Old-Fashioned Bread and Butter Pickles Canning Recipe

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As someone who’s most partial to savory, spicy, and salty foods, I have never been a huge fan of bread and butter pickles. Generally, I’m disappointed when I get a helping of pickles at a potluck or family gathering and they turn out to be the weird sweet kind. Old-fashioned, homemade bread and butter pickles are a whole different thing from the grocery store kind, though.

I first made a batch using the Ball Blue Book recipe because my husband requested some (he likes the store-bought ones, too). We’d already made like 50 jars of dill pickles, and we needed some way to use all the pickling cucumbers that were still coming in from the garden.

The old-fashioned spice blend and generous amount of sliced onions in these bread and butter pickles sets them apart from your average sweet pickle. Plus, the crunch and texture you get from fresh cucumbers is on point. Now, I make at least two or three batches of them every summer so we have plenty to eat and plenty to share.

For these bread and butter pickles, I’ve made a few tweaks to Ball’s original recipe to increase the yield and adjust the flavor a bit to our liking. The original recipe is supposed to make six pint jars, but for some reason, I could never get more than five (or, even more frustrating, five and a half). My adapted recipe keeps the ratios the same but reliably yields seven pints. I mean, if I’m going to drag my canner out for the afternoon, I want to be able to fill the rack!

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Equipment Needed for Bread and Butter Pickles

Water Bath Canner

Any large stockpot can be a water bath canner, if you don’t have an official one. It just needs to be big enough to hold seven pint canning jars and deep enough they’ll be covered by at least an inch of boiling water. If you don’t have a canning rack, just line the bottom of the pot with a clean washcloth so the jars aren’t in direct contact with the metal.  

Canning Jars, Flats, and Bands

You’ll need seven pint canning jars for these pickles, along with flats and bands. While I’ve been using the same bands for years, it’s best to only use the flats once for canning. I highly recommend Superb canning flats to avoid failed seals. In recent years, I’ve heard a lot of sad stories about generic (and sometimes even familiar name brand) flats not sealing like they should.  

Canning Utensils

The only mandatory tools for making these pickles are a funnel for filling jars and a jar lifter so you can get your jars in and out of the hot canner. However, I suggest anybody who plans to do a lot of home canning get a little canning tool set like this one. Such kits come with extra canning tools that really come in handy, like a de-bubbler, a magnetic lid lifter, and a tool for measuring headspace.  

Large Stainless Steel Pot

Stainless (or glass) is best for canning recipes that involve vinegar, since the vinegar might corrode cheaper metals.

Ingredients for Bread and Butter Pickles

Fresh Pickling Cucumbers

For any pickle recipe that involves water bath canning, you’ll get the best results when you use the freshest possible cucumbers. Grocery store cucumbers usually won’t cut it. Not to mention, a lot of them are coated in that mystery wax you really don’t want in your pickle jars.

Pickling cucumbers are really easy to grow, if you aren’t growing them already. From my experience, they’re less fussy than slicing cucumbers if you plant a hardy variety. Aside from picking them fresh from the garden, a local farmer’s market or produce stand is another good place to get ahold of some peak quality (and mystery wax free) cucumbers for pickling.  

Cucumbers should feel very firm for good (crunchy) pickles, without any noticeable squishiness. While I’d definitely recommend pickling varieties for a batch of dill pickle spears, slicing cucumbers will work just fine for bread and butter pickles as long as they’re fresh and not too big. Avoid any oversized cucumbers that have large seeds in the middle.  

Sweet Onions

Thinly-sliced sweet onions (aka Vidalia onions) add a subtle savory note to the bread and butter pickles. This levels them up from an average sweet relish flavor and makes them a perfect condiment for sweet and savory dishes. I definitely prefer sweet onions, but you can also use yellow onions if that’s what you have.

Apple Cider Vinegar, 5% Acidity

Ball’s bread and butter pickle recipe calls for white vinegar. However, I think apple cider vinegar complements the overall spice and sweetness in the pickles a little bit better. It doesn’t have quite as much “whang” as white vinegar, so you don’t get as much of an intrusive vinegar aftertaste.

Note: it’s best not to use raw, homemade vinegar for water bath canning recipes since you can’t know for sure what the acidity level is throughout the batch. Keeping the food to be preserved below a certain acidity is essential for safe water bath canning. Bragg’s ACV is fine, since each batch is tested to ensure it’s at 5% acidity. However, that stuff ain’t cheap, and the high temps destroy those health benefits you’re paying for. I prefer to buy filtered cider vinegar to do my canning and save my Bragg’s for other uses.

Sugar

I use raw cane sugar for canning, including these pickles along with jellies and jams. Any plain old sugar will do, though.

Pickling Salt

For any pickling recipe, you’ll get the best outcome when you use pickling salt intended specifically for canning. Regular table salt has iodine and other additives, which can mess up the flavor, color, and texture of homemade pickles.

Pure, non-iodized sea salt or Himalayan salt can work in a pinch if it’s finely ground (coarse salts will throw your measurements off because the volume by weight is different from pickling salt). Also, keep in mind that Himalayan pink salt often has sediment in it that will settle in the bottom of the pickle jars rather than dissolving.

