“Refrigerator Sweet Pickles”

When I was a kid, my family always had a garden every spring and summer. This meant we always had fresh vegetables year around. Saturday mornings my sister and I had chores which consisted of cutting green beans to be canned, shucking ears of corn, and cutting tomatoes so Mom could make her homemade tomato sauce and paste. When I think about it hard enough I can still taste it all. Anyway, Mom could make awesome sweet pickles, going through the week-long pickling process. Well I wanted that same flavor but wanted to make them in less time. So I played around and created my own Refrigerator Sweet Pickles.

Refrigerator Sweet Pickles

My recipe for Refrigerator Sweet Pickles is so easy; taste like they have gone through the traditional pickling process. These sweet pickles are crunchy-crisp and bursting with fresh flavor. Your pickling liquid contains apple cider vinegar which gives the pickles a tang, sugar, pickling spice, mustard seed, red pepper flakes for slight heat, turmeric and salt. Sliced cucumbers are placed in the liquid for at least 4 hours to overnight in the refrigerator to pickle and will keep up to 1 month. I guarantee they won’t last that long. I find them to be rather addicting. Just keep them in the front of your refrigerator. So if you and your family love pickles, try my recipe for Refrigerator Sweet Pickles.

Refrigerator Sweet Pickles

2 pounds pickling cucumbers, sliced

2 cups apple cider vinegar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 T. pickling spice

1 t. red pepper flakes

1 T. yellow mustard seeds

1 t. turmeric

1/2 t. kosher salt

In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine vinegar, sugar, pickling spice, red pepper flakes, mustard seeds, turmeric, and kosher salt. Sugar should be completely dissolved. Remove from heat.

Place sliced cucumbers in a large glass mixing bowl. Pour vinegar mixture over cucumbers. Using a wide mouth canning jar or other large jar, pack cucumbers to top. Once jar is filled, ladle in vinegar mixture to the top. Insert butter knife down sides of jar to ensure there are no air bubbles. Place lid on jar and shake several times. Place jar in refrigerator for at least 4 hours but 24 hours is better for pickles to reach their maximum flavor.

Pickles will keep up to 1 month if they last that long. Enjoy!