Spiderman Peter Parker may have been born with his spidey sense, but it has nothing on the foodie sense friend Ed and offspring Fire Girl Jess have when it comes to the first pickling cucs hitting the farm stand in August.
This unlikely duo, for reasons that are well beyond my simple-minded ability to comprehend, clamor for our Hot Damn Bread and Butter Pickles like Texans do for copious amounts of cheap, tasty brisket on Sunday afternoons after church.
Living in the culinary desert that is Cascade, Montana Jess has eaten a couple of cases of these in the past six months, occasionally (by report) an entire pint jar for dinner. Fresh green vegetables are a rarity in Cascade and, when available, are apparently anything but fresh and still valued somewhere in the range of refined silver.
Just a few days ago she informed me that her stock was running low and that it was time to start looking for the early season pickling cucs to hit our farm stand; I saw the first cucs in the cooler the next day.
I don’t know what to say about Ed’s pickle fetish. For a wealthy bastard who could hire a pickle impresario to ship him the best pickles from around the globe he sure bugs the hell out of me every late summer and fall for a load of these.
Just this week Ed promised a check for two bushels of cucumbers to make up ‘a few jars’ of this recipe and a sweet garlic dill we did for him last year.
This is an update of a recipe we published about this time last year here – a few tweaks suggested by a couple of chef buddies have made this year’s first batches even better. The dried sour cherries really do add something here – hunt around for some.
Once again it’s time to get your pickle on.
4 lb. small pickling cucumbers
2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
2 medium sweet onions, thinly sliced
1 sweet red bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 tbsp. pickling salt
4 cups cider vinegar
3 cups granulated sugar
3 tbsp. mustard seeds
1 tbsp. celery seeds
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1-3 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 cup dried sour cherries
Prep work. Trim a thin slice from the end of each well-scrubbed cucumber and slice into 3/16 inch slices (we use a mandolin to get consistent slices with a crinkle cut edge). Thinly slice the onions and the red pepper, then combine well with the sliced cucumbers in a non-reactive container. Sprinkle with the salt, mix well and let stand for 6 – 8 hours.
Drain, rinse well twice, drain again.
Make a pickle. Using a large stainless saucepan mix together the vinegar, sugar, mustard and celery seeds, turmeric, cloves, cherries and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, add the cucumber mixture and return to a boil for 30 seconds or until the bright green color of the cucumbers has faded a bit.
Into the jars. Using a slotted spoon, pack the vegetable mix into your hot, sterilized jars. Pour the hot vinegar solution to within 1/2 inch of the rim. Remove air bubbles, place the lids and process in a boiling water bath (10 minutes for pints and 15 minutes per quarts). We’re presuming you have some familiarity with home canning, there are number of great resources out there if you need to brush up….
These are pretty damned good the next day but are amazing after a couple of weeks resting in a cool, dark closet.
Enjoy.
