling or preserving this year?
BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES
Adapted from Well Preserved, by Mary Anne Dragan
(this recipe is in the original edition, I’m not certain about the updated versions)
Last time we made pickles I didn’t make many jars of bread and butter pickles—a few to give to friends, but I prefer my pickles dill and sour. Turns out I am the silly one, because the bread and butter pickles we made were really good and I only had a few jars. This year I did not make the same mistake. Even if you think you don’t like sweet pickles, this recipe might change your mind.
Makes 6-8 pints
4 lbs small, unwaxed cucumbers
4 medium onions
2 red bell peppers
1/3 cup pickling salt
4 cups white vinegar
2 1/2 cups sugar (original recipe called for 3 cups, we decided to cut it a bit)
2 tsp celery seed
2 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp turmeric
Cut off and discard the ends of the cucumbers. Cut cucumbers, unpeeled, into 1/8″ slices. Peel and quarter onions and cut into 1/8″ slices. Core, seed and quarter peppers and cut into 1/8″ slices. Combine vegetables and salt in a large bowl. Cover with ice water and chill overnight or for several hours.
The next day, drain the vegetables. Rinse very well. Fill your caning pot with water and bring to a boil while you prepare and pack the pickles.
In a large pan, combine the vinegar, sugar and spices. and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the vegetables, and return to a boil. Cook just until the cucumbers change color, about 1 minute.
Use a slotted spoon to ladle the vegetables into hot, sterilized jars. Fill the jars with the pickling liquid, leaving 1/4″ – 1/2″ of the rim. The liquid should cover all of the vegetables. Use a knife to release any air bubbles.
Wipe the jar rims clean, top with lids and rings and process in boiling water for 10 minutes, as per hot bath canning instructions. After removing jars from the canner, listen for the ping that indicates the jars have sealed. These pickles are best if you let them sit a week or two, but who can wait that long?
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I am a huge fan of home made pickles and would love to make some. The problem is that I don’t know anybody that makes them and I am terrified to try canning on my own without supervision. If I am a complete novice, should I be wary of trying this?
If you don’t want to bother with the canning part, try fridge pickles. Here are two recipes that work really well. I think this bread and butter pickle recipe would work fine too if you cook them in the brine a little longer (say 8 minutes), put into a clean jar, cool and refrigerate. You end up losing a bit of fridge space to the pickle jars, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. And in my experience the pickles last in the fridge quite a long time—though the dills will get more and more galicy and dilly as the months pass. Definitely worth a try.
http://www.teaandcookiesblog.com/2008/09/with-persistence-comes-pickles.html
ah yes, community.
No-one has asked me to help with their barn or harvest either but my neighbour did ask me to help with his internet connection yesterday evening, I guess that’s the 21st century equivalent?
And in Brittany I was invited to watch a pig being slaughtered but declined and went off to celebrate what would have been my silver wedding anniversary at Mont St Michel instead.
Pickling? Probably only my liver during my trip to France during the next few days!
I made pickles once, and failed miserably. (I think/hope it was the recipe!) I love to eat pickles though, and am thinking it would be a good sort of adventure to try again with your recipe. I do make jams and jellys all throughout the growing seasons! And, I just made spiced beer jelly last night for the first time, using beer my husband made (bday surprise for him). I’m really excited to see how it turns out.
Thanks for posting! It looks like a lovely, pleasant, and fun time!
Makes me think of good times as a kid helping my mom and sisters with tons of pickles, cherries, plums and tomatoes. I’m sure I complained, but good memories. I need to invite them over and try this again. I’m craving spicy, salty pickles!
I’m so envious of you right now. I love canning and most of the time I don’t mind spending a day in my kitchen with nothing but the sound of the knife, boiling water, my ipod and the pings as the jars seal, but it would be so great if even one of my friends didn’t think that such marathons are insane. They love to eat the jams and the pickles, but ask one of them to come over and join me and they’ve all got better things to do. Sigh. Your picklepalooza sounds incredible.
