NO SUGAR Quick Pickles Master Recipe for Pickling any Vegetable

So I always remember that we all , uh , we all have our own ways of doing things and recipes and we remember how our grandparents and our mom has done it and everything and it's just all good thing .

There's , there's never anything wrong so about it .

So never think that you're doing something wrong .

You're just doing it your way and the way you like it .

But , uh , so many different pickle recipes .

I know my mother-in-law used to make a lime pickle and I know a lot of people like them lime pickles and I just never did , I never did like them , but I know a lot of people do .

They're one of them old fashioned recipes that people would , uh , would do because they kept for a long , long time .

But anyways , we're gonna let this cool off just a little bit more than we'll pour it in our jar .

Now , what I've got here is one head of cauliflower that I've broken up into little florets , bite size pieces and that I've washed and then over here I've got a couple of sweet red bell and yellow bell and orange bell peppers .

Uh They were the mini ones and I'd say , you know , maybe it's about a cup and a half , two cups .

This is not an exact science and you're going to be able to mix and match whatever vegetables that you want .

And then here I've got just one jalapeno that I sliced , but I also seeded it and removed most of the membrane .

Uh because that's where a lot of the spice is .

And I didn't want this to be too spicy .

But if you like things nice and spicy , you can definitely leave in the membranes and the seeds .

Now , I think for the amount of vegetables I have here , I'm gonna need a half gallon jar .

So that's what I'm gonna use .

Uh But you could certainly use two quart size jars or four pint size jars , whatever you have .

Now , for the brine , what you're going to need is two cups of water and two cups of vinegar .

And I'm just using a plain white vinegar .

I find that works very well .

But you can certainly use apple cider vinegar or another type of vinegar that you may like .

If you use apple cider vinegar , I recommend against using raw only because we're gonna be heating this brine and you don't want to in your nice raw apple cider vinegar .

So you don't have to uh search around for raw vinegar with the mother and all of that .

Uh You can just use plain uh pasteurized apple cider vinegar if you want .

But I find that the white vinegar works very well uh with , uh , the brine , uh , with the uh seasoning mix that we're gonna be using .

But I do want to mention that when you pour in your brine , if you wanna let it cool a little bit and then top off with maybe about a quarter or a half a cup of raw apple cider vinegar .

So pretty , still a little bit warm , but it's not scald and hot like it was , let me start it up again .

I think I can take this and pour it right in here .

Maybe , maybe we're not making a mess .

Hopefully .

Now you can tell that it's not covered it .

But , um , the pickles will eventually settle down in there .

I'm just gonna kind of push them down and if you got some kind of weight you wanna put down there , you can , I'm not really worried about it .

They're gonna be in the refrigerator , they're gonna start settling down .

And every once in a while I'll go in there and , uh , I'll take the lid off a taste of them and see where they're at and kind of push them down in that brine .

So after putting that brine in there and pushing them down , it , it doesn't fill the whole jar up , but that's ok .

It smells , smells like bread and butter pickles .

And it's so funny .

I can smell that mustard seed and of course , it smells like mustard .

So , but then again , that sugar and brown sugar in there and all that just , it marries together and it's what makes bread and butter pickles taste so good .

So , like I said , if you want to put a weight or something in there , you can , but they , it will settle down and you just put some kind of lid on there and uh , oh , I'm gonna let this cool down just a little bit more before I stick it in the fridge though .

I mean , it's not hot but it's still a little bit warm and I'm gonna stick it in the refrigerator and I'm just gonna leave it there and it's gonna ferment and it's gonna just be good .

Um , you can start eating these in about a week .

I probably won't wait that long .

I'll be going in and out of them , tasting of them and you can take them and kind of shake them up .

Switch them around .

But , uh , anyway , it works and it really , it's gonna be a pretty jar , a refrigerated refrigerator , bread and butter pickles .

Very easy .

Very good .

And , uh , you don't have to worry about all the canning process , but just make sure you always keep them in the refrigerator until you get them made up .

And I'll tell you something else that I do when I have something like this in a big jar , refrigerator , say I get a few c cucumbers and uh , you know , I'm not ready to eat them right then I don't want them to ruin .

So I will clean them good , clean them up , chop them up and I'll stick them right in here .

So it's a good thing to do .

So anyways , I hope y'all like this recipe and if y'all want to make some bread and butter pickles , y'all gonna really like this recipe .

And uh you can also do dill pickles this way .

You can just do them in the refrigerator .

No cannon process involved .

But uh I'll put a link below .

Um , because I , I did make some uh tomato pickled tomatoes , green tomatoes and I pickled okra and I just use the same brine for all of it because we really love pickled okra and okra is so good for you .

Uh And another thing that you can also do is say you don't particularly like the flavor of bay or you wanna leave the , the bay out .

I know bay leaves can sometimes be a little pricey .

