It has been years since I have done any canning but the other day at farmer’s market I spotted some pickling cucumbers and decided to make these homemade refrigerator Crispy Sweet Bread and Butter Pickles.
Growing up we had a huge garden and we spent the end of summer canning and freezing the harvest. I fondly remember my grandmother’s pickles, and today I spent my Sunday afternoon making my own and thinking of the hours spent cutting and slicing all the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans, and corn with my grandmother.
A quick and easy refrigerator pickles
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No matter what brand of pickles I buy at the store, nothing matches the taste of these freshly homemade canned pickles. This small-batch recipe is so simple and is made with a few ingredients; it makes two jars so you won’t be overwhelmed making these.
The best part of this recipe is it doesn’t require the long canning process. These pickles just need time in the refrigerator while making and then you just store in the refrigerator for up to three months.
What kind of cucumbers to use for pickles?
I am using a smaller cucumber, especially for pickling. The major difference between the pickling cucumber and the standard cucumber is these are smaller, they have fewer seeds, less moisture, and the skin is not as tough. I can only find the pickling cucumbers at farmer’s markets, however, you can use the regular slicing cucumbers found in grocery stores, just try to buy small ones.
Ingredient list
- Pickling cucumbers
- Kosher salt
- Onions
- White sugar
- Brown sugar
- White vinegar
- Apple cider vinegar
- Mustard seeds
- Celery seeds
- Turmeric
How to make refrigerator bread and butter pickles
Step 1. After you give your cucumbers a good washing slice them up in a 1/4″ slices. I love this crinkle-cut slicer to cut the cucumber, it is very easy to use and make those beautiful ridges.
Step 2. Put the sliced cucumbers in a nice big bowl and sprinkle the salt over them, stir and then put your bowl in the refrigerator for an hour.
Step 3. After 1 hour, rinse the cucumbers in a colander to remove the salt then put back into your bowl.
Step 4. Add in the sliced onions
Step 5. While the cucumbers are in the refrigerator you can make the brine.
The brine is made of white sugar and brown sugar, white vinegar and apple cider vinegar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, and turmeric.
Mix all the brine ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over. medium heat until all the sugars have melted then simmer for a few minutes. Check out all the mustard seeds floating around the brine.
Step 6. When the brine is ready, pour it over the cucumbers and onions, give it a big stir then let sit for one hour in the refrigerator.
Step 7. Make sure to sterilize your glass jars and lids and when the cucumbers are ready, spoon the pickles and onions into the jars and cover the pickles with the brine. Leave a 1/2″ of space at the top of the jar and with a spoon press down on the pickle slices to remove and air pockets. You may have leftover brine and that may need to be added to the jars once you press down on the pickles. When done seal tightly and store the jars in the refrigerator.
The reason I like these pickles is they stay nice and crisp and retain their beautiful color.
How to hot pack pickles
These pickles can also be hot packed which will last longer and can be stored on a shelf for a year using this method.
For more information on home canning and hot packing, this USDA Home Canning guide can help you out.
- Clean and sterilize the jars and lids and prepare the canner.
- Pack the pickle and onion slices in the sterilized jars then ladle the hot pickling liquid over the top, leave 1/2″ of headspace. Press down on the pickles with a spoon to remove any air bubbles.
- Wipe the jar rims and apply the lid and tighten.
- Bring the water to a boil in the canner and place the jars into the boiling water for 15 minutes. Remove to a towel and dry the jars.
- Let the jarred pickles sit for 4 weeks before eating. Store for 1 year.
- For high altitude adjust the processing time to:
- 5 minutes for 1,001 to 3,000 ft
- 10 minutes for 3,001 to 6,000 ft
- 15 minutes for 6,001 to 8,000 ft
- 20 minutes for 8,001 to 10,000 ft
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These Bread and Butter Pickles make a nice addition to a cheese and bread plate, add some dry salami, and some veggies for an appetizer or even for a light meal. My preference for eating these pickles, it would be straight out of the jar!
Don’t forget to grab your crinkle-cut slicer and spices so you can make these delicious pickles.
Pickles are great served with other appetizers like these
Serve these pickles on a Cheese Board
Creamy Herb Baked Ricotta Cheese
Bread and Butter Pickles
Equipment
Ingredients
Cucumber Ingredients
- 1 1/2 - 2 pounds pickling cucumber I used 8 cucumbers
- 1 1/2 tbls. kosher salt
- 1 small onion sliced use to your taste
Brine Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbls. mustard seeds
- 3/4 tsp. celery seeds
- 1/4 tsp. turmeric
Instructions
- Wash and sterilize canning jars. Note: I have various sized jars but 12 ounce-sized jars will work.
