Bread & Butter Pickles - How to Make Great Depression-Style Sweet Pickles

Hello , this is Chef John from food wishes dot com with bread and butter pickles .

That's right .

During the Great Depression , cucumber sandwiches were a very popular thing to eat mostly because there was nothing else .

So basically those stories our grandparents told us were true except for the one about eating the shoe .

I think they made that one up .

But anyway , what they would do is take all the extra cucumbers and pickle them so that during the winter they could take bread and butter and make sandwiches with them .

And while a sandwich made with pickles may not sound that great to you .

It's definitely better than a sandwich made with nothing .

Of course , today times are a little better .

So now we just make and eat these because they're totally delicious .

And of course , to get started , you're gonna need some of these pickling cucumbers , although that's not really what these are .

These are just called mini cucumbers also sometimes sold as Persian cucumbers .

But for this recipe , pretty much any small firm cucumber will work .

And all we're gonna do is slice these into the quarter inch rounds and I'm just gonna use a knife because I'm only doing a couple of pounds .

But if you want to use one of those fancy slices , you can , right .

Remember that one you ordered when you came home from the club at like two in the morning and saw that Infomercial and you were like , I need to order one of these .

Look how fast it chops those onions and no tears .

So anyway , if you have one of those in the back of your cupboard , go ahead and use it .

But as you can see , the knife works fine and sure if you want to double your production do two at once , that's just basic math .

But anyway , we're going to slice those up and I'm gonna go ahead and transfer those into a bowl and then to that , I'm gonna add some sliced onions and peppers very traditional in this recipe .

And I'm gonna use some red Fresno chilies to give it a little heat .

But you can use any kind of pepper .

Bell pepper is a very popular choice .

In fact , I think green bell pepper would be the original choice .

So that's it for the vegetable matter .

And now it's time for the most important step of this entire process .

The saltine , we're gonna pour over a ton of kosher salt and what's gonna happen ?

That salt's gonna cure those vegetables .

It's gonna draw out a ton of water and it's really gonna change the texture and that's what's gonna give these pickles their signature snap , their crunch their crisp , which texturally is really the key here .

And by the way , you really want to use Kosher Salt for this .

All right , regular eye table salt is not gonna work .

And if you can't find Kosher Salt , go to the hardware store and ask for pickling salt , which I believe does work for pickling .

But anyway , we're gonna dump in a whole bunch of Kosher salt and mix that it up .

We will cover that in plastic and we will pop that in the fridge for at least two hours .

Ok ?

2 to 4 hours is kind of the range .

I prefer two hours .

Some people prefer three or four hours .

And during that time , if you can remember , pull it out and give it a mix and as you're stirring , you're gonna notice the color is kind of changing the skin looks like it's getting a little bit shriveled .

Ok ?

So that's exactly what we're looking for .

So like I said , if you can remember , stir it a couple of times and like I said , we're gonna leave that in the fridge for 2 to 4 hours and this is what mine look like after two hours and we'll pull off the plastic and you can see just how much liquid has come out .

And then what we need to do is put this in a colander and rinse it incredibly thoroughly under cold running water .

And don't let my editing fool you , you gotta do this for like three or four minutes .

Rinse it very , very , very well .

We want to rinse off all that excess salt , but don't worry , they're not gonna be bland .

They've already absorbed the perfect amount of salt .

And once those have been thoroughly rinsed , we will let those drain while we make our brine , which is very easy .

So , in a sauce pan , we're gonna put a couple of cups of sugar .

Yep , just a couple cups .

We're also gonna need some mustard seed .

I'm using golden .

You could use brown .

I think the golden look better .

We also want some celery seed , some black pepper corns , a little pinch of ground cloves .

A lot of people use the whole ones .

I like the ground in here .

We're also gonna put in some turmeric .

Very important .

Don't forget the turmeric .

Not only is it super good for you ?

That's what's gonna give this its signature charros color .

I mean , you want the right color , don't you ?

So don't skip the turmeric .

I'm also gonna add a little bit of freshly sliced garlic and then we'll finish up with vinegar and I'm just using plain white distilled vinegar .

Some people like a combo of cider and white .

I don't .

And then before we put this on the heat , I'm gonna add a little bit of water because what we're gonna do is bring this to a simmer and that's going to counter any loss due to evaporation .

So we'll go ahead and place that on medium high heat , give it a stir .

And as soon as that does start simmering , what I want you to do is wait two minutes , just let it cook like that for two minutes .

And then at that point , we will add our cucumber mixture .

So we'll dump all that in .

There should be just enough brine to come up over the top .

And then very important .

We want this to almost come back to the boil but not come back to the boil .

So what we're gonna look for is this as soon as you see those tiny bubbles forming around the outside and it's looking like it wants to start simmering again .

That's it .

Turn off the heat , maybe we'll stir it a little bit .

So we have something to do .

But this part of the process is done .

All we need to do now is let this cool down to room temperature and we're ready to chill our pickles and you don't have to .

But I transformed mine into a bowl to cool just so it was easier to photograph mostly .

And as these cool you're gonna see they turn into the most gorgeous color I think I described that as earlier .

Is that even close ?

I think so .

And while these really do taste much better cold , I'm gonna go ahead and eat one now , why not ?

And even at room temperature , it is so delicious and then other than transferring these into some jars , you're pretty much done .

So I'm gonna go ahead and keep mine in one of these screw top mason jars that it's going to keep for a long time in the fridge .

And of course , if you want to keep it a really , really long time , you could , can these using the hot water bath method and they last for years and they say these will taste better after a couple of days in the fridge .

But you know what they say a lot of things .

And for me , these taste great , almost as soon as they're cold and above and beyond the amazing taste , the texture on these is gonna blow you away .

It's soft and tender , but at the same time , it has a crunch to it .

All right , that skin has that little crispiness , which of course is the difference between something that's pickled and just a slice of vegetable .

So a very unique process as you saw .

Super simple , you should definitely whip up a batch and see what you think .

I mean , everybody loves these except possibly your great , great grandparents .

If they're still around , this will probably just remind them of the worst time of their life .

But besides that , I think everyone else will be a fan .

So I really do hope you give these a try head over to food wishes dot com for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual and as always enjoy .