14-Day Sweet Pickles

14-day sweet pickles are mysterious things.  Basically, a crock would spring up overnight at some point in August/September.  A towel would cover it and one instinctively understood not to touch it.  The crock would never budge and then it would quietly disappear in two weeks.  In the winter, awesome meals such as soup beans and cornbread would be enhanced by the emergence of 14-day pickles, which are sweet and crunchy and embody pickle-awesomeness.

My mother was a night owl as was her father.  (Honestly, I'm a night owl too, and I sometimes feel like a vampire with a paper route by having a day job.)  Mom's pickle-making endeavors always occurred at night  When Dad left Borden's Dairy and went to work at General Foods, Mom's nocturnal pickle-making endeavors began.  I really don't remember Mom making pickles when we were small.  Pickle production continued when Dad left General Foods and went to work for R. H. Donnelly Corporation.  Even when Mom's cancer came out of remission, pickles were made.  Sadly, they slowed to a stop when she had to depend on Dad to lift the crock.  Daddy never minded helping, but I think Mom simply liked making them while home alone.

To be honest, I'm not sure that I have her exact recipe as there are some variations and I don't know which was her "tried and true" favorite.  Sometimes she made slices and sometimes spears.  I decided to make chunky slices.

First, be sure the cucumbers used are not "burp-less."  Mom said burp-less cucumbers made mushy pickles.  I never question when knowledge like this is given to me.  Two weeks is a lot of work to chance mushy pickles.  This summer, I had a booming cucumber crop!  14-day pickles were a given!

Surpremo and Straight Eight cumcumbers

I've not found a really good heirloom cucumber for pickles.  This season, I grew Supremo cucumbers, which is a pickling hybrid, and also Straight Eight heirlooms.  Both were used in my pickles. 

For a gallon of cucumbers, you will need 3 heaping tablespoons of alum, 8 cups of sugar, 1 cup of pickling salt, 6 cups of vinegar, 1/2 cup of pickling spice, 2 teaspoons of celery seed, 6 cinnamon sticks, gauze, water, and a crock.  (Mom used a huge open-topped crock that she covered with a towel.  I use a 5 liter Harsh Gairtopf fermenting crock that I bought for making sauerkraut.)

Day 1: Wash the cucumbers and cut a slice off of the blossom end.  (There is an enzyme in the blossom spot that can make the pickles mushy....or so I have been told.  Don't take chances.)  Slice or cut your cucumbers into desired shapes.  Place cucumbers in the crock.

Make a brine of 1/4 cup of pickling salt with 2 quarts of water.  Bring the brine to a boil and pour over the cucumbers.  Place a weight on the cucumbers and cover the crock.  Let the crock rest somewhere.  (The National Center for Home Food Preservation recommends letting it rest in a 70 degree Fahrenheit room.)

Day 3: Pour off the salt water and rinse the cucumbers.  Make another brine with 1/4 cup pickling salt and 2 quarts of boiling water.  Pour over the cucumbers, place the weight, and cover to let rest.

Days 5 & 7: Same as Day 3.

Cucumbers in Crock.

Day 9: Drain and rinse cucumbers.  Clean the crock and weights.  Place cucumbers in crock.  Make a solution with two quarts of boiling water with a heaping tablespoon of alum.  Pour over cucumbers, replace weights and cover to let rest.

Days 10 & 11: Same as Day 9.

Day 12: Drain and rinse cucumbers.  Clean the crock and weights.  Place the cucumbers inside of the crock.  Bundle the pickling spice and celery seed inside of the gauze.  (This is really optional, but I didn't want loose spices in my jar.)  Cinnamon sticks can be bundled in the spice bundle as can red chili peppers if a spicy-sweet flavor is desired.  (I used the cinnamon, but not the chili peppers for my pickles.)  Heat the vinegar with 5 cups of sugar and the spice bundle until it boils.  Pour the syrup and spice bundle over cucumbers.  Place the weights and cover.

Day 13: Drain cucumbers but SAVE the syrup and spice bundle.  Add two cups of sugar to the syrup and bring to a boil.  Pour over the cucumbers and cover.

Day 14: Drain the cucumbers but SAVE the syrup and spice bundle.  Add one cup of sugar to the syrup and bring to a boil.  Clean canning jars and pack cucumbers into jars.  Ladle syrup over the cucumbers leaving 1/2 inch of air space.  Seal jars and process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes.  (Spice bundle can be discarded or spices can be added to jars.)

I used white vinegar, but do not know whether Mom used apple cider vinegar or white vinegar though.  I should take a jar to Daddy.

All ready for winter.