Ingredients
- 4 quarts (roughly 4 pounds of 3 1/2 inch) cucumbers sliced 1/4 inch thick.
- 8 small onions (sliced thin – 1/8 inch)
- 1 cup of coarse salt dissolved 4 quarts of cold water
- 9 cups of vinegar/water solution (4 1/2 cups of each).
Liquid
- 4 1/2 cups of brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 3 1/2 cups of cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of celery seed
- 4 teaspoons of pickling spices
Wash the cucumbers and slice cucumbers (1/4 thick) crosswise. Peel the onions and slice thin (1/16 inch) crosswise. Place the cucumbers in one crock and the onions in another. Prepare a brine by dissolving the salt in the 4 quarts of cold water. Pour half the brine over the sliced cucumbers and the rest over the onions and let them stand overnight.
Next morning drain both cucumbers and onions well. Combine in a cooking pot and cover with the water/vinegar solution.
Heat the vegetables in this solution for 10 minutes, making sure that the liquid never rises above the simmering point so the are still tender (…watch the don’t become too soft). Drain the water/vinegar solution and pack vegetables in hot sterilized jars and cover with hot pickling liquid seal at once.
Note the pickling liquid is made by dissolving the brown sugar in the 1 1/2 cups of water and the cider vinegar; add spices and heat just to a boil in a separate pot. The pickling spices should be wrapped in cheese cloth and tied off with a string for easy removal from the liquid before covering pickles.
Makes 4 to 5 quarts.