Cinnamon Cucumber Pickles
If you say this sounds gross, I’m with you…but can it for a minute, will ya?
These are SO delicious! And beautiful…they really resemble red cinnamon apple rings, and taste much better! Soaking the cucumber rings in pickling lime is the secret to their apple-like crunchy texture…and a ton of sugar and red hot candies transforms them from cukes to candied temptations that will NOT last long if your family is at all like ours! I’m on day three of my batch right now…
This recipe comes from my sister-in-law, and she got it from Recipezaar…if you know someone with cucumbers galore, or who loves to can, pass this recipe along. It’s a SUREFIRE hit!
Cinnamon Cucumber Pickles
- 7 lbs cucumbers
- 1 cup pickling lime (in the canning section at Walmart, don’t confuse it with pickling salt!)
- 1 gallon water
- 1 cup vinegar
- 1 (1 ounce) bottle red food coloring
- 1 tablespoon alum
- 2 cups vinegar
- 2 cups water
- 12 cups sugar
- 8 cinnamon sticks
- 1 (12 ounce) red hot candies (I found these in 7 oz. boxes in the candy aisle at Walmart)
- Select large overripe cucumbers.
- Peel, core, slice 1/3 inch thick and core out all seeds, leaving the cucumber in a ring.
- Soak in lime and 1 gallon water for 24 hours.
- Wash.
- Soak, covered with ice water for 3 hours.
- Mix 2 cup vinegar, food coloring, 1 tablespoon alum and enough water to cover.
- Pour over cucumbers and simmer for 2 hours.
- Pour off liquid.
- Bring to a boil 2 cups vinegar, 2 cups water, 12 cups sugar, cinnamon sticks and red hots.
- Pour over cucumbers and let stand for 24 hours.
- Pour syrup back into a large pot and bring to a boil.
- Put cucumbers in jars and pour hot syrup over cucumbers.
- Place 1 of the cinnamon sticks from the mixture in each jar.
- Process for 10 minutes in water bath for pints and 15 minutes for quarts.
Two tips for you:
- 7 lbs of cucumbers is roughly equivalent to a plastic grocery bag full of long, over-ripe cucumbers. My bagful weighed 14 lbs, and after I’d peeled and cored them, they’d lost half their weight. (The chickens were ecstatic about all those scraps!)
- If you have a biscuit/donut cutter with a removable center, take it out and use it to core your cukes. I peeled my cucumbers with a vegetable peeler, sliced them and then used the donut hole cutter for removing the seeds. It left my cucumber slices in pretty rings! If your cucumbers are too small in diameter, you still might need to core them with a knife.
Well, it’s a rainy and cool day here in the mid-west. I’ve been busy this week…processing bing cherries and cukes, for one thing, and organizing junk drawers and closets–one last fling at housekeeping before school starts! Speaking of school starting…we’ll be kicking off our homeschooling year next Thursday the 14th with our annual treasure hunt and craft day. I’ve been getting familiar with our new geography and science curriculums and trying to get six weeks worth of lesson plans written up for each girl.
We’re sad to see summer go, but I think we’re all getting a little excited about school and fall activities starting up again!
How about you? Are you gardening or canning this year? Are you ready for school to start? How about your kids? Don’t forget to build up their immunities before sending them out in the big bad world…
Comment by Andrea
August 7, 2008 @ 1:00 pm
My mom made these and my family loves them. Her very picky neighbor kids think they are candy.
Comment by Amy
August 7, 2008 @ 4:24 pm
hmm I must admit that the cinnamon sounded strange to me but when you said candies I was like “what?….”. i’m intrigued though and I’m going to have to try making these myself
Amy’s last blog post..Those teenage years
Comment by Juli
August 7, 2008 @ 8:53 pm
I think they sound good! As far as school goes, I am getting ready for another year. Tristyn my 12 year old goes to a private school, so I just purchased his school supplies and uniforms today. Lauren and Megan homeschool, and I got their school supplies as well. I have been trying to get the lesson plans done as well. I only have the first week done so far. LOL We are not starting school until the 18th this year. I just follow the days that Tristyn’s school is in session. Well, good luck with the lesson plans! I think your annual treasure hunt and craft day sounds fun! What a great way to start the school year. I am ready for fall weather that is for sure…it is one of my favorite times of year.
Comment by Mary
August 7, 2008 @ 11:53 pm
So you know exactly how good they are, Andrea! I finished mine up an hour ago…got 5 quarts and 3 pints. Mmm!
Amy, they are unbelievably good! Plant a lot of cucumber plants this summer!
Juli, I love fall too! We’re not starting our textbooks until the 18 either. I’m going to need the extra time, I’m afraid! I’m so glad to hear that you’re getting to homeschool again this year! Woo-hoo!
Comment by Colleen
August 8, 2008 @ 6:06 am
Anything with the word pickle in it, I’m game! I love pickles and should really start making my own. My dad and I use to make them when I was younger. I might have to try this new idea!
