The days before hand:
I realize I have tons of cucumbers and nothing to do with them. I tried a couple of easier pickle recipes, with mixed reviews from my family. So I decided to try making the pickles that I grew up eating and knew tasted quite good. A year or so ago, my grandfather had mailed me the recipe and I had typed it up, so I wouldn't loose it. So I printed it off and tried to grasp how complicated it was.
It was written in the old style of recipes-confusing. It started out with helpful hints, then went right into what you were supposed to be doing, never referenced back to know when the helpful hints applied, and then had the ingredients in different random parts of the recipe. So I studied the recipe for a while, then called my dad to explain and wrote numbers and arrows all over to try to straighten it all out.
I was really excited to start, but then I realized I didn't have the right kind of salt, so I had to wait a few days before I could get the right salt.
Day 1: I came home from the store with my non iodized salt. The recipe calls for a gallon ice cream bucket full of cucumbers, I don't have a gallon bucket, but I do have a two gallon bucket. I fill it up, evidently I am going to be doubling the recipe. I wash the cucumbers off and stick them in a clean 5 gallon bucket, and mix the water and salt and put it on the stove to help the salt dissolve. Then I panic and call my dad because I put the water and salt in a metal pot, but the recipe says that there should be no metal. My dad says that the metal is fine, it just cannot soak touching metal, so I wait for the water to cool slightly and pour onto the cucumbers. I then find a plastic plate and a glass jar filled with water (no lid) to hold down any floating cucumbers.
Day 2: I look at bucket and search for any signs of fermentation. Nothing, just clear water.
Day 3: Something must be going on, because the cucumbers seem to want to escape. I have to add another jar full of water to control the cucumbers and keep them in the water. The water is starting to look hazy too.
Day 4-7 The cucumbers continue to soak, a nice bubbly scum develops on top. You can scrape it off or not, we didn't partly from laziness, and partly because you knew something was happening based on the growth on top.
Day 7: I took out the cucumbers and rinsed them thoroughly, and cleaned out the bucket. I took this picture before I cleaned everything, but after I moved the bucket, so a lot of the bubbly scum got mixed in the water so its not as impressive
I cut up the cucumbers in 1/2 inch by 2 inch slices. The cucumbers were soft, and a darker color. I then put the pieces back into the clean bucket, covered with cold water, and weighted down to keep the cucumbers in the water.
Day 8: I added the alum. I realized I needed more, so I stopped by the store and picked up some more alum and cinnamon sticks.
Day 9: The alum seemed to have done it's job. The cucumbers are much crispier. So I rinse them off carefully, because alum is supposed to be bitter. I then soak the cucumbers in clear water to get off any remaining alum I assume and make the syrup. Well for the double batch I needed 16 cups of white sugar. With the humidity around here I don't store tons of sugar, and Brian had just used up a lot of the sugar to make bee food, so I was short two cups. I called my dad AGAIN, and he said it would be better to use brown sugar than to skimp on the sugar. So I did, and put it on to boil. It was taking awhile to get there, and I had to get lunch ready because I needed to take Minna to school, so I cranked up the heat. Well then I got distracted vacuuming bugs where the girls were playing, and then I realized the kitchen was filled with smoke. The syrup had boiled over and ran all over the stove top, and started a little fire in the burner. Hopefully the amount of syrup I lost is roughly proportional to the cucumbers that I have accidently dumped into the sink when I drain them, and the one cucumber that didn't make it through the chopping part because it was weird compared to the others. I had a lot of fun cleaning that mess up later that day. I don't have pictures because I was too busy cleaning.
Day 10: Drained the cucumbers and reboiled the syrup. I didn't spill the syrup this time, but draining the cucumbers took some work. I settled on a slotted spoon, and picked the spices off of the cucumbers. I tried a pickle and they seem delicious, and like I remember.
Day 11: Drained the cucumbers again and reboiled the syrup. While it boiled I put the cucumbers into jars and then poured the hot syrup on top, and put warm lids on. I was worried because the lids didn't pop right away, but once they cooled down they all popped. And I made my grandma's pickles successfully !
Notes for the future: I think I will put the spices in a clean sock like my great grandmother did. Some of the pickles taste stronger of one spice or another, I think the sock would help it be more even throughout.
