This is my great-grandmother's recipe for sweet pickles. It's really good--in fact if not for this recipe I would not even bother with growing cukes! I had to scale this recipe down from the original (which I can't seem to find right now) which was for 5 gallons of cukes. My grandmother said that she used to get several 5 gallon buckets going at the same time of these pickles!! How do you get so many cukes ready at the same time?!

Sweet Pickles:

2 Quarts Small Cucumbers
1/2 Cup Pickling Salt
1/2-3/4 teaspoon Alum
1 1/4 Pints Vinegar (2 1/2 Cups)
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1/2 teaspoon-ish Celery Seed (to taste)
1 Cinnamon Stick for each jar
Additional Sugar -- 4 Cups

Wash cucumbers and slice in half lengthwise. Put into large bowl. Dissolve pickling salt into 2 quarts boiling water. Pour salt water over pickles. Place a weighted plate on top of picles to keep all under liquid. Let stand 7 days. It will look moldy and spoiled.

Day 8 - Drain off liquid, completely rince mold off of pickles and out of bowl. Pour 1 quart of boiling water over pickles. Cover with clean, weighted plate.

Day 9 - Drain water and boil it, adding Alum, pour over pickles. Replace plate.

Day 10 - Drain water and boil again, pour over pickles. Replace plate.

Day 11 - Combine vinegar, 1 1/2 Cups Sugar, celery seed, and boil. Boil jars. Pack pickles tightely into jars, add cinnamon sticks--1 full stick per quart jar. Then pour hot vinegar mixture into jars. Let sit overnight, pour off liquid and boil. Dissolve 1 Cup of sugar into mixture then return mixture to the jars. Repeat Day 11, 3 additional times.

Day 14 - After filling jars with hot vinegar-sugar mixture, add a sprinkle of alum to each jar (about 1/8 teaspoon for each quart). Clean off rims of jars. Put on lids and bands. Dip into boiling water 10-30 seconds. Let cool on rack or towel. Reboil jars if they do not seal of the first try.

Makes 2 Quarts

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Sarah - Zone 5b/6