My
mother-in-law sent me a stack of recipes a few years ago, No-Cook Pickles being
among them. This is one of those recipes that is so easy it’s downright stupid
not to make it and yet I haven’t. Until today, that is. So easy and so yummy
and I’m afraid to say it, but very, very addictive.
The
original recipe calls for 2 Cups of sugar, but I cut that back to 1½ cups with no
ill effects. The recipe also doesn’t say
what type of vinegar so I used apple cider vinegar. My mother-in-law is
a thrifty woman, so I’m betting that if she had only white vinegar she used it,
and you could do the same, though it would probably have a little more bite.
Finally, the recipe called for one bell pepper. I have a garden full of other
types of peppers and used Banana Peppers in the end because I had the most of
these ripe. Even the hot banana peppers would be good here. Heck, I may have to
try this with some of my hot, hot, hot peppers in the near future!
I
would recommend tasting the liquid with a slice of the cucumber before you put
these in jars to decide whether the tart to sweet ratio is right. If you taste
just the liquid you will want to tweak the mixture, but you won’t have as
realistic a picture of the balance without that cucumber in there.
Note : the pictures reflect a double batch because, dang, we've got a lot of cucumbers growing this year!
Jean
Solomon’s No-Cook Pickles
Makes
approx. 3 pints
1½
C Sugar
1C
apple cider vinegar
1
tsp Celery seed
1/8 tsp Kosher Salt
9
Medium Cucumbers
1
Medium Onion
1
Sweet pepper (Bell, banana, wax, Hungarian)
Mix
together the sugar and vinegar. Do Not Heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved, add
the celery seed and salt; set aside.
Slice cucumbers very thin. (Her recipe says paper thin, I went more like 1/8 of an inch
as that worked best with my mandolin.)
Put
the sliced cucumbers into a big bowl.
Thinly
slice the onion and pepper. Gently mix into the cucumbers until the onions and
peppers are spread throughout.
Pour
the vinegar/sugar mixture over the cucumber mixture and toss gently.
With
tongs, fish out the cucumber mixture and put into clean jars or plastic
containers. Leave about ¼ inch at the top of the jar.
Pour
the vinegar mixture into the jars. (Use a ladle if your pouring vessel/pouring skills aren't that good.) You can use the end of a wooden spoon to
kind of stir the pickles so there aren’t a lot of air bubbles. It’s not as
important with these since you won’t be putting them into a water bath, but you
do want the pickling solution to get all over your cucumbers!
Wipe
the top of the jar with a wet cloth and screw on a lid. Or wipe the top of your
plastic container & put on the lid.
That’s
it! Now, remember, these have not been canned, so they need to go into the
refrigerator but they will be good for a long time. Jean says until used up; in
this house that isn’t very long!
Try
to give them a day or two to get the flavor really going.
Enjoy!
If
you figure one serving is 1/8 of a pint jar, then this is the nutritional
breakdown, via SparkPeople’s Recipe Generator.
Calories
: 46; Total Fat 0g; Sodium, 9mg; Potassium 11.8mg; Total Carbohydrate 11.6g;
Dietary Fiber 0.1g; Sugars 11.1g; Protein 0.1g
So you can have your pickles and eat them, too!
