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Can non-pickling cucumbers be pickled?

16 years ago

This is my first year growing cucumbers and the season is almost over. I'm wondering if I can make bread and butter pickles with the few remaining non-pickling variety cucumbers. I should have thought about making pickles about a month ago when my plants were going nuts! Is there anything I can make with them?

Thanks!

Astrid

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Comments (4)

digdirt2
16 years ago
Sure you can Astrid. ;) I'll even stick my neck out and say that most don't use pickling cukes to make their pickles with - especially sliced varieties. Regular cucumbers make great bread and butter, dill slices or slabs or spears, sweet slices or chunks, relishes, etc.

The slices may be a little bigger than those from pickling varieties but just as good.

We like dill slabs for hamburgers so I cut the cuke on the diagonal (degree is your choice) into about 3/8 inch slices and stack them in quart jars with a head of dill, pour on the boiling dill mix (3 c sugar, 2 T canning salt, 6 c vinegar, 2 T pickling spice) and process 10 min. in BWB. Just one idea. ;)

Dave

PS: I soak the cuke slabs in heavily iced water for 2 hours before putting them in jars. Keeps them crisper.
jimster
16 years ago
The other side of the coin is that pickling cucumbers are also good for fresh eating, someting to think about next year. You don't need to grow both.

Jim
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I've never seen a difference between slicing and pickling type cucumbers. Pickling ones often don't get as large as I would like, then suddenly they are too large and fat and seedy. Slicing types get too big on me very fast. However, if I get them picked while small enough to fit in the quart jars, they make just as good a dill pickle as a pickling type. I've also found them interchangeable for bread and butter pickles. These involve soaking the pickles in salt and ice water to help draw the moisture out, but it works the same whether you use slicers or picklers.
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Off season, if I want cukes, I always look for the pickers in stores. You would be surprised at how many people turn up their noses to the picklers, and buy those dark green greasy skinned ones. I used to also by the long English ones, but they are still lacking the character of a pickler cuke. I know someone who peeled the picklers. Thats where most of teh goodness is. Now, they realize what they were missing all this time. I would think a freezer pickle would be mush. Some people don't mind mushy canned items. I prefer the firmness of the vegetables, and will go out of my way to make something that isn't exposed to a lot of heat, as thats the first thing that can cause a jar of mush. Non burpless cukes will not cause burps after they are fermented or pickled in a vinegar brine. I grow maybe 4 differnent types of picklers. They all look similar, but some mature much earlier than others. You can see a 2 inch cuke today, and tomorrow its grown to 4 inches long. Suitable for picking. If you let it go another day, it gets even longer, but also bigger around. Once the 4-5 day occurs, the rest of the cukes on that same plant will slow down and stop growing. While I was in the hospital, my cuke plants all died, and had a few big huge yellow monsters that were just squished under the wheels of my tractor.
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Another poster here, had grown cucumbers of an aisan type which were also very long. If they are cut into chunks it doesn't matter. The picklers tend to be crisper, less tough skin, and smaller seeds. This, compared to the store bought salad types, which are better if peeled and if they are too big, the seeds are tough. Burpless might be fine, but after they are pickled, it really doesn't matter whether the cuke was a burpless or regular variety due to its brine. I grow a few different types of pickling cukes. I find that they are esier to deal with even as whole pickles as they fit the jars (even pints) much easier than the big cukes do.
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"how do you know how long to boil it for with the boil water canning method? And why is it no longer safe after decades of it being okay?" How long to process them is found in any of the beets recipes that are in any of the canning books, even the very old ones. BWB processing of them has always been required, or at least from the 1923 Farmer's Bulletin series of canning pamphlets and the 1925 edition of the Ball books were published. I have an antique edition of the the Ball Blue Book of Canning from 1930's that calls for processing them submerged in a boiling water bath for 20 min. Current instructions calls for 30 mins. Your problem I think is you are using family instructions, not canning book instructions and your mother apparently chose to eliminate that step for some reason or that was how she was taught and so didn't know better. Open kettle canning recommendations were stopped based on testing research done in 1920-1922 by USDA. It only continues today in older generations because people didn't stay current with changes. I'd suggest you invest in a current edition of the Ball Blue Book or explore all the online resources available online at NCHFP. http://nchfp.uga.edu/ Dave
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bristlingacres
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks. I grew both this year but the non pickling variety really went nuts while the pickling one produced a few. I like the taste of the non pickling variety better (can't remember the variety names- I think County Fair was one).

As I said, this was my first year ...and I learned something! I don't need TEN cucumber plants!
Astrid
ksrogers
16 years ago
Because they are not bred for pickling doesn't mean you can use them. They might soften a bit too much for regular pickles, so a fine chopping with onions and can make an excellent relish.

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