Raise your hand if you love bread & butter pickles because you love anything that's old timey, delicious and comes in a mason jar. These crispy, sweet and tart pickles are delicious right out of the jar or as a side to a sandwich.
I've been eating bread and butter pickles for 2 weeks straight now. I eat them faster than I can make them. In the middle of my face there is a puckery canker sore the size of a ping pong ball which kind of resembles a mouth? And I don't care that I have a pinched up canker sore mouth. They're that good.
First up I made fermented kosher dill pickles, which for some reason taste a bit weird this year. I think the dill was too mature or I used a different kind of salt? They're still edible, I mean they're pickles - people eat pickled fingers! Actually you know what? I don't think that people eat pickled fingers, I have a hunch I just made that up.
Anyhow, the slight let down of the fermented dills meant I was really counting on my bread and butter pickles.
I've tried the churched up, fancified versions of bread and butter pickles, but always come back to the classics.
Table of Contents
What exactly is a bread & butter pickle?
Traditionally they're thinly sliced pickles made from cucumbers that are equal parts sweet and tart. They're a depression era invention which is probably why I associate them with grandmothers in threadbare ruffled aprons and dusty porches. In a good way.
There's neither ingredient in them so ...
Why are they called Bread & Butter pickles?
There are two stories about how they came to get their name. As one story goes, people ate these pickles between bread and butter because of both food and money shortages during the depression.
There's a more fact based answer to this question though. Bread and butter pickles were invented by Omar and Cora Fanning in 1920 by a husband and wife farmer team in Illinois. In 1923 they filed a trademark on the name "Fanning's Bread and Butter pickles".
Not wanting to waste anything they took the cucumbers they grew that were too small to sell and made them into sweet and tart pickles. Their family raved about them, went crazy for them, ran through blazing barn fires while juggling bottles of flaming moonshine for them (I took a bit of artistic license with that scenario.)
When they realized how loved the pickles were they used them to barter with their grocer in exchange for staples - like bread and butter.
These are good old fashioned, classic bread and butter pickles right down to the fact that I use whatever I have on hand to pickle. Pickling cucumbers, like Kirby cucumbers obviously, but also green beans and zucchini if I have extra from my garden. So don't just limit yourself to cucumber slices, try anything you have around.
I like to use my wavy knife for making these pickles. You can buy the exact same one on Amazon - they're $8 and work great. I also use it to make crinkle cut fries when I can be bothered.
I deviate from a completely traditional B&B pickle by cutting the slices a tiny bit thicker than they would normally be, plus I sometimes crinkle cut them. For 100% traditional, slice them very thin and straight.
If you only have giant, mammoth cucumbers or zucchini don't worry about it. You can still use them. If the zucchini has seeds in it, just remove them because they can get bitter when the zucchini is big.
Then just cut the offensively large zucchini/cucumber in half, then cut the halves into quarters lengthwise.
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
They'll look like little triangles, when you cut across them, as you can see below.
You can use regular table salt to draw the moisture out of your vegetables but kosher/pickling salt is better. It doesn't dissolve as quickly or absorb into the vegetables as easily.
Then you throw in a tray of ice cubes to help everything stay cold and crisp.
Once the pickles have soaked in salt for 3 hours rinse them like crazy to get rid of the salt. Taste one of the cucumbers to make sure the majority of the salt is out. Add the rinsed cucumbers to your boiling brine (we'll get to the brine in a minute but it's some spices, vinegar and sugar) and bring everything back to the boil.
Shove as many pickles into the jar as you can. Just smash them in there. I use canning jars but you can put them in anything because these aren't processed and are going to live in the refrigerator once you've made them.
Finally pour the brine overtop. You may have some left over. I just stick any leftover brine in the refrigerator if I think I'm going to make some more in the near future. Which I always do. They're that good.
Once your pickles are packed, just store them in the fridge. If that seems like a waste of time, just leave them on the counter. They'll be gone before you can say who ate all the pickles dammit, you SUCK.
Want to make a HOT version of these? They're like Wickles, if you're familiar with those. HOT and sweet pickles. SOOooOOOoooo good. Here's the one easy trick that will turn these classic bread & butters into hot & sweet pickles! But I'm currently in the process of coming up with a completely new stand alone recipe for hot and sweet pickles.
The end.
Classic Bread and Butter Pickles.
Ingredients
- 5 lbs cucumbers cucumbers, zucchini, green beans ... whatever
- 2 onions sliced
- ¼ cup salt kosher or otherwise
- 3 Cups cider vinegar
- 5 cups sugar
- 2 Tablespoons mustard seed
- 2 teaspoons celery seed
- ½ teaspoon whole cloves
- 1 Tablespoon turmeric
Instructions
- Slice your cucumbers. I like mine fairly thick. Almost ¼". But the traditional way is to slice them very thin.
