pickles, pickles and more pickles

[so lucky]

Monty and Dew, I just don't know how you two get so much done in a day. I know two working together in harmony get more than twice as much as one, but you guys get 20 times as much done as this one person. Do you hire out?

 

[MontyJ]

Monty, DH is requesting dill pickle this year and we only have about a 1/2 bushel of cucumbers. (NOT pickling ones. Too big.) Will these work for slices? I can cut them into spears, too. You said you used a recipe from the Ball Blue Book? I will go have a look. DH has his Grandmother's recipe he wants to use. But as old hand written recipes go some things are a bit fuzzy.

I've never tried to use slicing cukes for pickles, but don't see why it wouldn't work. The recipe I used was the Hamburger Dill recipe for the slices (but I also added Pickle Crisp). I don't think it was the recipe that made them stay crisp, as much as the processing method. I sterilized the jars and filled them with the boiling hot brine. I started the timing as soon as they went into water canner (which was at a boil). That method is in the BBB. I think my whole problem in the past was overcooking them because I would wait until the canner returned to a boil before I started the timer. I also tried a "low-temperature pasteurization" treatment that I found here. I prefer the Ball method only because we have an electric range. If we had gas, I would use the pasteurization method. The temp was difficult to maintain at 180 with the electric range, but would be much easier with gas.


Lucky, our secret is simple...Dew is a slave driver. She really knows how to crack the whip

 

[Carol Dee]

I agree with SoLucky
Thanks for the tips Monty

 

[dewdropsinwv]

I might crack the whip, but think about it this way, "once begun is half done" Giter done