Modifying a Pickle Recipe. Is there a safe way to do this?

[Raven]

Several years ago I started container growing my own cucumbers because I wanted so much to taste my grandmothers home-made Bread & Butter Pickles (and you can't get pickling cukes in the stores around here).

This year my wife has asked me to make her a batch, but to chunk them instead of slicing them. Is this safe? All the B&B recipes I can find say slice the cukes.

My Grandmothers recipe is posted here.

I've never changed a proven recipe before and am a bit skittish of the idea. I also use a BWB canner (not pressure).

Thanks

~ Raven ~

 

[licia]

I don't think it would matter if the pickles were chunk or sliced. The formula is what I wouldn't change. Some things seem to have been worked out scientifically more than othes and pickles fall in that category for me.

 

[Alix]

Chunking would work fine Raven, you just might need to let them "work" a bit longer than you would expect from sliced cucumbers.

 

[sparrowgrass]

If you are really worried, call your local extension office. They have a nutritionist/home economist on staff who will be able to answer this question.

Here is a website that will help you find the local office:

http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

The pickling solution, combined with the cooking heat in the recipe will destroy the living organisms in the pickles, regardless of the pickle shape. Think of the many pickle types in the market. There are whole Gherkins, Dill spears, Sliced dills, sweet, and bread & butter varieties. You can purchase sandwich sized slices, and a host of others.

Chunking your pickles will definitely make them more of a mouthfull than processing sliced cukes. And it won't be as easy to make them into a sandwich. But nutritionally, and with reference to the safety aspect, the shape makes no difference, except that as stated above, they may need to work longer in the pickling juice, which they will as they sit on the shelf.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed fo the North

 

[Swann]

I have made many, many jars of B&B pickles using a recipe very similar to yours. I see no reason it would not work with chunks of cucumbers. The cucumbers usually used for B&B are the long slender ones not the ones used for dills. Therefore, to make them more eat-able in B&B you would slice them about the same thickness as the onions. No reason if using pickling "dill" type cukes you could not use them. The sweet pickle chunk pickles are like B&B without the onion.