My family has been enjoying the sweet and tangy crunch of Bread & Butter pickles for decades. The perfect topping for a burger hot off the grill, a juicy part of a ham and cheese sandwich, chopped up for tartar sauce served with Clam Fritters, popular side for baked beans, or as a base for classic coleslaw dressing, Bread & Butter pickles are the mast of Maine cuisine. There are many old-time recipes, but the basic ingredients remain the same: cucumber slices, onion slices, salt, vinegar, sugar, mustard & celery seed and turmeric. Sometimes also ginger, red pepper pieces, or garlic.
A google search of the history of these pickles suggested that the name originated during the Great Depression era (1929 – 1939) as they were a popular and inexpensive way to jazz up a meal. Food historians cite that bread and butter pickles can most likely trace their roots back to Omar and Cora Fanning, who filed a patent for the name in 1923. Illinois cucumber farmers since they were married, by the late 1920’s the young couple was struggling to make ends meet. They started pickling small cucumbers they would have thrown away, using an old family recipe. When they couldn’t generate enough income to pay for basic goods with money, they exchanged the pickles with their local grocer for bread and butter.
By 1931 Bread and Butter pickles had become a holiday classic with newspaper advertisements touting their versatility and country fairs featuring recipe contests. By 1945 this pickle had become “All American”, promoted as a wartime staple alongside baked beans for Saturday night supper.
The final burst of summer is a good time to make pickles. Local farms and markets have an abundance of cucumbers. Here at Rabbit Hill our cucumber plants are thriving, producing a wealth of bright-green, long fruit. I grow the variety known as Suyo Long, known for making excellent pickles. In addition to fertile soil, cucumbers, just like Goldilocks, like things just right: a steady supply of water, good drainage and heat.
One of the keys to a good bread and butter pickle is the size of the slice. Uniform slices of anything “pickle” or brine more evenly. I’ve found that food processors don’t work that well in slicing, they often mangle the fruit. We use a mandolin for the most perfect cuts.
Salting and icing the cucumber and onion prior to cooking them in the brine also helps to keep them crisp. It’s a fine line between a soggy pickle slice, and a firm-crisp bite.
I asked my friend Heather to test this recipe to verify the steps and ingredients. She reported that the yield was exactly 9 pints jars. In her taste test, she thought swapping out ½ pound less onions for ½ pound more cucumbers was her family’s personal taste preference.
For the novice canner and preservation artist, this is a good recipe to try. Feel free to be inspired! The vegetable mix can be varied; strips of red pepper add a nice pop of color in the jar. Or try some ground ginger. Whatever the masterpiece, know that your creation of Bread and Butter Pickles has been over a century in the making. Enjoy!
Bread and Butter Pickles
Equipment
- 9 canning jars with lids 16-ounce (1 pint)
- mandolin or sharp knife
- food processor or sharp knife
- tub or large bowl to accommodate the vegetables for soaking
- large pot for cooking vegetables
- large pot to can the pickles
Ingredients
- 5 pounds slicing cucumbers sliced into ¼ inch rings
- 2 pounds 900g onions, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup 75 g pickling salt, Kosher salt, or Maine sea salt
- Ice to cover the vegetables
- 5 cups cider vinegar
- 3.25 cups 640 grams sugar
- 3 tablespoons yellow mustard seed
- 3 tablespoons celery seed
- 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
- 4 cups or more of ice
Instructions
- Assemble ingredients and tools.
- Scrub the cucumbers, and using a mandolin or sharp knife, slice the cucumbers into ¼ inch rings into a large bowl or tub.
- Peel the onions and thinly slice them with a knife or food processor into the same bowl or tub.
- Add the salt, gently stir it in. Cover the top with ice and refrigerate the vegetables for 4 hours or overnight.
- In a pot large enough to accommodate the vegetables, combine the vinegar, sugar, herbs and spices. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for 10 minutes.
- Drain the vegetables and rinse gently.
- Add the vegetables to the brine mixture and reheat until the vinegar boils again, stirring occasionally.
- Fill pint jars with the vegetable mixture, leaving ½ inch head space, and fill to that level with the brine. Wipe jar rims. Add and tighten lids. To store in the pantry, process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
- After processing and cooling, label the jars. For best flavor, allow the pickles to rest for 4 – 5 weeks before enjoying.