Comment by SANDRA CLARKE
August 8, 2008 @ 3:33 pm
Hi, When you do the water bath, can you explain what to do. I know you put them in water and boil but are the tops screwed on loosely and how long do you do this? Thanks, Sandra
Comment by Mary
August 8, 2008 @ 11:26 pm
That would be a fun weekend project for you and SR, Colleen! What a neat memory to have of your dad!
Hi Sandra, you just need to have hot jars (I heat mine up in the canner as I’m bringing the water to a boil, then use the jar lifter to get them out, discard the hot water that was in the jar into another handy kettle and you’re ready to fill up the jar with cucumber rings), and keep your lid flats and rings in a simmering saucepan of water. Fill the hot jars with the cucumbers and ladle the hot syrup over them–insert a cinnamon stick and then use a plastic knife to slide up and down around the edges, releasing air bubbles. Wipe the top of the jar with a damp clean cloth so that the lid flat will adhere, and fish the lid and ring out of the hot water with a fork or a magnet lifter. Screw the ring on tightly, not overtight, but not loose…then use your jar lifter to set the full jar back down in the canner of boiling water. Once you have the canner full, make sure an inch or two of water is covering each jar and then put the lid on and set the timer. Once the time is up, remove jars carefully to a cooling rack. You’ll hear the lids pinging as they seal. The next morning make sure all the jar lids sealed. If they didn’t, the lid flat will indent when you push on it. All of mine sealed very soon after removing them from the canner, some even while I was taking them out! Oh, and when you are filling the jars with syrup, leave between 1/4″ and 1/2″ headspace between the syrup and the top of the jar.
Hope this helps, let me know if any of it was confusing…sometimes I tend to over-explain and make things worse!
Good luck! I hope you try this, it’s such a fun treat!
Mary
Comment by KarmelK
August 25, 2008 @ 2:36 pm
Do you use white of cider vinegar?
I’m starting the recipe today so I have a day or so til I need to add the vinegar. I went overseas for my daughter’s wedding for 3 weeks and when I got back I had loads of overripe cukes. Thanks, Mary, for giving me a way not to throw them away!
Comment by Mary
August 25, 2008 @ 7:57 pm
Hi there!
I used apple cider vinegar, actually, but as the recipe didn’t say, I doubt it matters much. I’ve read in my Stocking Up book that they both have the right level of acidity, etc.
So glad you found us, and yes, this recipe is perfect for large, over-ripe cukes!
Did you see I uploaded pictures? So glad for your comment, it was a good reminder that I hadn’t done that yet!
I ended up getting 5 quarts and two pints out of this recipe, and I did make a little extra syrup to go the distance. Like another half a recipe.
Comment by karmelk
September 3, 2008 @ 9:43 pm
Hi Mary,
I wanted to get back to you about these pickles. Golly, it got complicated, and none of that was the fault of your directions. As usual, life interfered. A husband who couldn’t stand the smell of the vinegar, and schedule that couldn’t wait for the syrup to boil. So my brilliant mind said, I’ll boil this in the basement oven. Which did well for the 2 hours of cooking the pickles. So I decided to do it again for boiling the syrup. But I left the oven too high and was gone too long and when I returned the house smelled like marshmallows that had been roasted to a crisp! The turkey roaster I used may never been the same and boy do I wish my extra oven was a self cleaning. By then it was 11pm and the pickles had sat a few days already and needed their syrup. No more red hots! The local all night liquor store had atomic cinnamon pill shaped candies. The clerk assured me they were just like red hots, she ate them all the time. Not true, after I fished the gummy-candy-like pills out of a mixture that had boiled long enough to melt silver, I added some red food color and cinnamon and called the syrup good. And actually it does taste good. Whatever was on the coating of those atomic things had a good flavor, I guess. I did wonder why the pickles had to sit so long in the lime water. They seem to crisp up right away. And why add alum, when it too is a crisping agent?
It was an adventure, mostly of my own making. I wish I’d taken photos of the monster black marshmallow in the oven! The jury is still out on these pickles, since my husband and daughter have both declined to try them. I tried and liked them. I got 11 pints and 2 quarts and yes extra syrup is a must. The larger extended family will be getting an interesting gift this Christmas!
P.S. I used cider vinegar too, but I’m sure it didn’t matter!
Comment by Mary
September 5, 2008 @ 3:35 pm
Oh MAN! I can’t imagine, but this is definitely one of those stories that you can only grit your teeth at “during” and hopefully laugh at “later”! Good night! I’m so sorry the hubby and daughter won’t give them a try! They are SOOOO good, even though they sound like they’d be too weird.
What a story–sorry to say, very hilarious except when I think about it happening to ME! I’m glad you’re still willing to visit the site, lol! Better luck next time, if there will be a next time!
I’m still getting a lot of cukes from the garden, and even though my pickling process went smoothly (no black marshmallow/basement oven experiences) I’m not excited about doing it all over again. I wish I knew why they had to soak so long?
Anyway, glad you survived the cinnamon cuke experience!