Pickles!

Our friend V has a large garden and he just gave us a lot of cucumbers. We let them sit too long to be dill pickles (they loose their crispiness when they sit), but they made good sweet pickles (which are sliced).

Here are some pickle recipes and the one I used. The dill pickle recipe has been in my family for decades.

Dill Pickles

Boil together:
3 quarts water
1 quart vinegar
1 cup pickling salt
(makes approximately 8 quarts of pickles)
(approximately 1 pound of pickles per jar)

Line bottom of jar with a grape leaf, slit cucumbers with knife (top and bottom to aid in absorption of above solution).  Place 2 cloves of garlic in jar along with 2 heads of dill or 1 head and stem plus leaves in the jar.  Pack pickles in jar and add boiling solution. Seal (keep lids and rings in boiling water until you remove them to seal jars)

If you don't have grape leaves you can add a piece of alum as big as the end of a finger and place on top of the pickles in the jar.  Both grape leaves and alum will keep the pickles firm.


Old Fashioned Sliced Pickles

6 quarts sliced cukes
6 medium onions
3/4 cup pickling salt
6 cups cider vinegar
6 cups sugar
1/2 cup mustard seed (12 oz package)
1 Tbs. celery seed

Combine cukes with sliced onions and salt.  Let stand 4 hours or overnight.  Drain, rinse well, drain and rinse, drain again.

Combine other ingredients and bring to a boil.  Gradually add the cukes and
onions.  Heat to SIMMER and cook until slightly softened (appx. 40 minutes)  Put in jars and seal.

Approximately 12 pints.