Bread & Butter Pickles: (makes 1-2 quart jars)
1 qt. cucumbers sliced into discs (roughly 5-6 cukes)
1/2 large onion, chopped fine
1/2 sweet bell pepper, chopped
1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. of kosher salt (or sea salt)
1/4 Tbsp. wet mustard (dark or stone ground if you have it)
1 c. apple cider vinegar
1 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. dry mustard seed or ground mustard powder
1 Tsp. powdered tumeric
tiny dash of ground cloves
1/5 tsp. celery seed
Wash cucumbers and slice into thin discs. Chop onions and peppers. Combine with cucumbers and salt; let stand in a bowl covered for three hours, then drain off excess liquid. Combine vinegar, sugar and spices in a large preserving kettle (or a sauce pan) and bring to a boil. Pack well drained cucumbers into jars and pour boiling brine over them completely, leaving an inch of room in the jars for expansion. Seal jars at once. Keep unopened in fridge (for crisper pickles), unless you heat process the jars (which will result in softer pickles but they can stand unrefrigerated till opened). Wait at least 7 days for your pickles to cure before opening the jar to eat.
[I reduced the original recipe to make a smaller batch, as modern cooks don't typically make such huge seasonal batches at harvest time anymore. This 1976 recipe by Ann Wegner came from "Cajun & Country Cookin'" cookbook published by United Methodist Church, China Texas (from my antique cookbook collection). i added the cloves & celery seed suggested in Rose Leger's version in the same book, but I just loved Ann's technique for salt curing the cukes before brining. If you want to make the full scale original recipe, just multiply all my quantities above by 5]
You can check out my dill pickle recipe at this link (the "dill" brine in my other blog can be used for any savory pickling like pepper, cucumbers, garlic, or italian style Giardiniera made with baby carrots, cauliflower, onions/peppers & celery).