Ice Bread & Butter Pickles

The ice and salt soak is what separates a pickle that snaps from one that goes limp by Thanksgiving. Layering sliced cucumbers and onions with kosher salt and crushed ice for three hours pulls excess water out of the cucumbers while the cold keeps the cell walls firm. The result is a pickle that stays stiff in the jar even after the hot brine bath that follows.

Don’t skip the three hours. The soak is non-negotiable here. Drain too early and you’ll get watery pickles that dilute the brine.

For flavor, this leans hard on the bread-and-butter classic profile: five cups of sugar to a quart and a quarter of vinegar gives you that sweet, tangy edge with the warmth of mustard seed and celery seed humming in the background. The ¼ teaspoon of turmeric is what gives commercial bread-and-butter pickles their golden glow, no artificial color needed.

This recipe makes a serious batch, a gallon of cucumbers and two quarts of onions, enough for 30+ jars. It’s a canning recipe meant for late summer when cucumbers come in faster than you can eat them.

Pro Tips

• Slice cucumbers ¼ inch thick, evenly. Mixed thicknesses pickle unevenly.
• Use crushed or shaved ice, not whole cubes. Smaller pieces melt at the right rate to keep the cucumbers cold throughout the soak.
• Drain thoroughly after the salt-ice soak but don’t rinse. Rinsing removes the salt that’s already pulled water out.
• Pack jars with cucumbers tight and pour the boiling brine to within ½ inch of the rim.
• Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes for shelf-stable canning, or refrigerate without processing for 6-week pickles.

Variations

• Add 1 to 2 fresh hot peppers per jar for spicy bread-and-butter pickles.
• Toss in a couple of cloves of garlic per jar for a more savory edge.
• Add 1 teaspoon of whole black peppercorns and 2 dried chile de árbol for a deeper, hotter flavor.