- Combine your sliced cucumbers with onions in a bowl. Sprinkle with ¼ cup of pickling salt and toss. Mix in a tray of ice cubes and let sit for 3 hours. (this sucks out the moisture from the cucumbers so they turn into crispier pickles.)
- Rinse, rinse, rinse your cucumbers! Soak them in water and then rinse them again. You want to get rid of as much salt as possible otherwise your pickles will taste salty.
- Combine the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, cloves and turmeric in a pot and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add your cucumber/onion mixture to the pot and return to the boil.
- Stuff your pickles into sterilized jars, then pour the liquid in until covered. Store in fridge until you wanna eat them (but try to wait a few days otherwise they won't have that great bread & butter pickle flavour)
Notes
Nutrition
My family members all love pickles, but they also all agree that they never eat them. Which I don't understand, but who among us has any real understanding of any of our family members? Other than our pets?
So if you're confused about how to eat these or what to eat them with I have a few ideas for you, the first being how I eat them all the time.
- I STAND AT THE REFRIGERATOR WITH THE JAR IN ONE HAND AND A FORK IN THE OTHER AND I EAT THEM.
That's it. That is all I do. Usually when I'm getting dinner ready or just feel like chewing on something.
- If I'm having anything BBQey for dinner I put a little side of pickles on my plate. Stuff like ribs, or hot dogs or anything else no one is supposed to admit to loving anymore.
- And the next time you make a homemade hamburger? I want you to ditch the dill pickle and cover the top with these bread and butters instead. If you like relish on your hamburgers this is going to be something you'll appreciate.
Maybe even run through a burning barn for.
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Maria
I opened the last jar of bread and butter pickles this week. I process mine in a boiling water bath so they last longer but refrigerator pickles are good too. The last of the cukes are gone until the second planting comes in but I'm going to make this recipe
Karol
found this... here http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cooking/msg1212420811127.html
"They got the name "bread and butter" during the great depression when fresh cucumbers were eaten for lunch with bread and butter, and a cheap source of what was considered a vegetable back in the day. Moms could grow the cukes, serve them fresh as long as they lasted without refrigeration, but then had to pickle them to make them last all the rest of the year. In the summer cucumber sandwiches were very popular, thin slices of cukes on bread with butter- very English. But what then to do with the leftover garden produce?? Pickle it!"
Pam'a
Taking it a step further: In the days before refrigeration, I imagine these would have substituted for raw cukes on sandwiches whenever they weren't in season. Thus, pickles for bread and butter!
Debbie
Just in time for me. We finished the shelves in the garage for all our canning jars. I have been thinking about pickles and poof you sent out this post. Now, how long have you been in my head? Hummmmmm. lol
Ruth
Why - pray, do tell - are they called bread and butter pickles? *stands ready to be educated*
Liz
I thought it might have something to do with fine china, and the bread and butter plates, but I googled and the name comes from the Depression. Cucumber sandwiches were cheap and mostly home grown. Pickle sandwiches were also cheap, when the garden ran out.
Karen, I love your little aluminum spoon!!! Is it a single piece, or a set of measuring spoons ??
Danni
So frighteningly, eerily weird, I wanted to make some like my mother did when I was a kid (decades ago...) and was JUST wondering where to find my mother's recipe, and looking at the pictures I see it is the same! Thank you!
Here is a tip though, if you like spicy, slice a raw jalapeno into the pickles and let sit a few days. You can even do with store bought pickles, just dump them out and then layer back into the jar.
And I too have finished the cob oven! She is beautiful!
And Suzanne, you can make small drying fires in your oven to speed the process along. I've had some fires in mine but until I drive more moisture out I wont get good heating, and I have a big family clambake next month I want her ready for that to amaze the crowd.
Lynne
My mother made the BEST bread and butter pickles and I rue the fact that I never asked for the recipe. She just made them off the top of her head - so I know it wasn't a complicated one. I'm going to give this one a try.
What to eat with bread and butter pickles? A grilled cheese sandwich made with a good sharp cheddar. Hands down the absolute best combination.
Brenda
Ohhh yummy, we cannot enjoy grilled cheese sandwiches here without the bread & butter pickles. Love your weck jars and the wavy knife is fantastic !!
