Bread & Butter Pickles

• 6 lbs of 4 to 5 inch pickling cucumbers
• 8 cups thinly sliced onions (about 3 pounds)
• 1/2 cup canning or pickling salt
• 4 cups vinegar (5%)
• 4-1/2 cups sugar
• 2 Tbsp mustard seed
• 1-1/2 Tbsp celery seed
• 1 Tbsp ground turmeric
• 1 cup pickling lime (optional) for use in variation below for making firmer pickles
• Yield: About 8 pints

Procedure:

Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch off blossom end and discard. Cut into 3/16-inch slices. Combine cucumbers and onions in a large bowl. Add salt. Cover with 2 inches crushed or cubed ice. Refrigerate 3 to 4 hours, adding more ice as needed. Combine remaining ingredients in a large pot. Boil 10 minutes. Drain and add cucumbers and onions and slowly reheat to boiling. Fill hot pint jars with slices and cooking syrup, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel. Adjust lids and process as below:

Bread & butter pickles, round slice.

Available from Amazon

The Practical Guide to Making Salami is a companion book to The Art of Making Fermented Sausages, published in 2008. Since then, more information has become available; safety standards have been updated and tightened, new cultures have appeared, and getting supplies and newer equipment online has become more accessible. The most relevant theory has been transferred from The Art of Making Fermented Sausages. Still, The Practical Guide to Making Salami includes plenty of new materials such as fermented spreadable sausages, acidified sausages, or combining acidulants with natural fermentation. The recipes section has been expanded and includes 264 selected recipes from different countries so the reader can immediately produce sausages.