Granny is the canning queen of the family. Her garden produced bushels and bushels of Kentucky Wonder Beans, Big Boy Tomatoes and Cucumbers. I don’t think we understood the laborious process it was to make these wonderful pickles. Thanks, Granny, for all your hard work! She recently gave the original page of the Kerr cookbook that the pickle recipe is on to Shalon and she intends to frame it. But if you didn’t know that then you would miss out on some of the best pickles you ever tasted—and that’s the point of this book—to be able to hold on to food that brought us comfort and memories.
Granny in her garden.
Select only unwaxed cucumbers. Into a clean stone jar put 2 gallons of cucumbers, washed and sliced lengthwise. Regardless of size, cucumbers must be sliced or they will shrivel.
Dissolve 2 cups of salt in one gallon of boiling water and pour while hot over the pickles. Then cover with a non-metallic lid and weight down pickles making sure they are totally submerged. Let stand for 2 weeks. Remove scum daily.
On the eight day, drain, then pour 1 gallon of boiling water over them and let stand 24 hours. On the ninth day, drain and pour 1 gallon of boiling water with 1 tablespoon of powdered alum over the pickles and let stand 24 hours.
On the following day or tenth day, drain again, pour 1 gallon boiling water over them, let stand 24 hours, then drain. For the pickling mixture, combine 5 pints of vinegar boiling hot, 6 cups of sugar, ½ ounces (5 teaspoons) celery seed, 1 ounce (3 tablespoons, broken) cinnamon stick. Pour this over the pickles.
Drain off for three mornings, add 1 cup sugar each morning, reheat and pour back over pickles. With third and last heating, pack pickles into sterilized hot sterilized pint jars to within ½ inch of top. Cover them with boiling syrup to within ½ inch of top of jar. Put on cap, screw band firmly tight. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Makes 16 pints.
Canning, 2001