Quilter 53

When I was a little girl, my Gramma use to make a sweet cucumber pickle that was peeled, seeded, sliced the long way, no onions and no obvious spices. Unfortunately, the recipe has been lost and no one in the family has a clue. We use to call them Gramma's pickles, not much help when doing a recipe search.
My question is, can I just use the vinegar and sugar solution from other recipes and omit all the spices when canning them? I do have some pickle crisp granules by Ball that is supposed to omit the soaking step. Their website wasn't much help either.
This is only my second time making pickles as we usually don't have that many cucumbers from the garden and the first batch wasn't that good.
Thanks for any help!!
Karen

quilt1950

No recipe here. But were they very yellow? My Mom would buy a pickle that looked like that, imported from Germany, when I was a child. I loved those pickles, but can't find them anywhere. I don't remember there being any obvious
spices, but that could just be my memory. But something turned them so yellow. Also, these appeared to be made from regular cucumbers, not the small cucumbers generally used to make pickles.

Quilter 53

Don't know what color the cukes were to begin with but the processed pickle was pretty pale, white-ish. I'm pretty sure Gramma was using the overly long cucumbers that got left on the vines too long. Probably why she peeled them ,to get rid of any bitterness. And one slice would stand up in a quart jar and she'd just pack it as full as she could get it.

mawluv

It sounds like old fashion lime pickles. I made them years ago from the larger cukes that had started to turn yellow. I remember peeling,seeding and slicing longwise. I lost everything in a house fire some years ago, so don't have a recipe. Try GOOGLING lime pickles and see what you get, hope this helps.

crafty pat

This is my DM's. 12 large yellow cucumbers, 1 quart white vinegar, 2 oz. mustard seed and 1 pound of sugar. Peel cucumbers and cut in quarters, remove seeds then cut to fit jars. Soak overnight in brine of one cup salt to one gallon water. Drain. Bring vinegar, mustard seed and sugar to a boiling point, add cucumbers and cook until you can pierce with a fork. Seal hot in sterilized jars. I hope this helps.

Quilter 53

Thanks, crafty pat, other than the mustard seed, it makes sense.
Mawluv, did the google search on lime pickles and an image search and couldn't find something like I remember.
Think the mustard seed might make it yellow like quilt1950 remembers, so guess I'll give it a try tomorrow.
Maybe I'll try some with the mustard seed and some without.
Thanks to all!
Karen

GingerK

I have an old Lutheran cookbook. There is a recipe called 'Jill's Slippery Jacks', which I have made and quite liked. It sound a lot like what you described.

Jill's Slippery Jacks

Wash 10 cucumber, ripe and as large as they grow, and cover with boiling water. Net day, drain and cover again with boiling water. Repeat this step on third day. On fourth day peel, remover seeds and cut into strips.
Prepare syrup of:
6 cups sugar
2 tbsp pickling spice in cheesecloth
5 tsp. salt
4 cups white vinegar
Boil syrup for 2 minutes. Add cucumber strips. Let sit for 2 days. Then bring to a boil but do not cook. Put in sterilized jars and seal. Recipe from St. Peter's Lutheran church in Port Colbourne, Ontario

I cut the cucumbers into wedges instead of strips. I also drained the syrup and packed the cucumber wedges into jars, then reheated the syrup, removed the bag of pickling spices, filled the jars and then processed in canner like they were dills. They were good and the cucumbers kept their crunch.

squires1042

Turmeric makes them yellow ,mustard seed adds a flavor

granny64

We have some that we call Grandma Pickles, too. We would use the peelings from the cucumbers. Place pickles with salt on them in frig overnight. Drain pickles next day and place them on towel to get excess water out. Bring to a boil equal parts of water, sugar, 1/4 tsp. alum and apple cider vinegar. Put pickles in jar and pour vinegar mix over pickles in the jar. Seal with lid and ring and invert jar on counter until it cools. Place these in frig because they are not processed. If you process, pickles will be soft.