Shakin & Bakin Foodie Blog

When I was in my early teens my maternal grandmother started to teach me food preservation. This included: home canning, freezing and dehydrating foods she harvested from her backyard garden. As a young girl, I really didn't appreciate her knowledge but now that I am a mother & wife myself...I realize the full value of everything she taught me during those years.

One of the things that she taught me was how to make bread and butter sweet pickles. She taught me how to can them and also taught me how to freeze them. Today...I can sharing with all of you one of her super easy pickle recipes.

** Note: The reason my pickles look super dark in that glass mason jar is because I placed them in dark purple glass jars! Trust me...they look like regular pickles!
Grandma's Recipe for Cucumber Pickles

3-4 large or 6-8 small cucumbers
1 cup sweet onion, sliced or diced
1/4 cup green bell pepper, chopped
3 tbsp. pickling salt
4 cups granulated sugar
2 cups white vinegar
1 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1 tsp. ground mustard (I use Colman's in the yellow tin)
4-6 plastic or glass freezer containers

Wash the cucumbers, onion and bell pepper; dry. Slice cucumbers into slices...we like our's thin so I usually do 1/8" to 3/16" slices. Slice onion or chop it into small pieces (according to your preference and chop the green bell pepper.

In a large mixing bowl combine together the sliced cucumbers, onion, green bell pepper and pickling salt. Stir until everything is well combined. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 4 hours, stirring every 30 minutes and re-covering the bowl.

In a large mixing bowl combine together the granulated sugar, white vinegar, celery seed, ground turmeric and ground mustard. Stir until well blended together. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 4 hours, stirring every 30 minutes and re-covering the bowl.

Pour the cucumber mixture into a colander and run tap water over the mixture to rinse off the salt and to drain away all liquid. I like to let mine set in the colander for several minutes. Pour cucumbers back into their original bowl. Slowly pour the sugar and vinegar mixture into the cucumber & pepper mixture until well combined, stirring after each addition. Let this mixture sit for 10 minutes.

Spoon pickle mixture into freezer-safe containers leaving a 1" headspace in each container. Cover. Place them into the freezer. When ready to use...thaw them in the refrigerator overnight. Once thawed, they will keep for several days in the refrigerator. Do NOT let them sit out in room temperature for hours!

Print Recipe: You can print out this recipe by clicking on the SHARE button located at the bottom of this post. A new window will open. Click on PRINT and the recipe will load into the window for fast printing. Enjoy!