Stone Jar Pickles
Submitted by peccaj
Old-fashioned stone crock pickles made over 15 days with a salt brine, alum soak, spiced vinegar cure, and sugar layering. A heritage pickling method that produces crisp, sweet pickles that keep indefinitely.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
20 minREADY
40 minThis is pickling the way your great-grandmother did it, with a stone crock, a box of salt, and two weeks of patience.
The process unfolds over 15 days. First, small cucumbers get brined in boiling salt water. Then an alum soak firms them up to a satisfying crunch. A plain water rinse comes next, followed by a long, fragrant soak in vinegar steeped with pickling spices wrapped in cheesecloth.
On the final day, the cucumbers get sliced and layered with sugar in the crock or straight into glass jars. No sealing required. These pickles keep indefinitely and get better with time.
Kitchen Tips
- Use the smallest, freshest cucumbers you can find. Larger ones turn soft in the center during the long brining process
- Tie the pickling spices tightly in cheesecloth so they flavor the vinegar without leaving gritty bits on the pickles
- A stone crock or food-grade ceramic jar is traditional, but a large glass jar works just as well
- Be patient with the full 15-day timeline. Each step builds on the last, and rushing any stage will cost you that signature snap
Ingredients
Directions
First day: Pour not quite all of a box of salt into a kettle of water and boil.
Pour over approximately a half bushel of small cucumbers.
Pack into at least a 3 gallon stone jar.
Second day: Pour salty water off cucumbers.
Boil in a large kettle 1 box of alum and water to fill the kettle.
Pour over cucumbers.
Third day: Drain off alum liquid; boil a kettle of plain water and pour over pickles.
Fourth day: Heat 1 gallon vinegar.
Put one box of pickling spices into a piece of cheesecloth; tie securely and drop into vinegar.
Pour over cucumbers and let sit for 9 days.
On the fifteenth day: Pour off liquid from pickles.
Slice cucumbers; put a layer of pickles and a layer of sugar into your stone crock.
If you prefer layer your pickles and sugar right into glass jars.
It is not necessary to seal the jars.
Pickles will keep indefinitely.
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