Bread and Butter Pickles

Bread and butter pickles have always been my grandma's favorite. Unlike tart dill pickles, these are sweeter, probably from the 2 cups of sugar added to the vinegar during cooking, and a little spicier than your regular pickle. They get their signature yellow-green color from tumeric added to the vinegar during cooking. Bread and butter pickles supposedly got their name during the Great Depression when people would eat them on sandwiches in the place of meat between two pieces of buttered bread. That sounds somewhat gross, but I wouldn't be surprised if my Gram ate them that way. She has, after all, been known to drink pickle juice on occasion.

B&B's are best served as a side dish or a condiment to hamburgers.

This recipe makes 1 quart.

Eat Rating: Awesome. I am more partial to these than straight dill.
Difficulty: Easy to Medium.

Adapted from Brock Kuhlman, Hill's Kitchen

3 pickling cucumbers, cut into 1/4-1/2 inch slices
1 white onion, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup pickling salt
1 1/4 cup white vinegar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tsp crushed red pepper
3/4 tsp celery seeds (LN: Omitted. Didn't have any.)
1 inch cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
6 whole all spice
6 whole cloves
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp alum (LN: Omitted)

Place the cucumbers and onions in a colander sitting over a bowl and sprinkle vegetables with the salt. Let sit in the fridge overnight.

Place the jar(s) on a cookie sheet and place in the cold oven. Heat to 250 degrees. Once the oven reaches temperature, turn off the heat and leave the jars sitting in the oven.

Wash the cucumbers and onions to remove residual salt. Set aside.

Fill a small pot with water, bring to a boil then toss in the jar lids and rings to sterilize.

In a medium-sized pot, combine the vinegar, sugar and spices. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add the cucumbers and onions to the vinegar, then boil an additional 30 seconds.

Remove a jar from the oven with a clean kitchen towel. Using a slotted spoon, fill the jar with cucumbers and onions, leaving at least 1/4 inch of space from the top of jar. Once filled with cucumbers, pour vinegar into the jar, making sure the cucumbers are completely submerged and there is at least 1/8 inch between the top of the jar and the vinegar.

Remove lid and ring from water. Wipe the lip of the jar to make sure it is clean and nothing will mess up your seal. Place ring on lip of jar, then tighten the ring until it is finger tight.

Let the capped jar sit upright for two minutes, then flip over so the jar is sitting on its top and leave upside down for 10 minutes. Flip back over and let come to room temperature. The lid should form an airtight seal. You will know if when you push down on the lid it does not give.

Pickles are best if steeped 4 weeks but can be eaten after 10 days. Once the jar has been opened, eat within a few weeks.

Pickled Carrots

I'm not an enormous carrot fan. Probably because, like celery, I associate carrots with dieting. But when I saw all the spring carrots at the farmer's market, I felt the need to buy them.

Peel the carrots. You can either cut them into uniform sticks like David Leibovitz did or just cut off the ends and leave them in the vague carrot shape like I did.

I did diverge from him in one respect: he suggests cold packing, ie allowing the pickling liquid and carrots to come to room temperature and then packing the jars. Since I'm somewhat paranoid about contamination, I just hot-packed mine. If you want to cold pack, follow his directions.

Makes 1 quart.

Eat Rating: Good. For carrots.
Difficulty: Easy to Medium.

From David Leibovitz

1 lb carrots, peeled
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds (LN: He says you can also use dill or anise seeds)
1 1/2 tbsp salt
2 bay leaves

Place the jar in the cold oven on a cookie sheet, then turn up the heat to 250 degrees. Once the oven reaches temperature turn it off.

Bring a medium-sized pot of water to boil, then drop in the carrots for 2 minutes. Drain carrots and douse in cold water to stop the cooking.

Fill a small saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Drop in the lid and ring for the jar.

In the same medium-sized pot, add the water, vinegar, sugar and spices. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer two minutes. Add the carrots. Cook one minute more.

