This is one of those wife's mother's mother's mother's etc recipe. We made these pickles last year around this time and took them to Saskatchewan for my wife's grandmother's 90th birthday party. We took 4 large mason jars and it wasn't enough. Family who haven't had these pickles in decades knew exactly what they were before the jars were opened.
K, here we go.
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6 lbs (2.8 kg) cucumbers cut into 3/4" (19 mm) rings, and cored with a spoon.
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Brine: 1 lbs (450 g) salt in 9 pints (4.25 L) of water
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Submerge the cucumber rings with a plate or something and leave for 5 days, then drain.
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2 tsp (10 mL) alum in 1 gallon (3.8 L) boiling water. Drop in the rings and leave overnight. Rinse with cold water.
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Syrup: 3 pints (1.4 L) vinegar, 2 cups (0.5 L) water, 9 cups (2.2 kg..ish) sugar, 2 tsp (10 mL) mustard seed, 3 cinnamon sticks, thumb-size ginger root sliced, 1 oz (30 g) whole allspice
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Boil the syrup, cover the rings in the syrup and leave overnight. Reboil once daily for two days and pour the hot syrup over the rings (i.e., don't boil the proto-pickles).
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Put cucumber rings into sterile jars, pour boiling syrup into jars, and put hot, sterile lids on.
These are sweet, with a definite allspice flavour, but it's not overpowering. We made 16 large mason jars of these last year and ran out half-way through the year. We'll probably wind up doing two dozen this year.
bon appetit
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