Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe (2024)

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I’m a dill pickle girl. I have been since I was a little girl. Many years ago, when we were eating dinner at my parents’ house, my Mom offered us some homemade bread and butter pickles. I quickly declined. If it’s not dill, I don’t want it. (And I really dislike sweet pickles.)

But, when Eric had some, I decided to try a little taste. Then, I had to steal them off of his plate. Who knew? Those homemade bread and butter pickles were amazing!

Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe (1)

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So, just a few days later, I had to make my own batch. I was pleased at how easy they were to make. I also loved that I could make these homemade bread and butter pickles with no special canning equipment. Score!

Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe (2)

Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe

My Mom is pretty darn swell, so she picked up almost all of the ingredients I needed. (Mom for the win!)

The first step was to wash the pickling cucumbers that she had picked up for me. I forgot to count how many I started with. I think somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 – 16.

Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe (3)Next, I thinly sliced all of the pickling cucumbers. I ran out of room in the bowl I was putting them in, so you’ll see that I just stuck a cucumber’s worth in each of the big jars that I was getting ready to use.

I also chopped up the onion. And I cried. And I chopped some more, and I cried some more.

I am normally not crazy about onions, so I only used about half the amount in the recipe, but I decided that it was probably important to the recipe to actually put them in. (Plus, on the up side, the onions get pickled too, sothey just taste a lot like pickles in the end.)
Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe (4)I filled up six jars with cucumber slices and chopped onions.

My Mom warned me many times to really jam the jars full of cucumbers and onions. I thought I had. Let me tell you — I definitely had not. Next time I make them, I am going to push much harder than this. They aren’t all that full, though they do look really full.

Update: Since I first shared this recipe in 2009, I have gotten much better at really packing things into the jars. Well, sometimes.

Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe (5)I combined oneteaspoon Celery seeds, onetsp mustard seeds, fourcups of sugar, twocups of white vinegar, and twotablespoons or salt.

(Quick note: If you don’t want to buy a whole container of the spices that you need for this, you should check if anywhere in your area sells spices by weight in bulk. I got some of mine at a local health food/natural living store.)

I boiled the mixture. I also got too close and sniffed just at the right moment, and it kind of burned my sinuses. Okay, maybe not really burnt them, but it was not pleasant.

Do you know what was less pleasant? When I did it again.

Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe (6)I’m funny about pouring boiling hot liquids. So, instead of pouring the boiling hot liquid from the pan straight into the jars, I used a super-sized mixing cup (okay, it’s really a bowl with measurements on the side).

Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe (7)Yummy! Hello pickles and onions and spices! You look so good.

Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe (8)So, here’s the proof that I did not pack in the jars full enough. See how each jar has quite a large area of liquid at the bottom? Yeah, you see it? Well, that’s the proof. (It got a little bit worse after this too!)

Printable: Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe

Delicious Bread and Butter Pickle Recipe (Quick and Easy)

Quick and Easy Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe

5 from 5 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Canning and Preserving

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon Celery seeds
  • 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
  • 4 cups sugar
  • 2 cups vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons salt
  • 1 large onion
  • pickling cucumbers

Instructions

  • Slice unpeeled cucumbers (thinly) and sliced onion into glass jars. Pack tightly.

  • Bring spices, sugar and vinegar to a boil.

  • Pour over cucumbers and onions.

  • Store in fridge. Mix occasionally. (Keeps for many months.)

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Enjoy!

Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe (10)

Other Recipes You May Love:

Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe was originally published on September 8, 2009. It was last updated in May 2017.

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Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What gives bread and butter pickles their flavor? ›

Dill pickles have one main spice/herb that's used: dill. They're often on the sour side with a strong briny bite. In contrast, bread and butter pickles use a blend of turmeric, clove, celery seed, and red pepper flakes for a rounded-out flavor. None of the spices stand out, but all blend together for a richer taste.

Are homemade bread and butter pickles good for you? ›

Pickles are fat-free and low in calories, but they are also low in most other nutrients, except for sodium. A 100-gram serving of bread and butter pickles contains 457 milligrams of sodium, or nearly 20% of the recommended daily limit. Most pickles are high in sodium, so it is important to limit consumption.

