Make your own pickles

Bread and butter pickles.  Photo by Rob Robitaille

I'm not sure if it because I am German, but I love sour stuff.  I will eat just about anything pickled or fermented.  The inspiration for this post comes from getting really pissed off at the grocery store the other day.  I don't typically buy pickles because my mom usually keeps me well stocked, but my stock is mostly gone so I wanted to scout out some options.  Have you read the ingredients of pickles lately?  Try to find a brand that does not have sodium benzoate.  Even the refrigerator dills have preservatives. Moreover, some even have artificial color!  WTF!?  Let's think a minute here.  Isn't pickling, by definition, a form of food preservation?  So what's up with the preservatives?  Let's not forget the artificial color.  What, they aren't pretty enough?  I am totally blown away by that and I wouldn't accept any explanation of it, no matter who delivered it.  It just doesn't make sense.

Fortunately, there is a solution to this and we don't have to put up with that BS.  Make them yourself.  I realize that it is winter an fresh cucumbers are impossible to come by, but pretty much every grocery store carry the hybrid cucumbers.  Granted, we don't know how they are grown, but at least the enemy has been reduced to the cucumber itself and not some chemist at a pickle factory.  If you can find organic, all the better.  As an added bonus, home make refrigerator pickles are easy to make and don't take a ton of time.  Not to mention, they are better than store bought (no big surprise there).  My friend Steve, who is a self proclaimed pickle connoisseur, gave these a shining review.  These are ready to eat in a couple days and are really delicious after a week.   Give it a try and let the big manufacturers know that you aren't gong to take any more of their shit.  Enjoy.

Bread and Butter Pickles

• 2 large hybrid cucumbers cut into 1/16th" slices* (they are the long smooth cucumbers that are individually wrapped and have no seeds to speak of.  Great for B&Bs)
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced
• ½ red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced
• ½ green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced
• 1 TB kosher salt

Brine:

• 1 ⅔ cups sugar
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1 ½ tsp. brown mustard seeds
• ½ tsp. celery seed
• ½ tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 TB kosher salt

1. Combine cucumbers, onion, garlic, and peppers in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for 1 hour. Transfer to a 1-qt. glass jar, leaving the liquid behind, and set aside.
2. Bring sugar, vinegar, mustard and celery seeds, turmeric, and salt to a boil in a 1-qt. saucepan.  Pour mixture over the vegetables and seal the jar. Let cool to room temperature and then store in refrigerator.  They are ready in a couple days and will keep for a couple weeks, although I have never been able to test that theory because they get eaten quickly.

*Cooks note: A mandolin works great for this and even better if you have a blade with ridges so they look like official B&Bs.