Wednesday, August 11, 2010

In a Pickle Over Pickles

A couple weeks ago I made pickles for the first time.   Forbes Road Produce had a bunch of fresh kirby cucumbers and I was in the mood to do some canning.  Why I find making stuff and putting it into jars so rewarding I don't know - probably something only a shrink could answer - but I love looking at the finished product, knowing I made it. 



After deciding on the old-fashioned bread-and-butter variety, I referred to recipes from Southern Living and the Web site http://www.pickyourown.org/, and then went to work.  Everybody says pickles are easy to make and that it's a fun thing to do with kids.  That might be true if the kids are adept with knives, or you have the patience of a saint. There's a lot of chopping involved with bread-and-butter pickles, which require loads of thinly sliced onion and cukes sliced into 3/16-inch rounds. 




That was the most time-consuming aspect of this project, other than waiting while the cukes and onions iced down for four hours in the fridge.  After that, it was simply a matter of boiling up ingredients and plopping them into sterilized jars. 

Now, the real time-consuming part - waiting to open them.  The pickyourown people want me to wait four to six weeks!  They can't be serious.  I can't wait to try them.  What if they are terrible?  Cucumber season doesn't last forever, and I'll have to make another attempt.  I think I'll open them tomorrow...just one jar.

5 comments:

  1. You bet, but I tried them and I think they do need to sit longer. They are very sweet.

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  2. Bread and Butter suck, half sour rule, just ask anyone who ate at Wolfie's and lived to tell the story.

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  3. Half-sour are awesome. I need a recipe. Hubmeister said I should make them, too. Ted's Montana Grill in Atlanta serves them before every meal and they are fantastic. I don't remember those at Wolfie's, just the enormous sandwiches.

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  4. I would like to try some too.

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