Uh You can use a tea bag , you can just put it in the bottom of the jar before you start putting in your cucumbers , you sliced or whatever way , spears , whatever way you're gonna pickle them and that will help keep them crisp .

Just like bay leaves will help them stay crisp .

And another option is just topping the jar with a grape leaf and that will also help keep them crisp .

And the reason is they contain tannins .

Bay leaves contain tannins .

Uh tea leaves contain tannins , soda grape leaves and the tannins help keep the pickled vegetable crisp .

In the , in the case of pickles , the real pickles keeps the cucumbers crisp .

So that's something to keep in mind .

And I have a link to that video .

But uh anyways , I also have , last year I made pickled squash .

I still have some of that and I've got a , a video for that and I'll put that down in the description box too .

So anyway , y'all try this recipe .

I really think if you like bread and butter pickles , you'll really like this recipe .

It's easy and it's so good .

So guys , I hope y'all garden is coming off good .

I see pictures on uh Facebook and , and on youtube and different things .

It looks like people's gardens are really doing good this year and I'm so glad ours is doing good .

Um , we're gonna have a lot put up for the winter time and that's just always a big blessing .

So y'all take care , y'all know we love you and you know , God loves you .

So y'all come back and see us here .

We'll be back in a couple of days and like I always say , we'll be doing something because we're always doing something around here by everybody .

Uh , you can just use a clean hand , your clean fist as you're , uh , uh , filling it and just try to get that , the vegetables in the jar as tight as possible .

Now , we're gonna make our brine , which we're gonna warm on the stove .

So we're just gonna go ahead and add in our two cups of vinegar and then we'll add in our two cups of water and then to this liquid mixture , we'll go ahead and we'll add in our one tablespoon of the fine ground sea salt .

And then we're gonna add in two tablespoons of our pickling spice .

Now , you can certainly add a little more if you want , but I find two tablespoons works very well .

And speaking of this , uh basic pickling spice , there are so many varieties and I'll list this over uh on the recipe .

There are so many varieties that you can make uh when it comes to pickling spice .

This is just sort of a very basic recipe that's very traditional and will give you a nice flavor that you may find similar to what you purchase uh when you purchase pickled vegetables at the grocery store .

And I often get a funny comments where people say , why would I want to make it taste like anything from the grocery store ?

The stuff at the grocery store isn't good for you or things like this .

And I think they're , they're very devoted to the traditional foods movement .

But my feeling is that when you're on the transition from a processed foods kitchen to a traditional foods kitchen trying to make your homemade foods taste as similar to store bought foods .

Uh so that your palate recognizes them in the ballad of your family and your friends .

So that it's not a shock where people say , oh , I don't like it .

I don't like it .

Uh Over time you can change up this pickling spice mix and add different spices to jazz it up , so to speak a little bit as you want to experiment .

And this is a nice way to eventually transition to making ferments .

And so if you want to know how to ferment something similar to this , it's a , it's that a mix of , you know , cauliflower and other vegetables as well with carrots and so on and so forth .

Uh I'll be sure to link to that and that's a ferment and ferments have a little bit of a tangy flavor .

But if you start getting used to your own homemade pickled or quick pickled vegetables , the transition to ferments will be a lot easier and ferments are just so good for you because they're very rich in good bacteria .

And as scientists tell us the more good bacteria we eat , the healthier our gut is and the healthier our gut is the healthier we are .

Now , I'm gonna bring this over to my stove .

I'm gonna bring this up to a boil .

Then I'm quickly gonna turn it down to a simmer .

I'm gonna let it simmer for about 10 minutes and then we'll add it to our vegetables .

Well , I brought the brine up to a boil and then I let it simmer on low for about 10 minutes and it's just a beautiful amber color .

Now , it looks gorgeous and it has a wonderful vinegar aroma .

Now , what we're gonna do is pour our brine into our jar .

And if you've got a funnel , this can come in very handy .

If you have a steady hand , you should be able to do it without a funnel .

But I find it works a little easier if I have a funnel .

And so we'll just go ahead now and start pouring in our brine until our jar is filled .

We're gonna fill it to within about a half an inch head space and just make sure that all of the vegetables are well submerged .

Well , I filled my jar with the hot brine and I've got everything submerged and you'll notice as the hot brine begins to soften and the vegetables , all of the pickling spice mix will start to sink down on the sides and get all around the vegetables .

Now , what we need to do is put the lid on , put this in the refrigerator for about an hour , then we'll take it out and it should be ready and we'll give it a taste test .

Well , I let these chill for a bit and now I thought we'd give them a taste and see how it turned out .

Hm , please .

Oh , that's delicious .

It's got the perfect amount of seasoning , wonderful texture .

You're gonna really love these .

I hope you'll give them a try .

And if you'd like to learn how to make more pickled vegetables including pickles as well as to try your hand at ferments .

Be sure to click on this video over here where I have a playlist that covers it all and I'll see you over there in my Texas Hill country kitchen love and God bless .