Sweet, luscious home-canned morsels of pickled cucumber. Delicious in a relish tray.
The recipe
Jar size choices: ½ litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz) OR 1 litre (US quart / 32 oz)
Processing method: Water bath or steam canning
Yield: 4 x 1 litre (US quart) jars
Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)
Processing time: Either size jar 5 minutes
Note that the size of your slices and the width of the cucumbers used will affect how many go into a jar, and therefore how much pickling liquid is needed.
Note also that, yes, the brine is all vinegar, no water. Presumably that’s part of the reason for all the sweetness, to cancel some of the tart taste out.
Sweet Pickle Slices
Ingredients
- 3 ½ kg pickling cucumbers ( 8 lbs, 7 to 10 cm long / 3 to 4 inches long)
- 5 tablespoons picking salt
- 1 litre white vinegar (4 cups / 32 oz)
- 1 kg sugar (white. 4 ½ cups / 36 oz)
- 2 teaspoons celery seed
- 1 tablespoon allspice (whole berries)
- 2 tablespoons mustard seed
- onion (optional)
- Pickle Crisp (optional)
Instructions
- Wash cucumbers well. Trim small sliver off each end.
- Cut cucumbers into rounds or strips.
- Place in bowl, toss with salt.
- Cover with 5 cm (2 inches) of ice cubes or crushed ice.
- Let stand for 3 to 4 hours. Refrigerate if possible. Otherwise add more ice as needed.
- Meanwhile mix everything from the vinegar down to the mustard seed in a very large pot. Set aside.
- Drain the cucumbers well.
- Bring the pickling solution to a boil.
- Add the cucumber slices to the pot, and heat them until they are just hot.
- Pack cucumber slices into jars, leaving 2 cm (½ inch) headspace.
- To each jar, add (optionally) 2 slices of fresh onion and ⅛th teaspoon Pickle Crisp (¼ teaspoon for the litre / quart jars)
- Pour heated pickling solution into jars, leaving 2 cm (½ inch) headspace.
- If you are short of heated vinegar, just quickly zap some more vinegar with a bit of sweetener in it in microwave, mind surge effect when removing from microwave.
- Debubble, adjust headspace.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Put lids on.
- Process in a water bath or steam canner.
- Process either size jar for 5 minutes. Increase time as needed for your altitude (see table below.)
- Best after at least a month.
Nutrition
Processing guideline times below differ slightly from the usual altitude changes. The times apply equally to water-bath canners or steam canners.
| Required processing time in minutes per altitude | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jar Size | 0 - 300 m / 0 - 1,000 ft | 301 - 900 m / 1,001 - 3,000 ft | 901 - 1,800 m / 3,001 - 6,000 ft | Above 1,800 m / 6,000 |
| ½ litre (US pint) | 5 min | 10 min | 10 min | 15 min |
| 1 litre (US quart) | 5 min | 10 min | 10 min | 15 min |
Reference information
How to water bath process.
How to steam can.
When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.
Several extension experts say it is safe to reduce or omit the salt in quick fresh-pack pickles.
More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.
Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.
Recipe notes
You could reduce the salt, or replace it with a non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub (such as Herbamare.)
Instead of the sugar, you could use the same volume amount of Splenda® OR 5 teaspoons liquid stevia (such as Better Stevia liquid stevia. )
Recipe source
Quick Sweet Pickle Slices. In: Andress, Elizabeth L. and Judy A. Harrison. So Easy to Preserve. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Bulletin 989. Sixth Edition. 2014. Page 135.
The authors also give a raw pack option, in which the pickles aren’t heated first. Processing times are longer. 10 mins for US pints; 15 mins for US quarts from 0 to 300 metres. See page 181 of the book for other altitude times for raw pack. Note however that if you do reduce the sugar or use a non-caloric sweetener, you should use the hot pack option for sure.
The authors also give an option for making this with pickling lime. Consult book for those directions.
Modifications
- increased vinegar by 125 ml (4 oz) to round it up to 1 litre/ US quart, as you’ll likely need that bit extra, anyway;
- added salt sub option;
- added Pickle Crisp option instead of their pickling lime suggestion.
Nutrition information
You can make the regular version (81 calories, 221 mg sodium per 10 pickles) or make it sugar and salt-free (22 calories, 4 mg sodium.)
Regular version
Per 50 g / 10 pickles:
- 81 calories, 221 mg sodium
Sugar and salt-free version
Per 50 g / 10 pickles:
- 22 calories, 4 mg sodium
Notes: 450 g of pickle solids / 80 pickles per litre / quart jar. Equals approx 50 g per 10 pickles
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.
* Herbamare ® is a registered trademark of the A. Vogel Corporation.
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