Yes, that is the basic recipe for B&B pickles. Besides the recipe, I like using a mix from Mrs Wages and/or Ball, and add more celery and mustard seeds. Tumeric usually only add a bit of yellow color. Taste the brine once you make it and see if it meets your taste expectations, if not, ad a bit more of whatever is lacking. I also add a little dill seed to mine too. I don't bother with the first step however, just pack the jars with the slices and pour in the boiling brine. The salt layering helps the salt to exude water from the vegatbles, so it may be a good idea to put the mixture on a colander or something to help drain out the liquid.

Hi Chase,

Darn, I am sorry to hear you haven't found your notebook yet. I hope this recipe comes close. It's from Diana Rattray who's a recipe collector and cook in Mississippi. She posts on about.com.

You've canned a long time, but just to mention for any newbies following this thread, sugar can be reduced for a less sweet pickle, garlic can be omitted, spices can be increased or decreased.

Bread and Butter Pickles

INGREDIENTS:
4 quarts sliced medium-sized cucumbers
6 medium white onions, sliced
2 green bell peppers, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1/3 cup salt
5 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed
2 tablespoons mustard seed
3 cups vinegar, 5 percent acidity

PREPARATION:
Slice unpeeled cucumbers thin. Add sliced onions, peppers, and whole garlic cloves. Add salt and cover with ice. Mix well. Let stand for 3 hours. Drain well. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over cucumber mixture.

Bring just to a boil. Transfer to hot, sterilized 1-pint jars. Seal and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes (20 minutes for 1,000 to 6,000 feet altitude). Adjust seals and store in a cool dark place for a few weeks before using.

Makes about 4 pints.

If this recipe seems lacking in some regard, I have another one very similar with onions and peppers, no garlic, and just a hint of cloves added to the other spices, if that sounds familiar to you.

Good luck, Chase. I once sorted through a bunch of my recipe clippings to discard the clunkers. Guess which pile I threw away?

Carol

Carol I'm just heartsick at losing it...how can it be lost????

I had so many notes about each years batches, how the tomatoes were, or what I paid for my berries, the fact that it was a crappy year for dill. That's what I miss most it was like a diary. Stained as hell but a diary none the less. Also had lots of notes as to how much basil and oregano I needed to put down a bushel of tomatoes and notes about weight vs volume.....11 Q basket of tomatoes is XXX number of pounds or X fraction of a bushel : (

The recipe you posted can't be far off. Thanks a million! For sure I never used garlic so I will omit that.

ksrogers, I'll take your advice and taste and alter,

Chase
Sorry you lost your recipe. Doesn't it frost ya?
Here is my recipe. I have made these B&B's for well over fifty years. I can't make enough of them to satisfy all my family and friends.
I'll give you the ingredients list. The rest of the program is the same as yours except. I bring the liquid to a boil and put the pickle slices in. When it returns to a boil I place in pint jars and seal and process as recommended. I also skip the ice.

Bread and Butter Pickles

5 quarts sliced pickles
8 onions sliced
2 sweet red peppers sliced
1/2 cup canning salt
5 cups sugar
1/2 teas. ground cloves
2 Tbls. white mustard seeds
1 teas. celery seeds
5 cups white vinegar

Slice all veggies and place in large roaster. add salt and cover for 3 hours. Drain and proceed. Add spices to vinegar and bring to a boil.

Chase

Sorry I forgot to add 1-1/2 teas. turmeric

Darn it, Chase, I was sure hoping that notebook would turn up for you. Sigh. I've dug out my old Farm Journal bread and butter pickle recipe, maybe that'll be close. I know it's really, really OLD and doesn't have canning instructions. Beginners might have a problem with the lack of instructions regarding processing times and methods, etc. but I'm sure you won't have any problems with it at all.

Good luck on the search for that notebook, though...