- Wash the cucumbers
- Slice the cucumbers into 1/4" slices
- Put the cucumbers in a bowl and add the salt
- Stir to combine and put into the refrigerator for one hour
- After an hour transfer the cucumbers to a colander and rinse to remove the salt
- Put the cucumbers back into your bowl and add the onions
- Make the brine by adding all the brine ingredients to a saucepan
- Stir and bring to a simmer, cook until the sugars are dissolved.
- Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers and onions and let sit in the bowl for one hour
- Put the pickles and onions in the sterilized jars cover with the brine then press down on the pickles to release any air pockets. If necessary pour more brine over the pickles. Leave 1/2" space at the top.
- Keep the jars in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. These pickles are ready to eat the next day. They just need a good chilling.
Notes
Nutrition
First Published: August 15, 2018… Last Updated: Sept. 16, 2019
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About Jere’
From learning to cook on a farm in Indiana to culinary school in California, my passion for food is never-ending. Turning on my oven to bake something for friends and family is my happy place, and I am glad to be here at One Hot Oven sharing both sweet and savory recipes with all my baking friends.
Have any questions or just want to chat about the recipe? Contact me here, and I’ll be happy to help!
I hope you enjoy the recipe,
Jere’
Love this recipe! These pickles were so tasty and easy to make! I’ll definitely make them again!
It is crazy how easy it is to make these pickles. Glad you enjoy them,
SO easy to make and they came out just wonderful! I love making my own pickles and these were so delicious!
I have never had a pickle failure with this recipe.
We made these and followed the recipe thoroughly, turned out great!!
Love how easy and delicious the pickles are. I didn’t add celery seeds but the pickles are still delicious.
There are lots of variations for the spices, glad you made them.
These pickles turned out to be so good! I loved all of the spices you incorporated into the brine!
I made these yesterday, opened first jar today and these are excellent! Had girlfriend and her Mom over for some wine time and they loved them also, so one jar went home with them. Thanks for a great recipe! Still would like to know if these will keep 3 weeks or 3 months in refrigerator?
I have kept these for three months in the fridge and they are still good.
Hi Arlene, I just updated the post and fixed the storage time. You can keep these pickles for three months.
Looking for clarification, please. Blog reads they will keep for 3 MONTHS in refrigerator, but recipe says 3 WEEKS. Which is correct? I just finished using this recipe for the first time and getting ready to put in fridge after dating lids. Thanks!
Let me fix that, and yes you can keep these for three months.
I should have found this sooner. Big family with big garden post war, post depression. Every fall mother put up shelves of canned goods. I miss the pickles but I think that is about to end. Thank you.
I grew up on a farm with the drepression era grandparents and I learned how to grow and can everything. I am so thankful for that upbringing, especially now. These pickles are easy to make and taste amazing.
Excellent recipe…loved the crispy texture and taste. Hot packed a couple of jars and am curious of the comparison. Am using the same brine to try on pickled cabbage..
I really like this brine. I have used it to make a coleslaw dressing and love it. Glad you like the pickles.
Can’t rate yet as I haven’t made them yet but, do you cover the pickles with the brine when you are ready to pack into your jars? I might have missed this on the recipe but was wondering if the pickles must be submerged while they finish fermenting.
Yes, pack the pickles in the jar then ladle or pour in the brine to cover the pickles.
Made the pickles and added several sweet red peppers and a touch of hot pepper flakes…AWESOME! Made a large batch to hot pack so I have them for the winter. Truly yummy!
Such a good idea to add the red pepper. I’ll give that a try. Making more soon!
How long do you hot pack the pickles
These are refrigerator pickles so no need for hot pack.
I made these but I have no clue how long to let them “ferment” before I can eat them. I see they stay good for 3 weeks, but are they good to start eating next day after making them?
Hi Sherrity – thanks for asking and I will add to the blog post. I usually wait a day to get them chilled, of course, my husband starts eating them before they even go in the jars.
Thanks for asking that and I will update the recipe. Yes, you can eat them the next day.
I made these and they are delicious! Is there any reason I can’t go through the entire canning process and seal my jars to preserve longer than refrigeration? I’m not an expert canner but I know some ingredients should not be canned and shelved for month.
So glad you made the pickles and found them delicious. By all means, you can do the hot water bath so the pickles can be stored on a shelf. I make small batches and find it easier to keep them in the fridge. This recipe made three small jars. I am the only one that eats these pickles so I don’t need alot.
