Crispy Sweet Pickles – Water Bath or Cold Pack Canned
Sweet Pickles are the perfect thing to do with the plethora of cucumbers in your garden! They can be water bath canned or cold packed (quick pickled), for shorter storage!
I have about half a ton of cucumbers this year in my garden! So I need to do something, anything, with them all! I hate wasting food! I have given them to friends and family and they still keep coming! This Sweet Pickles recipe has come to my salvation more times than I care to say! Want to learn my secrets to growing so many cucumbers from 4 plants? See my How to Plant a Vegetable Garden Series for tips and tricks!
How to ensure your pickles are crispy
As everyone who likes pickles knows, the key to a good pickle is that they are crispy! Soggy pickles? No, Thank YOU!
To this end, I utilize a few tricks to make them extra crispy.
- Make pickles the same day you pick them.
- Salt cucumbers to remove some of the water from the pickle.
- Use black tea to help the pickles stay crisp.
- Additional tips for crispy pickles.
How to make sweet pickles
- Wash pickles well.
- Slice into spears, lengthwise. See recipe notes for quantities.
- Pickles can also be sliced about 1/8″ thick, by hand or carefully, with a mandolin. Add salt to pickles.
- Toss cucumbers around with hands to distribute the salt among all of the cucumbers. Let cucumbers sit, in a colander, over a bowl, on the counter, or in the refrigerator, overnight.
- Place water and vinegar and sugar to a pot.
- Add spices. Heat over high heat, stirring until sugar is melted. Heat until the mixture boils. Reduce heat until ready to use.
- Rinse the cucumbers well and allow to drain for a few minutes.
- Load cucumbers in hot, sterilized jars. To load spears, lay jar on it’s side and lay the pickles in.
- Squeeze as many sliced cucumbers per jar as you can fit.
- Ladle hot vinegar mixture into jars. Wipe rims of jars clean with a damp towel. Attach lids and tighten bands, finger tight.
Process in water bath canning pot for 15 minutes for pints and 20 minutes for quarts. Turn off heat and allow jars to sit in hot water for another 5 minutes. Carefully remove from canning pot and let sit on counter overnight. Then check lids. If they flex up and down in the center, store in the refrigerator. If they are fully sealed, store in a cool dark place for up to 12- 18 months.
What to do with sweet pickles
Sweet Pickles are great for more things than just a side for burgers or sandwiches.
- Chop and add to salads, like potato, macaroni or tuna for an added kick.
- Use them in your holiday or hostess gift baskets.
- Chop and add to mayonnaise or ketchup for a new condiment.
- Add to pizzas or casseroles to make a burger themed dish.
- Use them in easy appetizers, with ham and cheese rolled around the pickle.
- Add to chef’s salads.
- Make a cheese ball with pickles.
Other delicious pickled recipes
- Pickled Peppers
- Pickled Red Onion
- Sweet Pickle Relish
- Pickled Garlic Scapes
- Pickled Radishes
- Kosher Pickles
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Tools I use to make sweet pickles
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That’s how easy it is to make Sweet Pickles. Thanks for stopping by today!
Enjoy! And have fun cooking!
Xoxo,
Sweet Pickles
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Salt kosher or canning salt
- 1 cup Sugar
- 2 cup cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon celery seed
- 1 teaspoon mustard seed
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 4 bags black tea
- 3 pounds cucumbers about 10 cups of slices
Instructions
- Slice cucumbers, by hand or (very carefully) with mandolin3 pounds cucumbers
- Add cucumbers and salt to bowl. Toss to coat all cucumber slices with salt.1/4 cup Salt
- Cover bowl and stand on counter, or in refrigerator overnight.
- Next morning, place in bowl and rinse salt off of cucumbers. Rinse the cucumbers well or they will be salty! Allow to drain.
- In a sauce pan, add sugar, vinegar, water and spices. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.1 cup Sugar, 2 cup cider vinegar, 1 cup water, 1 teaspoon celery seed, 1 teaspoon mustard seed, 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- Reduce heat and high simmer or low boil, for about 30 minutes.