Hmm, I wonder how you could make some new canning-friendly friends (I wonder if there are canning or food preservation clubs in your area? Or maybe you could offer to teach people who want to learn). Company does make a world of difference!
Yum! My mom and I are tackling a similar amount of pickling cukes this saturday for bread and butter and garlic dills. We’re going in blind with our garlic dill recipe, so fingers crossed it turns out!
Hello,
I think you live in Seattle, yes? If so, where are you able to get such a large quantity of of cucumbers?! You post is very inspiring….my mouth is watering thinking of eating those pickles!!
Thank you for including the recipe too!
I got mine from Rent’s Due Ranch. They have a booth at the U-dist Farmers’ Market, and if you call ahead and order (by Thurs for Sat pickup) you can get them to pack you a case and pick it up at the market (20 lb cases). My friend Laura, who lives in Arlington (north of Everett) gets hers at Snowgoose, the farm produce stand in the Skagit Valley. I think hers are a little cheaper, though I’m not sure if they’re organic or not.
My mother loved to can pickles, sweet, sour, she loved them all. She told me stories of
how they canned fruit, pickles, tomatoes, etc together in the farm that my grandfather ran
in Hillsboro, OR and then at our home, here, in San Jose, CA. It was a group effort with
Uncles and Aunts, and nieces and nephews on the farm, and then just she and my father
later in San Jose. I will never forget the wonderful flavor of the pickles, when we opened
them up on a cold winter day. Its a time gone by and an activity which connected families,
much better than on a computer.
Tea, I have literally canned (water-bath style) almost 200 jars of jam this summer (two types of wild plums, strawberry, apple butter, cherry preserves, blackberry, peach, apricot, pluot, and the UGLIEST yellow raspberry jam ever to exist), but no pickling yet. My mom makes spicy pickled dilly beans and brussle sprouts each year and they are to die for, but I have never tried them myself. I laugh because yesterday, one of my two little jam-loving kids let me know he REALLY wants me to make pickles and dilly beans, but not spicy like Nana’s. I am going to stock up Saturday at the Alemany market and take this on finally.
P.S. I always love your gifted weaving of family and friends (life!) into your recipes and food stories.
And to Anna: I think you would be surprised by which friends think that spending part of a day canning is totally cool. Bribe them with a meal or just a lot of nice mixed drinks along the way.
Two hundred jars of jam? You are my hero!
I’m just getting into the jam this year (my canning went way down when I started gardening, hard to do both). In the past few weeks I’ve made raspberry-blackberry, peach-blackberry, and two rounds of blueberry. Apples and quince are on the horizon!
PS. thanks for the kind words
This is what my kitchen looks like too! Normally I just do refrigerator pickles, but I truly canned some dills this year for the first time and it was great. And then I got hooked and stayed up until 2 in the morning making jam and salsa the other night, whoops! Its so satisfying, though.
I’ve been making quick pickles like crazy this summer, but I haven’t progressed to actually canning any for the winter. I’m so impressed!
I did dill pickles for the first time this year and they are yummy. In fact, I just bought more cucumbers to make more as they are soooo good (and my 9 quarts is down to 5 already -ack!) And I made a small batch of bread and butter pickles and 1 jar of sweet banana pepper pickles – both of those were based on some veggies I won in a market basket from a farmer’s market – good reason for me to step outside my culinary horizons and try something new. Your pickles look divine!
I haven’t done as much canning this year as I have in the past, but I’ve been pickling a lot. The bottom shelf of our fridge is bursting with fridge-pickled beans, zucchini, eggs, cucumbers etc. And fermented: kraut, green onion kimchi and more pickles. Standard dinner: cheese, bread/crackers, pickled things =) I need to get on making dill relish though- we ran out early last year.
Lovely post of stories!
