Grandma's Pickles in a Bucket

More pickling for week 3 of the Preserve the Bounty Challenge!

This recipe comes from my Grandma. My Grandmother is the Queen of Canning. Her canned tomatoes and pickled beets are stuff of legends (seriously)! I've always said if there is a natural disaster or the Armageddon, I'm going to Grandma's house. There is enough canned food there to feed an army, or my large family! While over for lunch one day she put a dish of the sweetest, most delicious pickles on the table. I ate the entire bowl full myself - and I didn't feel bad about it either because Grandma just went to the fridge and filled the bowl right up again. I might have eaten those ones too!

These are no cook, refrigerator pickles. Grandma keeps her pickles in a giant plastic ice cream pail. I don't have a pail quite that large, nor the space to store it, so I made my pickles in batches and packed them into 1 litre canning jars. Grandma's original recipe also calls for TWICE as much sugar as vinegar. I reduced the sugar slightly in my own brine, but for the recipe post I have left it as is.

2 cups white vinegar
4 cups sugar
2 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp celery seed (or celery salt)
1 tsp mustard seed
2 long English cucumbers, thinly sliced
1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
2 1L canning jars, sanitized per manufacturers directions

1. Add sugar, vinegar, salt, turmeric, celery seed and mustard seed to a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and stir until it becomes a syrupy consistency and sugar is completely dissolved.

2. Pack sliced veggies into sanitized 1L canning jars. Fill jars with syrup to just below the neck, leaving at least 1/2 inch of head space.

3. Leave in the fridge for at least 48 hours before eating. Shake jars a few times a day.

4. Keep refrigerated. Will keep in the fridge for up to one year.