How much is too much? I ask myself that very question all the time. I know that there is no way my family can eat 3 gallons of sweet pickles in a year. I have 1 gallon of Kosher Dills, too. When I was jarring these sweet pickles, I ran short of sterilized jars. I was going to toss a quart of pickles in the compost, but my husband caught me. He then went out to the shed and produced two disgustingly dirty jars and said he would wash them. He did and I put pickles in them and put them in the refrigerator. I didn't want those two jars to get mixed up with the sterilized jars of pickles. Why did we need that last quart?The pickles are Grandmother Florence's (my husband's grandmother) recipe. They take time, lots of time. I've spent years trying to create authentic pickles from her vague recipe, but I have it now. The cucumbers are brined, then sliced, then soaked with the pickling spices, sugar, and vinegar. So yummy, but unfortunately different every year. The recipe uses the words "to taste" more than is comfortable. In fact, everything is "to taste" once the cucumbers are brined. How's that for a recipe?
They are finished, to taste.
7 comments:
Do you not have folks on your christmas list you could give some to? Or do all your friends and family can? Lots of folks think this sort of thing is a great gift.
Is Florence the surname, or given name? We could be extremely distant cousins my marriage!!!
My Grandma Florence did not cook, though, let alone preserve. Her best meal was toasted Velveeta on white bread served with Campbell's tomato soup -- made with skim milk.
We're probably not distant cousins.
But it would be cool if we were!
Pickles, for me, don't exude giftiness (I know it isn't a word, so there is no need to grab the dictionary). Maybe.
Z,
No, Florence is her first name. I would love a connection, though. That would be fun. We could manufacture one.
I was just at the local farmer today looking for cukes, but he told me that it will be another week or two for the big harvest for canning. And you are right, it is a lot of work! My kids are big pickle eaters, so we usually run out by March!
I bet those last two jars of pickles taste the best!
We had some for lunch today and they were delish!!
Perhaps the connection is a predilection for adding made-up words to the lexicon?
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