Mustard Pickles

MUSTARD PICKLES

Continuing the theme of “what do I do with all of these things from my garden?” I embarked upon a quest that I hoped would be delicious by picking this recipe from The New England Cookbook. I love pickles. Like, really love pickles. What can I say? I’m German. My blood is half vinegar!

 

This recipe made ample use of the beautiful cucumbers from my garden, but it also includes some vegetables that make this recipe feel similar to the giardiniera so popular here in Chicago, especially for putting on sausages and hot dogs. The pickles I’m used to are just cucumber slices or spears, but this recipe incorporates cucumbers (from my garden), green tomatoes (also home-grown), green bell peppers, and cauliflower. I recommend, for serving (although I may be getting ahead of myself here), to use the pickle slices as you normally would, and then the rest of the chopped vegetables as a “mustard relish” for hot dogs etc.

Mustard Pickles

1 small head cauliflower

6 C sliced cucumber

3 C sliced green pepper

2 C sliced onion

2 C sliced green tomatoes

¾ C sugar

1/3 C flour

2 ½ tbsp dry mustard

½ tsp tumeric

2 tsp celery seed

4 C white wine vinegar

 

As a note, I diced my green pepper and onion because I’m not a huge fan of large pieces of these vegetables, and also because, as I said above, I assumed that they would serve as a sort of relish upon completion.

After cleaning all vegetables as appropriate, mix together in a large pot. Pour over vegetables a combination of 1 C salt and enough water to completely cover the vegetables. Cover the pot and let sit over night. This is very important! I left my pickles sit for a day and a half because of scheduling issues, and they turned out incredibly salty!

Sterilize jars for canning. The old-fashioned way to do this was with a big pot of boiling water – that’s still how my mom makes her famous jams. However, since the only large pot I own already contained my pickle mixture, I settled for the more modern method of running all my canning supplies through a nice hot session in the dishwasher!

Bring pot with brine and vegetables to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain thoroughly. In retrospect, I think rinsing the vegetables a little to remove the excess salt may be a first-rate idea.

Mix dry seasonings together in a pot over medium heat. Slowly add vinegar, stirring constantly. Cook sauce about 10 minutes or until thick. Mix sauce into drained vegetables and simmer 5 minutes.

Ladle hot pickle mixture into jars. Clean jar rims and seal. If your mixture is hot enough, like mine was (luckily), the jars may seal themselves! If not, you’ll have to force them to seal, often in a hot water bath.

  

This recipe made approximately 7 pints of pickles. While they are tasty, they are very salty because I let them sit too long! I would recommend only letting them sit one night in the brine before finishing the pickling. Additionally, while the mustard flavor is there, you could definitely add another tablespoon of mustard, or even some garlic powder or paprika, without making the flavor overwhelming. I plan to enjoy these pickles on burgers, and the relish on hot dogs.

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!