'Tis the Season for Canning - Bread & Butter Pickles

These pickles are my favorite! Sometimes they go half a jar at a time . . . and that's just me eating them. The good thing about these pickles is that while they do have to sit for 3 hours, they are not the 14-day kind of pickle. Yes, there are some recipes out there that take 14 days to make pickles.

Bread & Butter Pickles

6 quarts cucumbers, medium sized, thinly sliced
6 white onions, medium sized, sliced
3/4 cup salt
2 cups water
1 quart vinegar
4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons celery seed
2 tablespoons mustard seed

Wash cucumbers thoroughly before slicing. Arrange cucumbers and onions in layers in an large bowl. Sprinkle each layer with salt. Cover and let stand 3 hours. Drain off the juice which has accumulated.

Combine water, vinegar, sugar, celery seed and mustard seed. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved; boil 3 minutes.

Add cucumber mixture and bring once more to the boiling point but do not boil.

Pack immediately in hot sterilized jars. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. (Add 1 additional minute of water bath time for every 1000 feet above sea level.)

Recipe from the 1942 Woman's Home Companion Cook Book