Million Dollar Pickles - Home Cooking

Million Dollar Pickles

Cucumbers are soaked overnight to make these extra crispy, extra tasty pickle chunks.

2 dozen pickling cucumbers -- washed and sliced into thick chunks
1/2 cup salt
3 cups apple cider vinegar - 5% acidity
2 cups water
1 T. mustard seeds
1 T. celery seed
4 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar

Preparation -
Place the sliced pickles and salt in a large bowl and stir to mix well. Add enough water to cover the sliced cucumbers. Cover the bowl and let it stand overnight. The next morning, drain the cucumbers; set aside. Place the remaining ingredients in a stockpot and stir to mix well. Bring to a boil, and cook for about two minutes. Add the drained cucumbers, bring to a boil again, then remove from heat. Spoon the cucumbers, with the syrup, into into hot sterilized pint size canning jars. Pack the cumbers tightly in the jars with enough syrup to cover them completely, leaving 1/2" headspace. Run a thin spatula or non-metallic utensil through each jar to remove any air bubbles. Wipe the jar rims with a damp paper towel. Add the caps and bands. Place the filled jars in a boliing water bath canner and process for 10 minutes. (Start timing as soon as the water begins to boil.) Remove the jars from the canner at the end of the processing time, Cool, test the seals, label and store the jars in a dark, cool, dry area.

Pickles and Relishes: From Apples to Zucchinis, 150 recipes for preserving the harvest
Make pickles and relishes as tasty as Grandmother used to make — in much less the time, with far less salt, and with no chemical additives. The recipes in this cookbook include freezer pickles that take less than a half hour to prepare, refrigerator pickles that require no canning, salt-free pickles for dieters, plus variations on many old favorites. It has tips to guarantee crisp pickles without alum and illustrated step-by-step pickling methods.

	Allyson Elizabeth D´Angelo BellaOnline's Home Cooking Editor