Actually, it wasn't me to resurrected this old post. My B&B recipe isn't actually one. Yes, there is tumeric added for the yellow color. I primarily used a packaged mix from Ball for my B&Bs. Then, I add extra mustard seeds and celery seeds to each jar before cold packing the cuke slices. Spears may be OK too, but I like the texture of a crinkle cut slice. Beause I also like dill, I will also add a few dill seeds. As to the sugar required on the packet from Ball, I don't use any, but intead use a small amount of Splenda. It may take about a cup of Splenda to sweeten the B&B compared to a five pound bag of sugar. Mrs. Fannings is store bought B&B and are also yellow with lots of celery seeds added. They also use a little cider vinegar along with the white distilled. Because I may make double batches, I would use a B&B mix as well as a sweet pickle mix together. With the two, and the added spices it helps to round out the flavor. You could also cut down on the sugar, and mustard seed, the add some dill and see if that will entice them to try a B&B pickle.

Yes, syrups need not be thick to be sweet. Sometimes corn syrup is added and that tends to give a thicker syrup, but thats usually found in most commercially canned foods with light syrup. For pickles you don't need much liquid anyway. Just enough to cover all the solids which are usually tightly packed in the jars.

Thanks Ken. You may not be an expert (just kidding), but you have had a lot of good information. In this post along with many others I have read through. Thanks Linda Lou. I don't think these pickles will last that long around here anyway. Just wanted to check in case I make more. I may have to sooner than I think. I was going to pick another load of cukes today. I may have enough for 2 batches now. We got some heavy rain last night. So many of my cukes have swelled up so fast my trellis is about to fall over from the weight. It's not staked very good, and until now, had not been a problem. I may make some relish too. I'll just have to cut out some seeds because I think some of the cukes are a little bigger than I wanted. I think I need to get some more jars. This is kind of late to ask this question, but I didn't think of it until last night while reboiling the syrup. My question is...When draining the syrup to reboil and pour over the pickles, do you leave the spice bag with the pickles or do you keep it in the syrup and boil with it? I didn't think it would make much of a difference, but I have been leaving it in the syrup when I bring it back to a boil. Could this make the spices even stronger only because they are getting heated to a higher temp for a longer period of time. Paul

So I finally had access to enough cucumbers to try out the famous recipe. Some of the cucumbers were bigger than called for and I included them anyway. Well there must be a reason why you don't use big ones, because they turned to complete mush inside their skins and had to be discarded along the way. The remaining cukes are on day 3 of the sugar syrup. I have a question about trimming the ends. In the version above, you trim the ends before beginning but in an older version, I saw that Linda Lou had said not to trim the ends until slicing them into chunks. I trimmed the ends and wondered if that would make a difference. I'm using my German Harsch crock. I was perusing other recipes and read the one I'm pasting below. I wondered whether I should be cleaning the crock each day? That crock is a 10 liter model and weighs quite a bit. I have it sitting next to the sink since that way I can take it to edge it and tilt it over to pour out of it rather than have to try to pick it up. The only other suitable container I have is plastic and I really wasn't crazy about pouring so much boiling liquid into even though it is food grade. My last question is about room temperature. I usually keep the house between 77 and 78 degrees this time of year. Will that affect the pickle process? After the first day or two, I moved the thermostat down to 76 for the duration but that is as low as I'm willing to go. This recipe is a bit different than linda lou's. It uses salt in the water which is changed every other day. Then the sugar solution is gradually increased. 14-Day Sweet Pickles Can be canned whole, in strips, or in slices 14-day Sweet Pickles * 4 lbs of 2- to 5-inch pickling cucumbers (If packed whole, use cucumbers of uniform size) * 3/4 cup canning or pickling salt (Separated 1/4 cup on each of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th days) * 2 tsp celery seed * 2 tbsp mixed pickling spices * 5-1/2 cups sugar * 4 cups vinegar (5 percent) Yield: About 5 to 9 pints Please read Using Boiling Water Canners before beginning. If this is your first time canning, it is recommended that you read Principles of Home Canning. Procedure: Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch slice off blossom end and discard, but leave 1/4-inch of stem attached. Place whole cucumbers in suitable 1-gallon container. Add 1/4 cup canning or pickling salt to 2 quarts water and bring to a boil. Pour over cucumbers. Add suitable cover and weight. Place clean towel over container and keep the temperature at about 70ºF. On the third and fifth days, drain salt water and discard. Rinse cucumbers and rescald cover and weight. Return cucumbers to container. Add 1/4 cup salt to 2 quarts fresh water and boil. Pour over cucumbers. Replace cover and weight, and re-cover with clean towel. On the seventh day, drain salt water and discard. Rinse cucumbers and rescald containers, cover, and weight. Slice or strip cucumbers, if desired, and return to container. Place celery seed and pickling spices in small cheesecloth bag. Combine 2 cups sugar and 4 cups vinegar in a saucepan. Add spice bag, bring to a boil and pour pickling solution over cucumbers. Add cover and weight, and re-cover with clean towel. On each of the next six days, drain syrup and spice bag and save. Add 1/2 cup sugar each day and bring to a boil in a saucepan. Remove cucumbers and rinse. Scald container, cover, and weight daily. Return cucumbers to container, add boiled syrup, cover, weight, and re-cover with towel. On the 14th day, drain syrup into saucepan. Fill sterile pint jars, or clean quart jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Add 1/2 cup sugar to syrup and bring to boil. Remove spice bag. For more information see "Sterilization of Empty Jars" Pour hot syrup over cucumbers, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process according to the recommendations in Table 1 or use low- temperature pasteurization treatment. For more information see "Low-Temperature Pasteurization Treatment,". Table 1. Recommended process time for 14-day Sweet Pickles in a boiling-water canner. Process Time at Altitudes of Style of Pack Jar Size 0 - 1,000 ft 1,001 - 6,000 ft Above 6,000 ft Raw Pints 5 min 10 15 Quarts 10 15 20