Remove the jar from the oven using a clean kitchen towel. Using tongs, place the carrots in the jar. Then pour the pickling liquid over the carrots, making sure the carrots are completely submerged liquid reaches at least 1/4 inch below the top of the jar. Remove the lid and ring from the hot water and place on top of jar. Screw the ring on finger tight. Let the jar sit upright for two minutes, then flip over so it is resting on the lid. Leave upside down for 10 minutes, then flip over.

As the jar comes to room temperature, it should pressurize and seal.

The pickled carrots will keep for up to a year. Once the jar is opened, eat within 4 weeks.

It's a Recession!: Homemade Dill Pickles

"Canning is the new knitting," according Brock Kuhlman, the chef instructor at Hill's Kitchen in Eastern Market.

A few weeks ago, I took his class on pickling. It was sort of a strange class choice. For one thing, I don't love pickles. I mean I like some pickles, relish in particular. But when they ask me at the deli whether I need a dilled spear with my sandwich, I usually say no. However, I thought it would be cool and I didn't already know how to do it. In the past, I've found a lot of cooking classes to be very elementary (this one CCO and I took in the winter, the instructor spent about five minutes talking about the difference between an onion and a shallot.) This one, though, was pretty cool. He covered the science behind pickling, several different methods and about four recipes. At one point, I even got to be his Vanna White-like assistant to help with the Chow Chow.

Canning is not as hard as you think. I've done it for years with jam, but he still showed me a couple new tricks. Most important rule: when cutting the cucumbers, make sure the spears will fit in the jar. You're pretty much screwed if you're filling jars and then realize the spears are too long. I've also started always using his oven-sterilization method. So much easier than boiling the jars.

Buy very firm cucumbers.

Pickling salt is plain salt without the extra compounds they add in to prevent clumping. If you can't find pickling salt at the store, look for sea salt.

This recipe made me about 4 quarts (actually 3 1/2, but it could have been four). If you want fewer, you can cut the recipe in half, but it's very important you not change the ratio of water to vinegar. Otherwise you might mess up the chemical balance.

Eat Rating: These are pretty sour and very dill-y.
Difficulty: Medium. You need two pots. It's a good idea to have a funnel and a jar lifter on hand.

Adapted from Brock Kuhlman

4 pickling cucumbers
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup cider vinegar
4 cups water
2/3 cup pickling salt
16 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2 of a bunch of fresh dill, washed thoroughly
2 tbsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
4 bay leaves, crumbled or torn into smaller pieces
2 tsp alum* (LN: Omitted)

Prepare the cucumbers. Wash them to remove any dirt, then cut off the ends. Cut into quarters, lengthwise to make spears. Place the spears in a bowl of ice water and soak for two hours.

About half an hour before your cucumbers will be ready, place 4 clean, quart-sized jars on a cookie sheet and set in the cold oven. Turn the temperature up to 250 degrees. When the oven reaches 250 degrees, turn it off and leave the jars inside.

Heat a small pot of water to boil, then reduce heat. Drop the rings and tops in. You will need these later.

In a medium-sized saucepan, heat the water, vinegar and spices to a boil. Drain the cucumbers and add to the vinegar mixture. Return to a boil and cook for about 1 minute.

With a clean kitchen towel, remove the jars from the oven. Using tongs, place several cucumber spears in the jar, along with a few garlic cloves and some dill, if possible. Once the jars are packed with cucumbers, set the funnel on top of a jar and fill with vinegar mixture, making sure that the cucumbers are completely covered by the liquid.

Remove a lid from the hot water and place on top of the jar. Take a ring and twist it onto the jar finger tight. Do this for all the jars, then let them sit for two minutes. Flip the jar over so they are standing on the lid. Let sit upside down for 10 minutes, then flip right-side up. This will pressurize the jar, creating an airtight seal with the lid. You can tell if it has sealed correctly because you won't be able to push down on the lid.

Allow the pickles to sit in a cool place for six to eight weeks before opening. Once opened, enjoy the pickles within a few weeks.

* Alum is a chemical used in canning to help maintain the crispness of the produce. If you buy firm produce and use the plumping method outlined at the beginning of the recipe, you don't really need alum.