Old-Fashioned Bread and Butter Spices

The warm spice blend for these bread and butter pickles includes mustard seed, turmeric, celery seed, ground ginger, and black peppercorns. You can make any adjustments you like to the spices; leave out anything you don’t like or maybe add a pinch of ground cloves or allspice if desired.

How to Make Bread and Butter Pickles

Prepare the Cucumbers and Onions

Wash the cucumbers well and slice them into roughly ¼ inch rounds, tossing the blossom and stem ends. Then, thinly slice the onions. I like to quarter large onions to avoid having extra long pieces of onion in with the pickles.

Next, you’ll layer all the veggies with salt and let them sit under ice for a while. This step is key for getting the best flavor and texture in bread and butter pickles. The salt absorbs excess moisture from the cucumbers, which helps them keep their crunch during cooking and also primes them to soak in the sweetness and spice from the brine. The ice prevents them from warming up too much as they sit out at room temperature.

For this step, you’ll need a really big bowl for all the veggies. You could also divide everything into two bowls or even use a large roasting pan. Start by placing ¼ of the cucumbers and onions in the bowl. Then, sprinkle ¼ of the pickling salt over top. Repeat until all the cucumbers and onions are layered and salted.

Once your vegetables are salted, pack the top of the bowl with enough ice cubes to cover everything. Cover the bowl with a tea towel or tin foil and let it sit at room temperature for 1.5 to 2 hours so the salt can do its work. The veggies will shrink down quite a bit during this process.

Prepare Canning Equipment

While the veggies soak in the salt and ice bath, get your canning stuff ready. First, wash your jars, flats, and bands in hot soapy water. Since you’ll be hot-packing these pickles, you’ll want to heat your jars up before filling so they don’t crack from temperature shock. Place them in the canner, fill it with water until the jars are submerged by a couple inches, and warm them up on the stove on medium-low heat. I generally wait until my cucumbers are almost done with the salt/ice soak before turning on the burner.

Simmer the Pickles

First, drain the liquid off the cucumbers and onions and rinse them under cold water once they’re finished soaking in the salt and ice. The easiest way to do this is to work in batches using a large strainer. Transfer the rinsed veggies to a second bowl or container as you go.  

In a stainless steel pot that’s large enough to hold the cucumber and onion mixture, add the vinegar, sugar, and spices. Bring it to a gentle boil, stirring until all the sugar dissolves. Next, add the cucumbers and onions to the pot. Stir them around and cook until they’ve soaked in the brine and the mixture starts to bubble a little bit, which shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes.

It’s important not to overcook the pickles during this step. You want them SLIGHTLY softened but not cooked through. You’ll know they’ve cooked long enough when they’ve shrank down a tiny bit and absorbed that pretty golden color of the turmeric. Once they get there, yank them off the heat right away so they don’t keep cooking.

Pack the Jars

Using a ladle and a canning funnel, pack a hot jar with the hot pickle mixture, leaving a half inch of headspace at the top. Wipe the jar rim with a clean, damp cloth, add the flat, and twist the band on “finger-tip tight.” That means good and snug without using a lot of force. Place the packed jar back in the canner using your jar lifter and continue until all jars are filled and loaded.

Note: These pickles are a little tricky to pack since the pickles and brine are already combined before filling. If you get too much brine and not enough pickles in each jar, you’ll end up with loosely packed jars and a lot of leftover pickle mixture.

When filling jars, try to get more pickles than brine in the ladle. Fill the jar to the top, then use the silicone de-bubbler or a spoon to lightly pack down the pickles. The brine will rise to cover them as they settle in, and you’ll be able to see whether you need to add a little more brine or a few more pickles to top off the jar. Another option is to use a slotted spoon to pack the pickles, then use the ladle to add the brine.

Process the Pickles

Bring the canner to a full rolling boil and process for ten minutes, adjusting for higher elevations if necessary. After processing, turn the heat off and let the canner sit for five minutes or so. Then, remove the jars to a clean towel on the counter and let them cool undisturbed overnight, or at least twelve hours.

Check Seals and Store

Once the pickle jars are completely cooled, check to make sure they all sealed. Properly sealed flats shouldn’t flex at all when you gently press the middle with a fingertip. If you have a jar with a failed seal, you can put it in the fridge and eat the pickles within two or three months.

Remove the bands before storing to prevent rusting, and don’t forget to date and label the jars. These home-canned bread and butter pickles will keep at top quality for up to a year when stored in a dark, relatively cool space. They’ll be safe to eat well beyond that one year mark, as long as the seals stay intact and the pickles still smell and taste good.  

Ways to Eat Bread and Butter Pickles

I think these bread and butter pickles really shine the most when used as a topping for a sweet and savory dish. They add a little extra character to anything you’d eat with sweet relish. I also like using them to fancy up a cold cut sandwich, such as ham and Swiss with a dab of mustard. That said, they’re also pretty darn good straight out of the jar.