Bread & Butter Pickles

4 qt Sliced cucumbers
2 Green peppers (chopped)
1/3 c Salt
1 1/2 ts Tumeric
2 tb Mustard seed
6 Medium onions
3 Cloves of garlic (whole)
5 c Sugar
1 1/2 ts Celery seed
3 c Vinegar

Do not pare cucumbers; Slice thin. Add onions, peppers, and whole garlic cloves. Add salt. Cover with cracked ice. Let stand in refrigerator 3 hours, then drain. Pour remaining ingredients over cucumber mixture. Heat JUST TO BOILING. Seal in jars. Makes about 9 pints. NOTE: Cucumbers covered with the cracked ice may be kept in refrigerator overnite, then drained and processed the next day.

Annie

Thanks everyone! This is a real heart breaker for me....so many years of so many notes...

The garlic is a non starter, I've never used garlic in B&B's.

What I'm wrestling with is the sugar vs vinegar ratio. Some call for equal amounts, others for just less than 1/2 half sugar to vinegar. I honestly can't recall what the ratio was in my recipe but I know they were sweeter more than tart...so I'll go from there.

For all you canners and cooks, here is the lesson, back up all your favourite recipes even if they are on paper!!!

I lost my computer recipe data base TWICE ... fortunately I had the print outs and most of the original clipped recipes ... but now I have my data base, a back up on my hard drive, a back up on the space my ISP gives me and a printout (and I still haven't thrown out the old clippings.) ... of course, now making sure I make changes on all copies is a chore!

BTW, why are Bread and Butter pickles called Bread and Butter?

Flash drives help to save this stuff, instead of saving to floppy disks. Sorry you lost the recipes, but for me, I usually do things more by taste so if the flavor isn't there, I can't blame a recipe. Sometimes people don't seem to taste what they are making and the end result is quite a surprise if it isn't going to taste good. Maybe you put your recipes in a storage box where your canning supplies are, or maybe its in a box with some canning jars.. After I use any recipes, I usually put the books back in my bookcase for the next time. Lots of things I make are from memory anyway, and so I don't have to refer to recipes much anymore. The old simple way of a pinch of this a dash of that, and just dump in the vinegar and salt to taste and you have a pickle. Not sure where the B&B term came from, but it may be that it was because of the yellow color and sweet flavor. Now that I make them with Splenda, I find that I can enjoy more without all that sugar. Splenda, does NOT measure the same cup for cup as sugar, so never use 5 pounds of Splenda in place of 5 pounds of sugar. I usually get the same sweeteness with ONLY a cup or two of Splenda to the 5 pounds of sugar needed.

Hubby love to tell me how much easier it would be if all my recipes were in the computer. Sorry, guess I'm old fashioned, but I want paper copies. (Although I've told him that he's more than welcome to take my paper copies and type them into the computer, just don't lose my paper copies!)

And thanks everyone for the recipes. I'm going to print them out and try some later this season! (Now for a really good dill pickle recipe....)

I just made the greatest dill pickles ever. My third attempt in 18 years, the last 2 were terrible. I have finally made good dills. My B & B won 1st place at our county fair two years ago, it was the first time I ever entered a fair. Super Fun!

I hate when I lose a recipe. Gonna be making pickles all weekend, I can't keep up with the cukes in the garden!

Susan in NC

Carol , I just finished a batch of your B&B pickles, minus the garlic ( my original recipe did not use gatrlic), and they are remarkably close to mine. Excellent recipe.

Thanks so much there would have been some very pouty faces around my Thanksgiving Day table!

Hey, I'm glad I could find a reasonable facsimile that worked for you.

I know what you mean about "pouty faces." There's one sweet pickle recipe I make and one sweet tangy relish; as far as DH is concerned, those are the ONLY pickled products worth making. He gets really nervous if I'm giving away jars and it looks like we might not have enough to last till the next pickling season.

Carol

Thanks again, they really are very close to mine. So close no one will no they aren;t mine...heck maybe it is the recipe I always used. For sure the layering and ice bath, right spices etc.....

I'm a happy camper.

Susan in NC - can you share your recipes?