I did a bit of canning last summer and really enjoyed it, I’ll have to give it another go with this recipe!
You just made this pregnant lady very happy! Time for pickles for sure!
Yum! I bet these do taste so much better than store-bought. I can’t wait to try them at home.
Please don’t rate the recipe if you haven’t tried it! Very misleading and upsetting to look for a top rated recipe and find that 90% of the raters didn’t even try it!!
I love pickled cucumbers, they are incredibly popular here in Hungary and are typically served as a side salad, I must try your recipe.
Looks so delicious and so easy to make! I love pickles!
Those look so good Jere! I think refrigerator pickles are great. Like your combo of white and brown sugar. I did a post here: https://getcookingsimply.com/get-pickled/
We could save so much money doing pickles ourselves because we go through a lot of it. And those local, organic, healthy kind of pickles costs an arm and a leg! Such a simple thing to make ourselves so I’m not sure why I haven’t done it yet. Your post sure inspires me to make my own from now on!
You are right, these take no time to make and they are good!
I love homemade pickles! Once you have a taste of them, the store bought ones don’t taste good any more. Thanks for sharing !
Wow, I honestly didn’t realize it was this easy to make this. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Thrifting Diva
http://www.thriftingdiva.com
Thank you for the sweet memories of “helping” my Gramma can various veggies years ago, when she was healthy and I didn’t understand the concept of canning but was happy to be in her kitchen being helpful! 🙂
This recipe reminds me of the bread and butter pickles my grandma used to make when I was little. Thank you for sharing it. I haven’t canned in several years, but I would love to do it again.
I’ve never made these, but this recipe looks delicious!!!
Then why did you rate it!?!?!?
My mouth is watering at these pictures! I love pickles, and will pin this to try soon 🙂
How cool is this?! I am a huge fan of pickles and I never really thought of making them myself. We’re moving toward more and more clean & natural foods and products so this is another great idea. Thank you!
Ohmegawsh – these look so good! Those last couple of pictures have me drooling! Gotta try this!
It has never occured to me to do my own pickles primarily because I am too lazy. But now I will try this recipe of yours and let you know how it goes. we are going into summer on my side of the world, and we do more outdoor eating so this could be a nice addition to the braai
I love making pickles! We made dill and sweet this year. I’ve never been a fan of the dill ones, but they look so good! We also made pickle relish. I love your photos! ~Adrienne
Thank you for sharing, I need to try this! My kids LOVE pickles, and I’m sure it would be healthier and probably less expensive if I made our own and canned them!
What lovely memories you have of you and your grandmother sharing those special times together! Although I’ve never canned anything before, now I might have to try something new! I enjoyed reading your post – thanks so much for sharing!
We love pickles but the store brands all have artificial colors, which we don’t eat, so have’t had pickles in a long time! I’m going to make a bunch of these, thanks for the recipe!
Those look delicious! They remind me of my grandmother’s pickles. I need to pin this for future reference!
Wow, I honestly did not know it was so easy to make these. Definitely saving this recipe. I am not a huge lover of pickles, but honestly this looks so awesome. Pinning this.
Thrifting Diva
http://www.thriftingdiva.com
Those pickles look yummy!!! They look so perfect! My aunt just canned some bread and butter and dill pickles and gave us some! I like dill better but will give the others a fair taste test!
These pickles look delicious! I love a good pickle and will have to give these a try. They probably won’t last long in our house.
So funny that I come to this post today. Yesterday, I was at the store and saw jarred pickles and it was so tempting, but I’m always disappointed. I’ve had homemade pickles before and there’s nothing like it. Thanks for the recipe. This is something I can easily do.
I have always wanted to try out my hand at making pickles, but just never got up the nerve. I am going to save this recipe and maybe get out of my comfort zone 🙂
So funny, this was the year we decided to can up a storm as well. I still have some more things I hope to make. But we got a lot of pickles made. You are correct, there is nothing like homemade pickles.
Growing up our garden was an acre. We also went to visit my grandparents and grab fresh fruit across the mountains. I grew up never buying canned foods and I wish I could have done that more when the kids were younger. Never too late to start back up 🙂
They look so gooooood!!! Can’t wait to make them tomorrow, thank you so much for the recipe.
I hope the store will have those little cucumbers tomorrow 🙂
I never heard of this.I’m not really fond of pickles but I know someone who is and I bet she would love to try this recipe sending her an email right now.
