Archive | September 20, 2022

The Long Road to Christmas Pickles

When I was a kid someone used to make and can Christmas pickles. They were not made out of apple rings, but cucumbers. One jar was red and one was green. They tasted like cinnamon, but did not involve red hots. I’ve been looking for a recipe that met those parameters for years. This year, finally. I found one. It’s been online since 2011, but never appeared in any of my searches. I guess it was finally time. https://reddirtcooking.com/2011/09/09/momma-manies-christmas-pickles/

Anyway, so we bought the cucumbers from the farmers market the other day and yesterday I started the long a toilsome process of making these things. I’m not going to lie, I’m making them not for me, but for my brother who is the reason I’ve been looking for them all these years.

So, I chopped cucumbers. I cored cucumbers, and then I set them to soak in water and pickle lime. And I’m going to stop you before you tell me that pickling lime is dangerous. I read all about it first, and trust me, these pickles have been scrubbed clean.

This took a very long time to do, and included a break for lunch where we had Casey’s cheeseburgers.

Yum.

Then it was back to the cucumbers which took forever. Eventually, they were soaking in their pickling lime and I was free! Free… just in time to run to Red Oak to pick up supper.