I lovvve dill pickles. There was a little corner store near by house growing up that sold individual, homemade pickles that I would get all the time. One of these days when I am feeling ambitious, I’m going to try to coerce some friends into making these with me
I just made quick pickles for the very first time – I thought it would be hard but it’s really not. I used yellow and green zucchini (because it seems like they are multiplying every time I close my eyes) as well as cucumbers, and made sweet as well as sour pickle types. Fast! Tasty! I am inspired to try bread and butter pickles now, because I can eat those straight out of the jar, standing up with my head in the fridge …
That’s what I do too!
My Mother still cans at the age of 80!
That is awesome, in all senses of the word. How great!
Gorgeous post Tea. I love seeing and hearing about people getting together to make preserves/pickles! We have just moved to Australia 6 months ago from NZ, but back home we used to live right next door to my Nana. I loved it every Autumn (fall) when we would compare each others preserves and share excess fruit and vegetables from our gardens with each other.
How lucky of you to have had that. I would like a Nana next door (mine or someone else’s, I’m not picky!)
haha totally! Yes I miss having her right there for sure. I miss popping next door for her gardening tips too!
A friend and I went picking at a u pick farm last week. I wanted some cukes to pickle, but the friend talked me into a half bushel of them…she wanted to make pickles with me… See how it’s done. Wouldn’t you know that on the day we were to do it, she had a dr. Appt she forgot about! So who washed, cut, sterilized, mixed brine, filled jars and processed them all? That’s right! Me…well, she showed in time to put the cucumbers in a few jars, watch me finish, then go home for a nap!!!
Oh no! Dare I say that is NOT the sort of friend you want to be pickling with? Very poor pickle-etiquette!
I think all participants need to understand it’s a marathon–and if you’re in for part of it, you’re in for all of it.
So sorry you got stuck holding the pot, literally! I am frowning disapprovingly on your friend from all the way over here.
Wait for it….she just called me and said we HAVE to go pick another bushel of cukes!!!!
Tell her to get the cukes, then you take a nap and show up at the very end.
I am a mean one, but she deserves it
My first try at pickling was this summer: http://pastryprose.blogspot.com/2011/08/pickling-for-first-time.html !
Love your post! Thanks so much for posting your sweet pickle recipe, but could you please pass on your garlic dill pickle one? PLEASE?!
Sure! I like these refrigerator dill pickles, because they’re crunchy and fresh-tasting. I made a different type of dill with Laura, but I don’t have that recipe. I’ll make sure to get it next time we can.
http://www.teaandcookiesblog.com/2008/09/with-persistence-comes-pickles.html
I canned pickles for the first time this year, and it’s a joyous and addictive process. Listening to the pings as the jars seal–utter contentment in auditory form. I’m up to 42 quarts of various pickles: dilled cucumbers, radish relish, sauerkraut, peppers, etc… The idea that salt, vinegar, herbs, and fresh produce can combine in such astonishing and delicious ways is a revelation. It’s a shock to realize that it skipped a generation. My grandmother canned her entire life, hundreds of quarts of peaches and beet and bread-and-butter pickles and chile sauce.
Thanks for celebrating preservation, in all its forms. As far as a pot is concerned, I bought a 25-buck speckled one at Kmart, and it works like a charm.
Burn this priceless info to disk, learn saurkrauting, beer making, wine making, food drying, burn as much survival info to disc as you can. Just in case . . .
I am not a big fan of vinegar pickles, but now and then I like a few, and this post is truly impressive, I would love to grab a jar
.
Ciao
Alessandra
That’s not my pot–it’s my friend Kimberly’s–but I can ask her what brand it is and will leave another comment when I find out. I have two pots I use for canning. One is a Le Creuset stockpot, like this: http://www.chefscatalog.com/product/95104-le-creuset-stock-pot.aspx
Another is a one of those black and white speckled pots made specially for canning with the rack inside, like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001UZL80/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0001UD0Q0&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1ME81XFJVCMMQS9R1172
To be honest, I don’t usually use the canning pot because it is huge and I don’t need that size. I much prefer pots that are multifunction.
I’ll get back to you when I hear from Kimberly. I agree, that’s a great pot!