[Sca-cooks] Pickles!

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

>
> > Just had to share the triumph with people who understand:
> >
> > I did a batch of dill pickles last night, and ALL SEVEN JARS sealed! Yay!
> >
> > [I was scrubbing the cukes for tonight's efforts, and a casual listener
> > would have heard several instances of *hissss* *pop* "Yay!"
> >
> > Tonight are sweet pickles and sweet pickle relish, or such is the theory.
> >
> > Margaret
> >
> >
> >
>
> I have a question on sweet pickles.  My granmothers' recipe requires several
> weeks of soaking the cucumbers in brine, then in a sweet syrup.  I'd like to
> try sweet pickles, but I don't have a safe place to leave them to sit for
> that long.  (I have visions of a cat ending up in the crock of pickles.)  Are
> there recipes for sweet pickles that require less time?
>
> Thanks
>
> Noemi

The Ball Blue Book, whose recipe I am using for sweet pickle spears (or
halves of gherkins, in this case), calls for covering the pickles with
boiling water for two hours, packing them in hot jars, then filling the
jars with the up-until-it-was-ladled-out boiling sugar/vinegar syrup. You
can also do the brine-cured method, but it takes forever, and I'm not
nearly that patient.

There are two recipes at Recipesource, one appearing to be a variant of
the other, for Sweet Pickle Sticks, which are similar to the Ball recipe.
Pickling whole gherkins, or any other whole cucumber, appears to require
lengthy soaking in brine.

Pickle update: all the jars of sweet pickles sealed, one loudly enough to
scare the cat. Wheee! Tonight, the sweet relish, and then I am done with
canning for at least a week.

Margaret