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gardenmouse
Farmgirl in Training
24 Posts
Beth
Porterville
CA
USA
24 Posts |
 Posted - Jun 23 2010 : 7:23:00 PM
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I thought I'd share this recipe. My mom used to make these when I was growing up, and we always had them on special ocassions. The recipe is from a Kerr Home Canning Book with a price of 25 cents on the cover. The copyright dates are 1948, 1950, 1952, 1953, and 1955. So I'm guessing this is the 1955 edition. After my mom passed away, I carried on the tradition of making these pickles. They are great just to eat; but we love them in tuna salad, macaroni salad, and potato salad. Here's the recipe:
VIRGINIA SWEET CHUNK PICKLES
75 cucumbers 4 or 5 inches long, or 2 gallons small ones.
Or use what you have; most any nice solid cucumber makes a nice pickle. (I use Armenian cucumbers, the long ribbed, pale green ones)
Make brine of a proportion of 2 cups salt to one gallon water, boil and pour over cucumbers boiling hot. Let stand one week. In hot weather skim daily. Drain and cut in chunks. For the next three mornings make a boiling hot solution of one gallon water and one tablsspoon powdered alum and pour over the pickles, make this fresh hot bath for three mornings. On the fourth mornin drain and discard alum water. Heat 6 cups vinegar, 5 cups sugar, 1/3 cup pickling spice and 1 tablespoon celery seed to boiling point and pour over the pickles. On the fifth morning drain this liquid off and add 2 cups more sugar, heat again to boiling point and pour over the pickles. On the sixth morning drain liquid, add one cup sugar, heat, pack the pickles into sterilized jars and fill to within 1/2 inch of top of jar with the hot liquid. Seal at once.
My mom noted that she added a cinnamon stick to the syrup as it was boiled. And I also remember there being a few whole cloves in each jar. These are alot of work, but worth the effort. I usually make them every other year and enough to last two years. I also run a few jars through the food processor for use in my tuna and salads.
Do you have a favorite pickle recipe you would like to share? |
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Celticheart
True Blue Farmgirl
811 Posts
Marcia
WA
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Jun 25 2010 : 09:14:24 AM
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I make these about every other year. The recipe came from my husband's grandma and he loves them. They take a while but are worth the effort.
"Let us never forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other art follows. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization."
Daniel Webster
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Pickle Recipes