- Sterilize jars in canning pot.
- Remove hot jars, one at a time and drain water. Cut open black tea bag and add 1 bag per pint jar.4 bags black tea
- Pack cucumber slices into hot jars, within a 1/2 inch of top of jar.
- Pour hot canning liquid into jar leaving ½" headspace.
- Wipe rim of jar with wet towel. Attach hot lids and tighten bands finger tight. Return to canning pot.
- Process jars for 15 minutes per pint, adjusting for altitude. Allow to rest in hot water 5 minutes after turning heat off.
- Remove jars from canning pot and let sit on counter overnight.
- Check seal in the morning, if lids flex up and down, when pressed in center, jar is not properly sealed. Store any that didn't seal in refrigerator.
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Notes
Nutrition
Love Gardening? If you love growing your own produce, these posts are packed full of information about how to get that big harvest by the end of the season! Don’t miss How to Start a Garden Series! The first part is Planning Your Garden!
Second is Preparing the Garden Site.
The third is Choosing Plants and Planting Your Garden.
The fourth is Garden Maintenance, and the last is Harvesting a Garden and Preserving the Harvest, this post has over 100 FREE recipes for preserving your harvest!
how long should these sweet pickle sit before opening?
You can eat them right away but they will taste better after a month or so.
What does the black tea do??? Can I leave it out?
Yes, you can leave it out. It is thought that the tea makes them crispier, but we haven’t proven that true.
I have used the Lime soaking and that really helps. Have you tried that one for sweet pickles?
No. We haven’t tried food grade lime.
Can I use this recipe for whole sweet pickles?
Yes you can Betty.
Directions call to process 15 minutes per pint. So if I’m processing 8 pints, I would process a total of 2 hours? Really?
That is 15 minutes for pint jars. It doesn’t matter how many pints are in the canning pot. Just 15 minutes. Total.
On #12 Processing time difference between recipe and print out. Almost lost a complete batch. Please correct asap. I caught and had already processed for 30 min. All has sealed but haven’t tried yet.
We don’t see the error. Step number 12 says to process pints for 15 minutes. Can you be more specific?
Looks good. just to clarify you boil brine for 30 minutes & then start packing cukes in jars. **Or do you boil then continue to simmer while you pack cukes in jars?
Thanks Angela. Bring the brine to a boil, then reduce the heat to a high simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes. Then pack the cukes and pour the hot brining liquid over them, leaving the headspace.
Can you use this recipe on sweet gherkins?
Yes. Absolutely Betty.
Want to try this with whole small pickles. Will salting them still work.?
Sorry we missed your question. The salt will remove some of the water but not as much as if you slice them. They may not be as crispy but will still be tasty.
Commenting again to change my star rating!
I did have to double the brine. I made 2 quarts and 1 pint.
These taste amazing, almost like bread and butter pickles! Very pleased. Thank you.
Your welcome Becca. I’m glad you like them!
I followed this recipe to a T and the brine didn’t even make enough to fill 1 quart jar. So now I have to wait 30mins to fill my jars with enough brine.
Perhaps you cooked the brine down further? I have made this recipe at least 100 times and always have enough brine or more than I need.
Looking to make the in slices. However my question is how did you get the ripple/crinkle cut on the cucumbers on the slices? What slicer did you use?
I have a mandolin with a crinkle cut blade. They have hand slicers with waffle cut too. Thanks for checking out the recipe Mike!
Hi Beth,
I have my cukes in the salt now and will make these in the morning. I just want to clarify the use of the black tea. Do I cut open the tea bag and dump the contents into each pint jar? I want to make quart jars – should I use 2 tea bags? I can’t wait to get these made and try them in a few weeks!
Do you have a dill pickle recipe you use?
Thank you!
Hi Jane, Yes I just dump the teas bags in them. One bag should be plenty for a quart. I hope you like them! Here is a dill recipe. Kosher Pickles