Ryan and I LOVE pickles. Just always have. Always will. Pickles are the best thing in the whole world. When I was little I used to dream of the day I could start a cucumber farm so that I would be able to make pickles whenever I wanted. I would be able to experiment with pickles and see all their flavorings, it would have been amazing. I'd be lying if there aren't days when work is particularly crazy when I don't still think about making a pickle farm. Maybe next year, ha!
Anyways, this was one of the first recipes in her recipe packet that I saw that I wanted to make before of the love for pickles. It also seemed really easy and I was pretty intimidated pretty early on by the recipes in the packet so taking on an easy recipe and getting an easy win seemed like a good idea.
The recipe itself calls for just sugar in with the pickles. This made no sense to me. I couldn't figure out how that would work, it seemed like it must NEED some kind of liquid to be a pickle, right? I worried that Grandmother had written her recipe down wrong or there had been some kind of error in translation so I went to the google machine and googled how others made old styled candied pickles. Sure enough, most of them used apple cider vinegar with the pickles. That made sense to me. I followed the recipes and used apple cider vinegar with a bit of sugar. And I ate them, and it was delicious.
But, I had a nagging feeling. Grandmother didn't make many mistakes, especially not with cooking. And my Grandfather was a type-A engineer, so it would be VERY unlike him to have missed a step typing so I figured I should just try her method and see what happened, even if it seemed weird and dumb.
So I chopped all the pickles into chunks and re-used the jar they came in for my candying purposes. I got out all the sugar and just started pouring it in. I had to mush the pickles around and push down to make room for all the sugar and it barely fit. I was able to just make enough room at the top of the jar for the packet of pickling spices. I shrugged at the weird sugar pickle concoction and put it in the fridge to see what would happen.
What happened was pickle magic. There's totally science behind this and I'm sure my high school self would know what the science was, but essentially the liquid in the pickle and the sugar swapped so the sugar got absorbed into the pickle and left the liquid in the pickle jar over the course of the 10 days. The packet of spices added a nice extra hint of flavor to cut down the sugar-pickle vibe and it was amazing.
Anyways. You should totally make these. They're delicious and probably the most satisfying snack I've made in a long time. Also, super not healthy. Nothing in this book is healthy, but that's what makes it good :)
Enjoy it!
CANDIED PICKLES
PREP TIME: 10 DAYS
1-quart whole dill pickles, drained and cut into chunks
3 cups sugar
2 Tbsp. pickling spice, tied in cheesecloth
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Place pickles in container. Cover with sugar and bag of spices.
2. Cover and refrigerate for ten days. Stir every day or so. At the end of ten days, pickles are ready to serve and may be stored in refrigerator for several months.
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