Awesome! I will need to try these. My husband loves bread and butter pickles..I’m more into dill pickles myself, but I like the idea of making them from scratch. Thanks for sharing!
Delicious! I just realize that you use brown sugar to make pickles. I definitely will try to make it.
They really are my favorite.
These look so good. I’ve got a teeny kitchen, so canning is tough, but I may need to try this. Thanks!
Hey there, this is a perfect recipe for a tiny kitchen, it only makes two jars.
I have a real hankering for these now. Pinned the recipe! Thank you for sharing!
Cool to see you made pickles. I am getting ready to do the same thing next weekend with the cucumbers I got in my CSA box. Pickles are great. Enjoy them.
This batch went by so fast I need to make some more.
I made these and loved them. This recipe makes a perfect amount and they came out perfect.
I really love this recipe! I will be making it, it seems just so easy! I can’t wait to go buy the items and try this out. Thanks!
I use to love pickles when I was a kid but as an adult they aren’t a favorite.
As a kid I wouldn’t eat them even though I canned them. Now I find myself craving them.
I love bread and butter pickles. One of my favorite things to snack on. These actually look very easy to make and I have been wanting to try making my own. Thanks for the recipe!
Those look fantastic…well worth the work!
Those pickles do look really good! Do they have that name because they traditionally accompany bread and butter?
Good question – there seems to be several different theories mostly that they originated during the depression when people would cucumbers with bread and butter. The cucumber were cheap and easy to grown. If you dig deeper they originated in Europe. I thought they originated in my Grandma’s kitchen.
Yum! I like making small batches of pickles and the like as well. I don’t want to have to spend all day doing it, but as you said, they’re so much better than store bought! This year I made pickled beets for the first time, and they’re amazing. Now the hard part is rationing them.
I use to make pickled beets too. We always put hard-boiled eggs in the beet juice.
I love pickles! I can them myself as well and these are really good! Great tips 🙂
I’m not sure I’ve ever considered making my own pickles. Since I love them, it may be something I should try.
April, you should give these pickles a try. They are easy and actually very fun to make.
You had me at pickle. We love pickles in my house. We also love to cook. Last year I bought a whole case of mason jars just sure I was going to make jam. Yes, they sit there in the unopened package today. Today however, I have been inspired by you fabulous photos. I plan to put those jars to good use.
You will love them.
It’s as if you knew I was going to read your post! I am a pickle lover!! I have never canned anything, but with your great directions and photo, I think I am going to give it a shot. Thank you! 🙂
These look delicious. The recipe doesn’t look too complicated. I need to give these a try.
Oh! I have never made pickles, but I’d love to try… YUM! I am so going to give this a try. My partner would love them 🙂
This recipe sounds delightfully easy! I really need to make the effort to go to a farmer’s market. We have so many good ones here in San Diego .. I just need to set some time aside so I can go 🙂
Monica.
I’ve been to some farmers markets in San Diego, they really have a bounty of great fruits and veggies there. I’m from NorCal and feel blessed with the great farmers markets to go to here.
This brings back memories of pickling as a child. I grew up on a farm and we had huge batches to pickle. Homemade pickles are still the best!
Don’t you love those fond memories?
These look delicious! I LOOOVVVEEE sour pickles, but I’ve never liked sweet pickles. Yours look so tasty though, I’d be willing to give them a second chance! You may convert me yet!
Hey, give these a try, they are probably a 6 on the scale of sweetness.
MMMMMM! Those look delicious. I’ve never canned before, but your instructions are great! I love cucumbers in any form 🙂
I’ve always wanted to make pickles! What a great recipe. Do you know if you can use a sugar substitute? I don’t eat sugar. Thank you!
I don’t know about not using sugar in when making pickles. The sugar is needed to reduce the acidity of the vinegar. I did read that you can replace sugar with honey but you need to reduce the amount by a 1/4 cup since honey is much sweeter than sugar.
Oh my goodness, I don’t know if I’ve ever wanted to eat a bunch of pickles so much as I do right now! I LOVE pickles!! This looks like a fantastic recipe. Do you know if there is much leeway in how much salt needs to be used? I have a health condition right now that requires me to be on a low sodium diet so I’d love to find a way to make lower sodium pickles! Less sodium per pickle means more pickles I get to eat! 🙂 I will definitely add the recipe to my collection, though. Thank you!
I think you would be safe to use less salt, the salt makes the pickles softer. You do rinse the cucumbers to get rid of the salt so I think most of the salt would be gone.