A couple of years ago, I gave up my big garden for use as a run for my chickens. Eventually my husband is going to build me another garden fence in a different area, but for now I just plant a small amount of herbs/vegetables in some metal planters I have. I threw a couple pickling cucumber plants in with my herbs this year, because I missed making homemade pickles and I’m more inspired to do it when I need to use up my garden bounty.
This recipe is perfect if you only have a few cucumbers, not dozens. It is really easy and quick to make. You do need to toss the veggies in some salt and let sit for 2 hours to remove some of their water, but this is passive time spent. These are refrigerator pickles. You don’t have to know how to can them, they just go straight into the fridge. It is such a small amount, it would not be worth the trouble to can them.
These are pretty typical bread and butter pickles. They have great flavor. I love to put in extra onions because we like the onions just as much as the cucumbers. We ate most of this jar up with our 4th of July bbq. Hopefully I will have enough cucumbers again soon for another jar.
Small Batch Bread and Butter Pickles
Ingredients
- 1 lb pickling or Persian cucumbers sliced into 1/4 inch slices
- 1 onion sliced in half and into 1/4 inch thick slices
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups white vinegar
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 garlic cloves peeled and smashed
- 1 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/4 tsp celery seeds
- 1/8 tsp tumeric
- 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Mix the salt, cucumbers and onion well in a bowl with clean hands. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours. Drain and rinse the cucumbers very well with clean water. If you don't rinse well they will be way too salty. Pack into a clean canning jar. Since you will be pouring boiling liquid over them, make sure your container is heat safe and will not shatter.
- In a sauce pan, heat the vinegar, garlic and spices to boiling. Pour over the cucumbers and seal. Allow to cool to room temp, then store in the fridge. These will in the fridge for months as long as you don't introduce bacteria into the jar, so use a clean fork to remove pickles from the liquid.