Grandma Parrish’s Pickle Recipes: Dill or Bread & Butter Versions

Homemade Pickles Packed Various Ways

In the back of the children’s book Mr. Pickle Goes to Pickle Island, I note learning activities that parents may want to do with their children after reading the book together.  One such activity is to make pickles from fresh cucumbers themselves.  I am creating this post to provide two of my grandmother’s pickle recipes so the pickle lovers out there can re-create these delectable food items during the summer produce season.  These recipes appeared in the 1979 edition of “A Book of Favorite Recipes” by ladies of Coppell First Assembly of God Church.

Fresh Pack Dill Pickles Recipe

Ingredients:

7 quarts whole cucumbers, 3-5 inches long (approximately 17-18 pounds)

2 gallons of 5% Brine (see recipe below)

6 cups vinegar

¾ cup pickling salt

¼ cup sugar

9 cups water

2 Tablespoons whole mixed pickling spice, tied into small cheesecloth bag.

Add-ins Per Jar:

Mustard seed

Garlic

Dill

Directions:

1.    Wash cucumbers thoroughly.  Cover with 5% Brine and let stand overnight in ice box (aka refrigerator).

2.    Next day, drain cucumbers. 

3.    Combine vinegar, salt, sugar, water, and pickling spice bag in pot.  Heat to boiling and let stand while packing cucumbers into quart jars.

4.    After packing in cucumbers, add 2 teaspoons mustard seed, 1 glove garlic, and 3 heads dill to each jar

5.    Cover with boiling spice liquid to about ¼ inch of top of jar.

6.    Wipe tops and seal jars.

7.    Process in boiling water 20 minutes.

View Canning Homemade No Fail Dill Pickles video on packing and boiling jars, which starts at step 3 above.  This video contains another grandmother’s recipe, so you can use the above or use that one. You can tell by the look of the cucumbers he already did the overnight soak and drain in steps 1-2.

Five Percent Brine Recipe

Ingredients:

2 gallons of water

1 ½ cups pickling salt

Directions:

1.    Heat water to boil.  Dissolve salt in water. 

2.    Cool brine mixture to room temperature before using.

(Why you should not substitute pickling salt with ordinary table salt)

Some pickle recipes call for vinegar instead, check Vinegar-Brine Pickling Method if you have a recipe that calls for that.

Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe

Ingredients:

25-30 medium cucumbers, sliced thin  

     (NOTE:  Grandma said zucchini squash may be used instead of cucumbers if you like.)

8 large onions

2 large bell peppers

½ cup pickling salt (for soaking in water)

5 cups cider vinegar

5 cups sugar (approximately 2 ½ pounds)

2 Tablespoons mustard seed

1 teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon cloves

Directions:

1.    Wash cucumbers and slice thin.

2.    Chop all remaining vegetables into cucumbers and add salt with enough cold water to cover.

3.    Let stand for 3 hours and then drain well.

4.    Combine vinegar, sugar, and spices in large kettle (aka pot). 

5.    Bring to a boil, then add the drained vegetables and heat thoroughly.  Do not boil again.

6.    Pack into hot sterilized jars.

7.    Seal and place in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

8.    Remove jars and cool.

View Depression Style Bread and Butter Pickles video on slicing and prepping the pickles a little differently from above recipe.  This video uses hot peppers and garlic to make them spicier but it does not include measurements, however it is very entertaining