Real Crunchy Step: Pickles

by Denise at Better Than My Best

This year, for the first time, my husband planted cucumbers in our garden. I don't know if it's the kind of year for cucumbers, or we have the right soil, sunlight, and water for them, but apparently, we can grow some cucumbers. We have a ton. In an effort to try to use all the cucumbers, I looked up some pickle recipes.

I love what my family calls a "Jewish" pickle. (Don't worry, it's not offensive, I'm a 1/4 Jewish and I'm not offended). It's the kind of pickle that you would see in a barrel at a real Jewish deli. It tastes like a dill pickle, but better.

I looked up Jewish Pickle with no results. I looked up dill pickles, but didn't have all the ingredients (including dill). I looked up barrel pickle, and this is what I came up with (from Mr. Food):

7 cups sliced cucumbers (this was about 4 of my cucumbers)
1 cup sliced onion
1 green bell pepper, finely sliced (also from my garden!)
1 cup sugar (I only used 3/4 cup)
1 cup white vinegar
1 Tbl salt
1 tsp celery seed

Combine cucumbers, onions, and peppers
combine the rest of the ingredients, then pour over the vegetables.
cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours

I put the pickles in a shallow glass baking dish so the vinegar mixture could mostly cover the cucumbers.

The result? They were delicious. They did not taste like a barrel pickle, but more a less sweet bread and butter pickle. I jarred up about a third of this batch for Shannon, then my husband and I ate the rest within a couple of days. (The recipe says this will last three months in the fridge, but seriously, they are so good there's no way it would last that long). I felt it was very refreshing!

I'm so excited that I have 3 newly picked cucumbers just waiting to become pickles!






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