Sweet and Spicy Pickles
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These Sweet and Spicy Pickles are loaded with hot hungarian peppers, onions, and all of the fixings for a perfect pickle recipe! This recipe starts out sweet but then you get hit with the heat! If you have an abundance of cucumbers this summer, this is the perfect canning recipe to store them for later!
So, Saturday was National Can-It-Forward day. I was unable to participate since I had plans on camping. I figured I would share one of my recipes that I made this year. These are sweet and spicy pickles. The previous year I had a recipe I found online and it was so disappointing. I ended up throwing out 5 or 6 quarts of pickles because they were blah! They tasted like a not so spicy and not so sweet cucumber. Regardless, I learned my lesson and concocted my own recipe.
This year was definitely my year for cucumbers. I’ve had tons to pickle and tons left over to set up a produce stand by the road and sell some. People just love fresh vegetables and I love getting money for my fresh vegetables. It’s a win/win.
Sweet and Spicy Pickles
SAVE THIS RECIPE
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Ingredients
- 16 cucumbers, washed and sliced
- 2 large onions, thinly sliced
- 3/4 cup pickling salt
- 12 cups water
- 10 hot Hungarian wax peppers (use your preferred hot pepper), thinly sliced
- 5 cups granulated sugar
- 4 cups white distilled vinegar
- 1/2 tablespoon mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
- 1/2 tablespoon turmeric
- 2 whole cloves
Instructions
- Make sure to clean a large area on your countertop. Grab a large bath towel and fold it the long ways and place it flat on top of the counter. This will cover your filled canning jars to keep the cold air off from them.
- Place the sliced 16 cucumbers and slices of 2 large onions in a nonreactive pan. A nonreactive pan is a stainless steel, enamel, glass, or plastic. I used a large enamel stock pot.
- Put the 3/4 cup pickling salt in the pan and pour12 cups water over the cucumbers and onions. You want enough water to cover the cucumbers and onions completely. Mine took 12 cups of water. Stir to distribute the salt.
- Let the cucumbers and onions sit for 2 hours.
- Rinse the cucumbers and onions for about 5 minutes under water to get most of the pickling salt off them.
- In a separate large sauce pot over medium heat, add in the 10 hot Hungarian wax peppers (use your preferred hot pepper), 5 cups granulated sugar, 4 cups white distilled vinegar, 1/2 tablespoon mustard seeds, 1/2 teaspoon celery seeds, 1/2 tablespoon turmeric, and 2 whole cloves Stir occasionally.
- Make sure the hot water canner is over the heat and ready to sterilize the canning jars.
- Bring the pickling syrup up to a boil and add the canning jars and lids into the hot water canner.
- Add the hot pickling syrup in with the cucumbers and onions. Let it come to a boil and boil for about 5 minutes. Make sure to stir the cucumbers occasionally.
- Pull out a canning jar and place the funnel in the jar. Using a slotted spoon, add in as many pickles as you can. Leave an 1/2 inch of headspace. Filling the jars with syrup still leaving 1/2 inch of headspace.
- Clean the rim of the jar with a damp paper towel. Using a lid lifter, pull a hot lid out of the hot water canner and place it on the clean rim. Grab a ring and tighten it down on the lid.
- Place the jar of pickles between the folding towel. Make sure the top, bottom, and sides are covered.
- Repeat the filling and covering with the rest of the canning jars.
- They will seal on their own while sitting under the towel. It could take one hour or 10 hours to pop. If you have one or two to not seal, place them in a hot water bath for 20 minutes and put back under the towel. If you still have issues, you probably didn’t have a clean rim and place the unsealed pickles in the fridge and eat them.
Nutrition
(Nutrition facts are an estimate and not guaranteed to be accurate. Please see a registered dietitian for special diet advice.)
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No Hungarian waxed peppers in my area, can you recommend a substitute? I do have jalapenos in my garden. Thanks
You could use jalapenos for sure as a swap.
Should I add pickle crisp to keep them crispy if storing for a long time? Can’t wait to try these!
Yes, wait to add pickle crisps until you are ready to serve.
Hi how long will this last in the pantry? How long will they last in fridge once opened?
Thank you
You will want to refrigerate for 1-2 weeks once opened.
Hi Miranda I was just wondering. When you say clove is that an actual clove or a garlic clove??
Cloves as in the spice! Not ground, two small, whole cloves. They add a delicious, warm spice to the pickles.
It’s a great recipe. It does have a typo at #6. It should be ‘granulated sugar’, not salt. Salt was used in #3. Easy fix.
Thank you! Fixed 🙂
Hey Miranda,
I love this recipe and made it to great success last summer. Wondering if I could skip boiling the cucumbers and onions and just add the hot syrup to them in the jar? Then letting them set for 5-14 days to take on the appropriate flavor. Trying to keep the cucumbers extra crispy. Let me know if you think that would work.
Yes! That would work great to keep the cucumbers crispy. They will be great!
When do you add the 5 cups of granulated sugar? You also mention adding granulated salt later on but not the quantity.
The 3/4 cup pickling salt in the recipe! It is very thick salt and sometimes called “granulated salt” so I often use both terms. Sorry for the confusion and hope this helps!
About house many pounds of cucumbers did you use for this recipe? Cucumbers come in so many sizes that it’s hard to know how much I need. Measuring produce by pounds is easier.
Hi Kim! It is about 6 pounds of cucumbers. For another reference point, my cucumbers were about 6 inches long and I used 16 of them in the recipe. Home this helps give you the right quantity!