My friend Kathryn and I spent the day canning bread and butter pickles using Kathryn's grandmother's secret recipe. And apparently it is a secret--Kathryn's forebears are less than forthcoming about the quantities and kinds of ingredients necessary to making these bad boys. K. was dead set on using alum--something I've not used--so we'll see. Alum straight out of the container is the nastiest thing I've had in my mouth for a long time. I felt as though my tongue were covered in hair. Supposedly the alum makes the pickles crunchier. We'll see...In any case, they look beautiful (those in the above picture are not ours; ours are even more dashing), and we plan to enter them into the Big Fresno Fair. So watch for out names in the papers as we rake in the big SEVEN DOLLAR first prize in the bread and butter pickle category!
4 comments:
Please explain why these are called 'bread and butter' pickles???
I'm Goofy too, BTW.
Glad to know you, Goofy.
Good question: I don't have any idea why they are called bread and butter pickles--they contain neither bread nor pickles--so I'll open this one up to the floor. Anyone?
Here is an article on pickled cucumbers, courtesy of Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickled_cucumber. It simply explains that bnb pickles are sweet onion and cucumber pickles. Perhaps some people eat/ate them on slices of buttered bread?
Hmmm...well in the UK the term 'bread and butter' can mean 'basic'maybe that's the link? basic pickles as opposed to complicated pickles...like ummmm, Branston, where everything has to be chopped into tiny cubes?
You might be interested to know (or, not!) that in some parts of the UK a whole pickled cucumber is known as a 'Wally'...an no, i don't know why!
It is a term from the Swedish Smorgasbord (Buffet) where one of the tables was dedicated to different types of rolls , bread and various spreads and condiments, including pickles hence the term "bread and butter" pickles for the read & butter table.
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