Bread And Butter Pickles

Like I said in Tuesday's blog I love pickles and so Lisa and I spent most of the afternoon yesterday making Bread and Butter Pickles.  We cut up 10 cucumbers and I used my Pampered Chef crinkle cutter to cut the slices.  Some of the cucumbers were pretty thick so some of the slices are almost hamburger size which will be great for burgers and sandwiches.  This time we followed a recipe from the pickling spices that Lisa purchased.  When we read the instructions it said we would need 50 cucumbers which we did not have then realized that it meant the pickling cucumbers.  So 10 worked out well.  After cutting the cucumbers we made the brine out of vinegar, sugar and the pickling spices.  It called for 7 cups of vinegar and 6 cups of sugar and the spices which I had to stir continuously over a medium heat until the sugar dissolved and it began to boil.  Once the brine was ready we packed the jars with the cucumber slices then poured the brine in the jars.  We fixed four quart jars of pickles and four pint jars of pickles.  After we sealed the pickles Lisa placed them in a pot of boiling water where they cooked from 10 to 15 minutes depending on the size of the jar.  When the boiling was complete the jars were placed on the counter where they will sit for the next 12 to 24 hours.  We are both very anxious to try the Bread and Butter pickles; they looked great.  Tonight we will be opening the refrigerator jar of dill pickles we made Monday.  I can't wait to see how they taste!  Check back tomorrow so see how the dill pickles turned out!