What's the difference between regular pickles and bread and butter pickles? ›

Bread and butter pickles usually have a few more inclusions than sweet pickles – none of them actually being bread and butter of course. These extra ingredients are usually onions, green or red peppers, and various seeds from coriander, mustard, and celery plants.

Why do you soak cucumbers in salt water before making pickles? ›

This salt treatment draws water out of the cucumbers and flavors them, so it's critically important. After layering or mixing in plenty of sea salt, I cover the salted cukes with ice cubes and a tea towel and forget about them for a few hours.

What can I add to pickles to make them taste better? ›

Spicing Up Store Bought Pickles
  1. Heat – whole dried peppers, red pepper flakes, cayenne, black pepper corns, prepared horseradish, or hot sauce.
  2. Garlic – jarred minced garlic or garlic powder, stay away from fresh garlic because of the bacteria issues they can cause.

What makes pickles taste so good? ›

The process of fermentation gives pickle its distinctive flavor that serves as the perfect balance of spicy, sour and bitter to have along with a meal. The diversity of flavors in a single bite is what makes the dish truly complete.

Can you eat too many bread and butter pickles? ›

Eat bread-and-butter pickles in moderation to limit added sugars, and keep an eye out for sodium too—if you already eat out or eat foods high in sodium, a pickle spear or two per day could push you over the limit.

What is the shelf life of homemade bread and butter pickles? ›

Properly canned bread and butter pickles can be stored in a cool, dark place (like a pantry) for up to 1 year. Store opened jars in the fridge and use within 3 months.

What is another name for bread and butter pickles? ›

Today, the term is well known as a sweet pickle, like my Bread & Butter Chips. These pickles are sweeter than my dills, but they still have that pungent garlic flavor.

Why are my bread and butter pickles mushy? ›

Using too weak a salt brine or vinegar solution may cause soft or slippery pickles, as can using moldy garlic or storing the pickles at too warm a temperature.

Why am I craving bread and butter pickles? ›

Cravings for salty foods like pickles can sometimes indicate an electrolyte imbalance in the body. Electrolytes are essential for maintaining hydration and overall bodily functions.

Why do bread and butter pickles taste sweet? ›

Bread and butter pickles are best described as being a lot like sour dill pickles, but with sweet onion and sugar added to the pickling mix to give them their one-of-a-kind flavor. They are right at home on deli sandwiches, burgers, and charcuterie boards. And they're fantastic just straight out of the jar!

How long to let homemade pickles sit? ›

Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (for pickle rounds) or at least 3 hours (for pickle spears). The flavor will continue to develop over the next couple of days. These pickles will keep for up to 3 weeks in the refrigerator.

Do you rinse cucumbers after salting? ›

After the cucumbers have been salted for a period of time, you'll want to rinse off the excess salt. At this point, you may be thinking 'what the hell, I just spent all this time removing the water!

Should you refrigerate cucumbers before pickling? ›

For best quality, pickle fruits or vegetables within 24 hours of harvest, or refrigerate for no more than a few days. Remove all blossoms from cucumbers and cut a 1/16-inch slice from the blossom end. The blossoms contain enzymes that can cause softening of the final product.

What ingredient gives flavor to the pickles? ›

Spices: Use fresh, whole spices for the best flavor in pickles. Powdered spices may cause the product to darken or become cloudy. Tying whole spices loosely in a cheesecloth bag, putting the bag in the pickling liquid and the removing the bag before canning is best.

What gives the characteristics flavor of pickles? ›

Salt provides a suitable environment for lactic acid bacteria to grow. The lactic acid that they produce gives the pickle the characteristic flavour and preserves the vegetables. Salt can either be added to the vegetables as dry salt or made into a brine that the vegetables are soaked in.

Why do bread and butter pickles exist? ›

The resulting pickles were such a hit that Mrs. Fanning was able to barter with her local grocer, exchanging the pickles for household staples like bread and butter. The name stuck, and bread and butter pickles were an overnight success.

Why do I crave bread and butter pickles? ›

Your body may be low on sodium.

If you're not getting enough salt in your diet, or if you've depleted your sodium levels, you might experience intense cravings for pickles and other high-sodium foods.

References

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