They stayed crunchy if you picked them before they got too big. I tried to keep them no bigger than about 4 inches for pickles. The only reason I made pickles put of them was because I had so many. The Boston Pickler made perfect crunchy bread and butter pickles. If you are trying to choose a cucmber strictly for pickling I'd go with the Boston Pickler. It tastes good fresh also, it's just small and bumpy where the Marketer is more smooth for fresh slicing. Both are great old cucumbers.

I still have the lime here (Mrs. Wages brand) and it did help to hold the cukes a bit firmer for the all vinegar sour pickles. I do not use alum anymore and because it still seems to be linked to aluminium and allzheimers I was not going to even try going any further with it. The lime was used, and the whole cukes were soaked in it for 24 hours in the fridge. I used huge stainless steel bowls that take up a whole shelf in the fridge. I cut off the tips of both ends prior to the soaking, They did get a long rinse afterwards, but even for that, there was a bit of white sediment in the brine after a few days. I also used a bit of tumeric for some color. They were quite pungent. I could have even added a bit of my acid blend and made them even more potent.. My sours are not fermented. They are just 100% plain white distilled vinegar, salt, and a little tumeric. My pickled pepperoncini are also done that way, but without the tumeric. My half sours are just a salt brine with a dash of vinegar added after they sit on the counter overnight. Ive also use the pickling lime for making some sweet mixed, but it was just for the cukes to soak in first. The amount of alum used in a 7 quart batch of sour pickles was something like about 2-3 teaspoons for the toatl amount of vinegar brine. With Pickle Crisp, you do have as slight flavor of chlorine, but that tends to dissipate once they are opened and allowed to 'breath' a few minutes before serving. A chilled pickle always seems to be a bit crunchier than at room temp. FYI> Rumford brand baking powder has no alum in it. Baking soda is basically bicarbonate of soda and nothing else. There is also a bakers ammonia that is still used today for some Swedish cookies and pasteries. I can't taste Pickle Crisp, but that might be because of the heat of the peppers, or the strength of the flavors and spices I use in regular pickles. Mrs. Wages and Ball mixes are the primary ingredients I use when making spiced pickles, and I add extra spices like dill, celery seeds, mustard seeds and such to the various kinds of pickles.There is nothing worse (besides a sour or mushy cuke) than a bland tasting pickle. A recent America Test Kitchen episode dealt with making a flaky pastery for a big berry tart. They mixed the butter and flour to a very course mix, then used their palms to press the flour into the butter lumps. This helped to spread the butter into thinner bits. Ever made puff pastry? I have, with excellent results. MUCH better than the Pepperidge Farm frozen stuff. It does take a long time, a cold work surface, lots of patience and lots of rolling between each chilling.

You shouldn't be using the recipe where you put the lid on. If you are using quart jars you will get a lot more spoilage, too. I have not compared to the one you posted, but we don't tell people to screw a lid on the jars. Using this Claussen type recipe is the one I suggest. Seal off with a plate and a bag of brine instead, or at least a bag of brine. If you will make up a bag of brine, in case it leaks it won't ruin your pickles. Please, do not use recipes from websites that people who have no idea about food safety publish. Same for books. They can get you into trouble by using them. There are many, many unsafe things published. Fermented Dill Pickles  Refrigerated "Claussen" Type 1 Gallon Jar Pickling Cucumbers 12 Fresh Dill Flower heads, or 2 Tbsp Dried dill weed and 2 Tbsp. Dried dill seed 10 to 12 Cloves Garlic 6 to 8 Peppercorns 1/4 Cup Vinegar 1/2 Cup Salt 1 1/2 Quarts Water In 1 gallon jar add pickling cucumbers Rinse but do not wash the cucumbers. Add Dill flower heads or dried dill weed and seed, garlic, peppercorns, and vinegar. Dissolve salt in water and add to jar. Fill jar the remaining way with water. Add weight to keep cucumbers under brine. Fermentation sequence 1. Clear brine  no cloudiness for 1 to 3 days 2. Cloudy brine with gas formation, 2-3 days 3. Cloudy brine  no gas formation, 5 to 6 days Pickles ready to eat after 10-11 days. Refrigerate pickles if you do not want to process them. To process the pickles Fill clean, sterilized quart jars with pickles to within 1/2inch of the top. Wipe, seal, and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Remove and place on towel in a draft free area. Label and date. Store in a dark, cool area.

LindaLou, the NCHFP Pepper Onion Relish has 6 c onions 6 c peppers 6 c vinegar and yields 9 half pints. the UCalDavis has 16 c peppers 4 1/2 cup onion 3 c vinegar and yields 4-5 pints. sure it's straight vinegar, but there's a heck of a lot more in the NCHFP recipe. The Uga Vidalia Onion also uses straight vinegar, but it calls for 1 quart (4C) vinegar) to 1 1/2 gallon (24cups) onion and yields about 8 pints. There has to be some correlation between amount of vinegar and amount of low acid food and yields. Several years back, I was trying to update or replace a recipe for Pepper-Onion Relish that didn't call for processing. I was referred to the NCHFP recipe, but I knew I wouldn't like that much vinegar so I just forgot about it. Sometime later I found the UCalDavis recipe and it was close enough to mine that I used it. As for the Vidalia Onion, I questioned the amount of vinegar and was told on this forum that it is a safe tested recipe. It still seems a bit out of sync with so many of the NCHFP relishes, which are very heavy on the vinegar...but it has been tested. It's also pretty old. If I'm missing something here, please tell me. But it truly seems that when you compare tested recipes there is a huge variance of acceptable acidification. kay