Bread and Butter Pickles

Garden fresh cucumbers and just a few simple ingredients and you can make your own easy Bread and Butter Pickles from scratch!

Next, try our Easy Pickled Onions!

I’ve mentioned I love pickles, right?  Since making the Super Easy Dill Pickles, our cucumbers have continued to explode. No, seriously. I’ve been making so many Asian Cucumber Salads (which trust me is not a bad thing), because we’ve had SO many cucumbers coming out of our garden!  I seriously can’t believe it and couldn’t be happier. So it was time to make some more pickles. Some sweet and sour delicious easy-to-make Bread and Butter Pickles.

Why are they called Bread and Butter?

Ever wonder why these sweet and sour pickles got the name Bread and Butter Pickles? Me too, but I didn’t really get a definitive answer, here’s what my extensive research (Google search) found:

• They were an everyday food, just as common as “bread and butter.”
• During the Great Depression, they were eaten with bread and butter as sandwiches because cucumbers were once considered super nutritious
• Cucumber farmers in the 1920s Omar and Cora Fanning started making them and then would barter them for staples such as bread and butter.
• Some dude whipped these up at home and sold them roadside and they were such a success that it became his ‘bread and butter.’

The latter is of course my favorite so it’s the one I’m going with.

Ingredients Needed

• Cucumbers – We love to grow Japanese Cucumbers in our gardens which are our favorites for pickles, but English or Kirby are also great.
• Sugar – For the sweetness! We use both white and brown sugar.
• Vinegar – White and Apple Cider to add just the right amount of tang.
• Spices – Mustard seeds, turmeric, and kosher salt.

All very easy to make! And customizable – sometimes we cut the sugar for a little more bite and other times we add a touch more sugar for additional sweetness!

Tools Needed

(Amazon affiliate links)- You can find all of my kitchen essentials here!

Mandoline – While not 100% necessary, this is a tool for your kitchen that you will use SO much and that will make getting that nice crinkle cut on the pickles as well as a nice thin slice for some homemade potato chips or our cucumber salad!
Wide Mouth Mason Jars – This is what we use to store these easy pickles, the wide mouth makes access so much easier!
Pyrex Measuring Cup– This will make filling those jars with the pickling liquid much easier!

Easy to Make

Step 1: Crinkle slice cucumbers with a mandoline at 1/8 inch thickness.

You can of course also slice them thin with a knife, but we love the crinkle-cut look that you can get from a mandolin.

Step 2: Add a healthy dose of salt to “sweat” or draw out the excess liquid from the cucumbers. Let them sit for an hour before giving them a good rinse.

Step 3: Meanwhile add the sugar, vinegars, and spices to a pot to bring to a boil.

Step 4: Pack your pickles in a jar and then pour in the hot vinegar sugar mixture.

Step 5: Let it cool and then pop it in the fridge to crisp overnight and the next day you’re good to go!

No fermentation required for these refriderator Bread and Butter Pickles!

The next dady, we devoured these sweet, tangy, sour, crunchy bread and butter pickles! We actually agreed we liked them more than the dill pickles. They’re just so incredibly snackable!

These are not going to last long.  Luckily, my cucumbers are still exploding and so there will be many many more refrigerator pickle jars in our future! Happy pickle-making!

Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!

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Bread and Butter Pickles

Garden fresh cucumbers and just a few simple ingredients and you can make your own Bread and Butter Pickles from scratch!

4.98 from 41 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free, Low Calorie, Vegan

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Resting Time: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 2 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 1 Quart

Author: Tracy

Equipment

• ▢
  Mandoline
• ▢
  wide mouth mason jars
• ▢
  pyrex optional

Ingredients

• ▢ 5 1/2 cups 1 1/2 pounds thinly sliced cucumbers
• ▢ 1 1/2 Tablespoons kosher salt
• ▢ 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• ▢ 1 cup white vinegar
• ▢ 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• ▢ 1/4 cup light brown sugar packed
• ▢ 1 1/2 teaspoons mustard seeds
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric

Instructions

• Sweat Cucumbers: Thinly crinkle-cut cucumbers with a mandoline. Add cucumbers to a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Cover and chill to sweat for 1 1/2 hours. 
• Rinse Cucumbers: Drain cucumbers into a colander and shake off excess liquid before returning to the bowl.
• Create Pickling Liquid: Add sugars, vinegars, mustard seed, and turmeric to a medium saucepan and heat over medium to bring to a simmer. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Pour hot vinegar mixture over cucumber mixture; let stand at room temperature 1 hour. 
• Jar: Add cucumbers to large mason jars and then fill them with the pickling liquid.
• Chill: Seal with lids and refrigerate the jars for 24 hours. Store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Video

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