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Bread and Butter Refrigerator Pickles

I love pickles.  Sour dill, sweet bread and butter, all kinds.  I have absolutely no idea how to do traditional canning with the hot water and sealing the jars and all that, so it thought I couldn't make them at home. I was excited to see one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen, make refrigerator pickles that seemed easy, were ready in a few hours, and required no weird jar boiling.

After a mishap with my first batch of pickling cucumbers (I procrastinated and left them in the fridge too long so they went bad), this week I was ready to go.  I did have to buy a couple of ingredients to stock my spice cabinet (mustard seeds and celery seeds), but it was totally worth it.

Bread and Butter Pickles
from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 pound pickling cucumbers, sliced 1/4 thick
1/2-1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup kosher or sea salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 Tablespoon mustard seeds
1 Tablespoon coriander seeds or 1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon celery seed

In a medium bowl, combine the cucumbers, onion and salt.

Cover the mixture with ice and let stand at room temperature for two hours.

In a pot, bring sugar, vinegar and spices to a boil.
Add drained cucumbers and onions.  Bring back to a simmer.
Remove pot from heat and cool.
Store pickles in an airtight container (a quart mason jar worked perfectly) in the fridge.

The recipe says they will start tasting pickled in a few hours.  I gave them overnight to lunch the next day.  So good.


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