Ingredients
- 2 gal. cucumbers peeled, cut and seeds cleaned out
- LIME SOLUTION :
- 1 c. lime
- 1 gal. water
- BOIL :
- 1 c. white vinegar
- 1 (1 oz.) bottle red or green food coloring
- 1 T. powdered alum
- Enough water to cover pickles
- BOIL :
- 2 c. vinegar
- 2 c. water
- 10 c. granulated sugar
- 1 (12 oz.) pkg. Red Hots cinnamon candies
- 8 cinnamon sticks
Servings: pints
Units:
Instructions
- LIME SOLUTION:Soak cucumbers in a lime solution for 24 hours. Drain and rinse cucumbers well. Cover with ice water and soak for 3 hours. Drain and rinse well.
- BOIL: Mix 1 cup vinegar, food coloring, alum and enough water to cover pickles, simmer in this mixture 2 hours. Pour off liquid and throw away.
- BOIL: Boil 2 cups vinegar, 2 cups water, 10 cups sugar, candies and cinnamon until dissolved. Pour over cucumbers. Let stand 24 hours.
- Reheat liquid, put cucumbers into jars. Pour hot liquid over each jar and seal. Process pints in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
- Cook's Note: It takes some time to make, but well worth it. We used to eat these like candy. These make wonderful Christmas gifts.
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These are in demand every time I make them. Our cucumbers were destroyed by two hails but we went to Arkansas Valley farming community…actually the little town where my parents lived during war where my father worked as a welder at Pueblo Air Base and bought our cucumbers. They are a little work but so worth when I hand my 76 year old brother in law a jar. He’s a rancher and his mother passed on the recipe….he gives me his wonderful charming smile. Bless our hardworking farmers and ranchers! Making these this week did stir up lots of memories!
Bless your heart, Thanks for sharing your story. Do you make them in both red & green?
Used your recipe added 2 cans beet juice and monk’s fruit and apple juice, for sweetness and color. Diabetics with cancer in my family even the youngest of grandkids can eat these. Christmas gifts in July they will love it! Thanks for posting most like my dad’s recipe I could find, Veteran of Korean war.
Hi Joan, you’re so welcome, I will tell my friend Terri, it’s her mom’s recipe. She has fond memories of making these with her mom when she was a child.
We accidently added the ALUM into the first 24 hour soaking with pickling lime!
Our cukes turned yellow instead of translucent…Are they ruined or can we still use them just continuing the recipe. Do we need to refrigerate them during any of the processing time up until we put them and the syrup into the jars on the final step?
Hi Dot, Alum is used to crisp the pickles, so I don’t think it will matter. No refrigeration is needed. I hope this helps. ~ Dusty
Does the lime solution have to be cool before adding the cucumbers?
Hi Roger, The lime solutions is 1 cup lime to 1 gallon water. No heating necessary. ~ Dusty
How many pints does this recipe make?
Hi Julie, I just checked the hand written recipe, it says 8 pints.
Thanks! Just missed your reply! I may not have packed my jars as tight.
Well, I answered my own question.. lol.. I got 10 pints. Taste great! Awesome recipe! Nice and crisp!
What do you do with cinnamon sticks ?
Hi Michelle, You use them in the second boil. You can also stick them in the jars before processing. ~ Dusty
Can you use zucchini instead of cucumbers?
Hi Robin, I haven’t used zucchini, but I bet you could, just be sure to remove the seeds! Let me know how it turns out. ~ Dusty
I’m trying to make some crisp apple slices instead of cucumbers using the pickling lime. Just for the heck of it. Crisp cooking apples in season right now too so figure if it doesn’t work, I haven’t lost much. I looked up recipes for spicy apple slices which also used red or green food coloring, but apparently that recipe for apple slices only keeps in the refrigerator for ONE WEEK….I meant them to last longer than that so i’m trying the cucumber recipe. Will find out if the pickling lime will work on the apple slices too. Anyway, have my pickling cucumbers sitting in lime for 24 hours. And have a separate big bowl soaking my apples in pickling lime too. My kids grew up eating cinnamon red hot cucumber pickles and they have put in their special request for me to show them how to make them. .will soak all in the alum/vinegar/red food color solutions for 3 hours tomorrow then can it all….apples and cukes separately, of course.
Wow, let me know how this turns out! I’ve never thought of using apples…