Bringing you my Grandma’s Bread and Butter Pickle Pickle Recipe. Everything you want from a homemade sweet pickle – quick, crunchy, and so, so good!

‘Come on in kids’!

“I’ll run to the cellar to grab the ice cream.” She’d say as we walked through her farmhouse door onto last week’s recycled newspapers laid out on the floor, like a rug. Their house always smelled like twine string and fresh bread, to me.

There was always a basket or two of fresh produce sitting on the porch, waiting for grandma’s attention. Berries and rhubarb would be jam or on top of ice cream, green beans for snapping, cucumbers would be turned into her signature bread and butter pickles, squash for baking and radishes for munching.

“Grandma, can we go get the eggs, first”? We’d foot race to the barn to see who could collect more in our tshirt-made baskets.

“Grab a stool and sit up!” We often sat on stools because her wooden chair backs were covered in drying egg noodles with the kitchen table covered in today’s flour.

Grandpa would open a can of sardines and I would sit right up next to him after I grabbed the soda crackers and jar of grandma’s pickles.

The pickles at grandma’s house tasted different. They were sweet, crunchy, cut so thin and I love bitting on the mustard seeds between my two front teeth. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that the world knew these pickles as bread and butter pickles.

Fresh batch of homemade pickles coming to your pantry!

This pickle recipe, also lovingly called “lazy housewife pickles”, has been a favorite to pass down in our family! Plus, any recipe where we can use fresh produce from our garden is a win in my book!

This straightforward recipe has become a staple in our kitchen, which also means it’s become ingrained in my brain – ready to whip up just as soon as the cucumbers start showing up on the vine. A jar of pickles is always a nice, refreshing addition to the fridge!

They also make the perfect potluck take-along, gift in a basket for a new homeowner, neighbor or bringing home a new baby.

How to make Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles

Materials

• 7 pint jars

Ingredients

• Cucumbers (about 4-6, depending on size)
• 1/3 cup Salt
• 2 tbsp Mustard Seed
• 2 tbsp Celery Seed
• 2 tsp Turmeric
• Pinch of Alum (can buy at your grocery store, this helps firm the pickles and keeps them crunchy)
• 2 cups Sugar
• 3 cups White Vinegar

Steps

1. Pack clean pint jars with cleaned, sliced and cooled pickles. (Adding ice to your bowl of sliced pickles for about 30 min- 1 hour will keep them firm and crunchy)
2. Boil sugar, spices and vinegar to make a pickle brine (approx. 3 minutes so the sugar dissolves)
3. Pour the hot brine in the jar, over the packed jar of pickles.
4. Hot water bath each pint for 10 minutes to seal.
5. Allow to cool and seal on the counter for 12 hours before storing.

About the Pickle Slicing Texture

Yes, I’m kinda particular about this. For this recipe I like to use a mandoline. It can be dangerous and I have swiped the ends of my fingers off before, so this is not an activity where you should be distracted. Keep your eyes on your fingertips and use that guard when your veggies have about 3 inches left to slice.

I like to vary the thickness when I’m slicing as this both keeps my attention on the mandoline and offers some variety to the varying preferences of pickle consumers. Then I mix up all of the different thicknesses in the bowl so that each jar has some of each. I usually slice some at the very narrowest thickness and then the one up from that.

Printable Recipe Card

More to know about this Homemade Pickle Recipe

• Looking for a different variation of spices? Check out our equally delicious Homemade Refrigerator Pickles from our Grandma on my husband’s Norwegian side of the family. We’re kinda of a pickle family.
• This recipe is universal for other vegetables you may want to pickle with the same flavors.
• The shape of the pickle is up to you, you can switch up your cucumber slices between spears and rounds – as long as they all fit in the jar!
• Now that you know how we make our favorite pickle recipe, I invite you to experiment with different spices and seasonings: red pepper, onion, dill, peppercorn, ginger, garlic cloves…this is a flexible recipe!

Washing the stubs off of the cucumbers with one of our homegrown luffa sponges.

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FAQ’s about these Delicious Homemade Pickles

• Does the kind of cucumber matter? Nope! You can seek out types with naturally crunchier textures, like Persian cucumbers, or just use any cucumber you can get your hands on. We love using our English Cucumber which tends to be more long and slender. We save the seeds from these cucumbers from year to year.

• I am seeing recipes that use apple cider vinegar, which kind of vinegar should I use? Apple cider vinegar works the same, but has a more muted flavor. We prefer using white vinegar for the sharper, mouthwatering pickle flavor.

• What is the advantage to having a heated brine rather than a cold brine? While our refrigerator pickle recipe uses a cold brine, we prefer to use a hot brine to help bring out the flavors of the seasonings in this one. A cold brine does help with the crunch which is why we use alum in this recipe.

I don’t think it gets any better than a loaf of fresh sourdough bread, homemade strawberry jam and some of grandma’s signature pickles!

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