Bread & Butter Pickles

Illustration by Megan Goheen

Editor’s note: Be sure to follow the numbers. We had to place Step 5 to the left of Step 4 for design purposes to create a beautiful-yet-functional piece of art, worthy of framing in your kitchen. Happy pickling!

A big dill

Grandma Reen shares her method for making the best bread & butter pickles.

LOCAL Life illustrator Megan Goheen asked her beloved Grandma Reen to share her tasty method for bread & butter pickles. If you are tired of the soggy and rubbery pickles found in grocery store jars, give this recipe a try. The preserved cucumbers are a perfect balance of sweet and salty flavors with a nice crunch.

“Each summer I look forward to the cucumbers coming out of our vegetable garden. We love them in salads, made into a sour cream/cucumber sauce for fish or gyros or in a refreshing cold cucumber/dill soup. My favorite thing to do with them is to make sweet bread and butter pickles for ourselves, family, and friends! When we look for our cucumber seedlings to plant, we always make sure to choose two or three plants labeled ‘pickling cucumbers.’ They are usually small, 4- to 5-inches long, and have skins and flesh that hold up well in pickling liquid for long periods of time. You can use the standard long salad cucumber, but you’ll want to eat them more quickly since they’ll lose that crispness we love in pickles.” — XOXOXO, Grandma Reen