PICKLING PROSPECTS
14-Day Sweet Pickles worth the two-week commitment
14-Day Sweet Pickles worth the two-week commitment, says food columnist
This year, I made a new kind of pickles, a type that I had previously shied away from because of the timing.
They are 14 Day pickles, and as the name indicates, two weeks pass between starting the process and packing the sweet and crisp chunks into bottles and processing in a boiling water bath.
Fourteen days sounds like a long time to be working on a batch of pickles, but the job is not as taxing as it sounds. Excluding the first day, when the cucumbers are picked over and trimmed of blossom ends, and the last day, when they’re bottled and processed, the daily commitment is about 15 minutes, including clean up. Aside from the fact that you cannot plan to take a trip during that two-week period, preparing these pickles doesn’t get in the way of daily activities.
What we like about the pickles is the spicy sweet flavour imparted by a vinegar solution spiked with pickling spices. We also like the crisp texture. The cucumbers crisp up because of something students learn about in science class: osmosis. The principle is that liquid will move through a membrane, such as cucumber skin, from a less concentrated solution (the interior of the cucumber) to a more concentrated one (the vinegar solution). As a little more sugar is added daily to the brine, making the sweet vinegar solution more concentrated, water is drawn from the cucumbers, so that they become crisper by the day.
14-Day Sweet Pickles
from “So Easy to Preserve” (revised by Andress, Elizabeth L., and Judy A. Harrison.) Cooperative Extension, University of Georgia, Athens, 2006.
1.8 kg (4 lb) of 5 cm-12.5 cm (2-5 inch) pickling cucumbers (for packing whole, use uniform size)
175 mL (¾ cup) pickling salt
25 mL (2 tbsp) mixed pickling spice
25 mL (2 tbsp) celery seed
1.3 L (5½ cups) sugar
1 L (4 cups) vinegar (5 per cent)
Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16 inch slice off bottom end and discard. Leave 0.6 cm (¼ inch) of stem attached. Place whole cucumbers in suitable 4 L (1 gallon) container. Add 25 mL (¼ cup) sugar to 2 L (2 qts) water and bring to a boil. Pour over cucumbers. Add suitable weight. Place clean towel over container and keep the temperature about 21 C (70 F.)
On the third and fifth days, drain salt water and discard. Rinse cucumbers. If any scum has formed, remove it and scald the weight. Return cucumbers to container. Add 25 mL (¼ cup) of salt to 2 L (2 quarts) fresh water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Pour over cucumbers. Replace cover and weight. Recover with clean towel.
On the seventh day, drain salt water and discard. Rinse cucumbers and scald container and weight. Cut cucumbers into slices or strips, if desired. Return whole or sliced cucumbers to container. Place celery seed and pickling spices in a small cheesecloth bag. Combine 500 mL (2 cups) sugar and 1 L (4 cups) vinegar in a saucepan. Add spice bag and bring to a boil.
Pour pickling solution over cucumbers. Place spice bag in container. Add cover and weight. Re-cover with a clean towel.
On each of the next six days, drain syrup into a saucepan. Remove spice bag and place in syrup. Add 125 mL (½ cup) sugar to syrup and bring to a boil. Remove cucumbers and rinse. Scald the container, cover and weight. Return cucumbers to container, add boiled syrup, spice bag, and weight. Re-cover with towel.
On the 14th day – sterilize canning jars, if processing in 500 mL bottles (pints). Remove and discard spice bag. Drain syrup into a saucepan. Add 125 mL (½ cup) sugar to syrup and bring to a boil. Pack pickles into hot 500 mL (pint) or 1 L (quart) jars, leaving 1.3 cm (½ inch) headspace. Fill jars to 1.3 cm (½ inch) from top with hot liquid. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rims. Adjust lids. Process 5 minutes for 500 mL (pints) or 10 minutes for litres (quarts) in a boiling water bath.
Makes 5-9 500-mL (pint) jars Note: To weigh the cucumbers, I used a 500 mL (2 cup) bottle full of water, sitting atop a plate, which sat atop the cucumbers.