elderly cucumber pickles

I found this recipe when I went looking for something to do with a bunch of overly large, yellow cucumbers that magically appeared in my garden.  This summer has been generously wet so there have been a few things that have not been done on a timely basis.  Like picking the cucumbers frequently enough to avoid these kinds of situations.  Anyway, I had a bunch of over sized ripening cucumbers and I did a quick internet search to see if the cucumbers could be salvaged or if they were destined for the compost pile.  Turns out they can be used.  One recipe I found actually called for waiting until the yellow cucumbers turned bronze/orange in color before making that pickle so I set aside the most orange ones and went to work with the yellow ones.

It sounds like cucumbers that get to this stage tend to make soft not crisp pickles unless they are soaked in lime or pickled with alum.  I have pickling lime so I decided to go that route.  The directions called for peeling the cucumbers, cutting them in half and scooping out the seeds and then cutting into strips that would fit into the jars that would be used to can the pickles.  My strips ended up being about 1/2 inch in width and 3-4 inches long.  Once the cucumbers are cut to size they are soaked overnight in the refrigerator in lime water.  The next day the cucumber pieces are drained and rinsed with three water changes until the water runs clear.  The cucumbers are then soaked in new clear cold water for another four hours or overnight and then drained and pickled.

The pickle recipe that I used called for the cucumber slices to be placed cold into the hot sanitized jars, seasonings added and then the hot vinegar/sugar brine poured over the cucumbers in the jar to the proper headspace, lids applied and then water bath canned.  This was a great way to do it because it allowed for some experimentation in the different jars.  The recipe that I followed (source at end of post) used ginger, peppercorns and mustard seed as the seasoning in a 2:1 white vinegar/sugar brine but offered several other combinations that also looked interesting.  I decided to do seven jars as that is what my canner holds using the vinegar/sugar brine with two different seasoning combinations and then doing the rest of them in a different combination, maybe cider vinegar and a sweeter ratio.  I used a few cucumber pieces and extra brine to some in the fridge for tasting without having to open a jar to evaluate the end results.  

So, in one batch I tried the ginger, mustard seed and peppercorn spices.  I was a little curious about how pickles with ginger would be and am pleased to say that I like them.  The pickles have good texture.  They are pretty tart, not curl your tongue and make your eyes water tart, but I might consider trying a different vinegar:sugar ratio next time, maybe 2:1.5 even if it is only a sample to see if it is better.

For the second batch I was looking for something that might be interesting in a bloody Mary.  I used red pepper flakes, celery seed and garlic.  Again the pickles were quite tart with good texture. 

Source: here