Suanne
Love bread & butter pickles. We'll have to give this a try.....NOW! The important news!!!!! Our Great Cob Oven Project is D O N E!!!!!! Yep....can't believe we did it. Thank you Karen for your inspiration. It took us a solid 6 days to get er done, (usually worked from 10:00 a.m. til 11:30 p.m. , without stopping, except for potty breaks) but we did it. It took us a bit longer because we had to dig a footer for our blocks since we had no patio and we thought better than to put it on our wood deck, so we dug, dug, dug....36 inches down and made a base out of cement blocks. (didn't want to spend that extra money, but in the long run, I guess we'll be glad we did). We spent our vacation from work to do this project. We posted our progress on Facebook with several pictures. Only had one snafu when our 1st sand mold crumbled an inch from completion. That was discouraging, but we perservered and now it is done. Haven't made a drying fire in it yet (had to get back to work and life as we knew it before the project) but hopefully that will be soon. Our granddaughter sculpted a sun burst on the opening, which makes it all the more special. Our shape is a bit out of the ordinary on the outside. Kind of looks like a Hershey Kiss, but the inside oven chamber is nice and rounded. Still working on getting all the sand crumbs out. Very anxious to see how it drafts the smoke out. Fingers crossed. Thank you again Karen, for the posts and the inspiration!
Karen
That's GREAT! You did it fast! I realize they were whole days but still. Congratulations, you're going to love it. You'll have to send me pictures! karen@theartofdoingstuff.com ~ karen!
Diane
Try some jalapenos added as well! YUM!
Su
YUM!!! I used to make bread and butter pickles and the refrigerator dills too!! LOVE that knife think I should go order one right now..... :)
Darlene
Ruthann - I process my bread and butter recipe in a waterbath! Works well, I have never had any issues.
Pickle away!
RuthAnn
Like Bonnie I wonder if you can process these in a waterbath to preserve?? I don't have that much room in my refrigerator..
Tigersmom
Wow. This may be the recipe that gets me to try my hand at canning.
If you knew me, you'd know that people who do know me are dropping like flies at the idea of me canning.
That is how serious my love of bread and butter pickles is. And I wanna do jalapenos, too.
What are you doing to me? Next I'll be growing the stuff I want to can.
Does it rub you the wrong way to be this much of a positive influence?
Karen
Yeah, it kindda bugs me but don't tell anyone. Shh. ~ karen
Anita
My 5 year old niece eats a jar of my bread & butter pickles in 1 sitting as she watches cartoons. I make 2 bushels every year. they are the best.
mimiindublin
I hate pickles but that knife is so COOL!
Bonnie G.
Although I remember my Mom making these, I don't have a clue about the process. Your recipe seems fairly easy to follow and the pickles look delicious so I will try it. One question: do you have to refrigerate the jars of pickles? I am asking only because you didn't say anything about processing (sealing) the filled jars so maybe they should all be lined up like soldiers on the refrigerator door or shelf - hmm, " Karen's Soldier Pickles"? Sorry, I digress ! In any case I hope my question is not too lame.
Karen
Hi Bonnie G. - I just make a few jars of these at a time usually and they keep in the fridge for weeks. I don't process them. ~ karen!
Tracey
Hi Karen,
I'm so glad to know these don't have to be processed. That always scared me and seemed like it would take so much time, so I've never canned anything in my life. This recipe looks great and I love bread and butter pickles, and super happy that I don't have to can them.
I'm definitely going to make these. Again...more super useful and easy ideas from you. You're the best!
Cynthia
OK, dumb question from Australia. How do you eat bread and butter pickles? On bread and butter or on their own out of the jar?
Diane
Eat them however you normally eat pickles. I just eat them straight out of the jar. Then I sip a little of the juice. I have never figured out why they are called "bread and butter" though, maybe because they are as necessary as...?
Karen
Me? Just out of the jar. :) ~ karen
Lisa
But when you try them on a crusty slice of bread with a lot of butter, it will change your life!
Try it right now!
mia pratt
These look great, I love the pretty little jars! This recipe is similar to the one I use for picking jalapeños, which are wonderful when done bread-and-butter style. The sweet-hot flavor is marvelous on hot dogs, and the juice makes an amazing "vinegar" for fish and chips, fried chicken, and just about anything else. Shit, now I've got to make bread-and-butter pickles and jalapeños, you troublemaker! That's Karen, always makin' trouble…<:}
Karen
Yes indeed, that's me, lol. ~ karen!
caryl hodgdon
ok i hate sweet but i'll try these-yeccchhh
Luanne
These look beautiful! Mine look horrible. So much so that I haven't had the nerve to taste them yet. :)
becky
Soooo, Whatcha got for those of us who prefer dill pickles?
Karen
Oh don't get me wrong Becky ... I love dill pickles too! It's midnight and I just made a batch actually, lol. I've made more fermented dills than regular quick dill pickles so I'll let you know how this particular recipe goes. (I mangled a few different recipes into one I thought I'd like). ~ karen!