14-Day Sweet Pickles
Submitted by lisaann
Old-fashioned 14-day sweet pickles canned at home. A traditional brine-and-syrup method that builds crisp sweet-tart [cucumbers](/recipes/cucumber) over two weeks, finished with celery seed and pickling spice.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
60 minREADY
214-day sweet pickles are the kind of recipe your great-aunt swore by, and the long process is the entire point. Two weeks of slow brining, draining, and gradual sugar building gives you a pickle with snap that bottled supermarket pickles can’t touch. The cucumber stays firm because the salt brine pulls water out before the sugar syrup goes in, and the daily sugar additions raise the sweetness slowly enough that the cucumbers absorb it without going limp.
Use pickling cucumbers between two and five inches, never the long slicing kind. The blossom end carries an enzyme that softens pickles, so trim a 1/16 inch slice off and discard it. That single step is what keeps batches crisp.
Keep the crock at a steady 70F (21C) during the brine days. Too cold and fermentation stalls. Too warm and the pickles go off. The cheesecloth spice bag with celery seed and pickling spice flavors the syrup without leaving a gritty residue in the finished jars.
Pro Tips
- Use canning or pickling salt only. Iodized table salt clouds the brine and softens the cucumber.
- Five percent acidity vinegar is a must for safe canning. Lower acid vinegar will not preserve properly.
- Scald the cover and weight every time you reopen the crock to keep stray yeasts from spoiling the batch.
- Process pints for the full time listed for your altitude. The boiling water bath is what makes the jars shelf-stable.
Variations
- Cut the cucumbers into spears or rounds after day seven if you prefer sandwich-ready slices.
- Add a few sticks of cinnamon and whole cloves to the spice bag for spiced sweet pickles.
- Toss in a fresh chili or two with the spice bag for a sweet-heat hybrid.
Ingredients
Directions
*(If packed whole, use cucumbers of uniform size)
Can be canned whole, in strips, or in slices.
Procedure: Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch slice off blossom end and discard, but leave ¼ inch of stem attached. Place whole cucumbers in suitable 1-gallon container. Add ¼ cup canning or pickling salt to 2 quarts water and bring to a boil. Pour over cucumbers. Add suitable cover and weight. Place clean towel over container and keep the temperature at about 70 degrees F.
On the third and fifth days, drain salt water and discard. Rinse cucumbers and rescald cover and weight. Return cucumbers to container. Add ¼ cup salt to 2 quarts fresh water and boil. Pour over cucumbers. Replace cover and weight, and re-cover with clean towel. On the seventh day, drain salt water and discard. Rinse cucumbers and rescald containers, cover, and weight. Slice or strip cucumbers, if desired, and return to container. Place celery seed and pickling spices in small cheesecloth bag. Combine 2 cups sugar and 4 cups vinegar in a saucepan. Add spice bag, bring to a boil and pour pickling solution over cucumbers. Add cover and weight, and re-cover with clean towel.
On each of the next six days, drain syrup and spice bag and save. Add ½ cup sugar each day and bring to a boil in a saucepan. Remove cucumbers and rinse. Scald container, cover, and weight daily. Return cucumbers to container, add boiled syrup, cover, weight, and re-cover with towel.
On the 14th day, drain syrup into saucepan. Fill sterile pint jars (for more information see “Jars and Lids") or clean quart jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Add ½ cup sugar to syrup and bring to boil. Remove spice bag. Pour hot syrup over cucumbers, leaving ½-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process according to the recommendations in Table 1 or use low-temperature pasteurization treatment. (For more information see “Low-Temperature Pasteurization Treatment".) Table 1. Recommended process time for 14-day Sweet Pickles in a boiling-water canner.
Style of Pack: Raw. Jar Size: Pints. Process Time at Altitudes of 0 - 1, 000 ft: 5 min. 1, 001 - 6, 000 ft: 10 min. Above 6, 000 ft: 15 min.
Style of Pack: Raw. Jar Size: Quarts. Process Time at Altitudes of 0 - 1, 000 ft: 10 min. 1, 001 - 6, 000 ft: 15 min. Above 6, 000 ft: 20 min.
Comments
I love old fashioned sweer pickles and have a bmper crop this yr. Please help me!!