Sweet.  Crisp.  Bread & Butter Pickles.  We’re hooked.  Fortunately these pickles are super easy to make and just a day away from pickle perfection.

October may seem like an odd time of year to put out a pickle recipe.  After all, our local farmers market has closed for the season.  The thing is, we’ve enjoyed these pickles all summer long and I’m just now coming around to post them.

So while in-season pickling cukes might be best for making pickles, I have learned that salad cucumbers work just fine.  Their skins are a bit thicker, but that has been no challenge for this pickling liquid.  I assure you, these Bread & Butter Pickles are perfectly sweet and punchy.

I used our trusty mandolin fitted with a ridge blade to slice the cucumbers.  Slicing them with a knife, either in rounds like this or into spears, works well also.  Once sliced, the cucumbers are salted and allowed to sit refrigerated for an hour, before being rinsed to remove the salt.

The pickling liquid is a combination of sugars and vinegars with mustard and celery seed, along with a bit of turmeric.  It is the perfect balance of sweet with a sour bite finish.

This picture is eye candy.  A jar of pickle love.

Earlier this summer, while visiting my local farmers market, I bought cucumbers.  I don’t eat cucumbers, in their raw form.  I like them, they don’t like me.  But I am a sucker for old-timey farmers and can’t walk by without speaking (and most often purchasing) from each and every one of them.  I happily bought the last 2 pounds of his pickling cukes and promptly began recipe research for pickles…a mutual love.  I found this recipe from Recipe Girl and have never looked back.

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Bread & Butter Pickles

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs. thinly sliced pickling cucumbers
• 1 1/2 Tbl. kosher salt
• 1 cup thinly sliced sweet onion
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp. celery seeds
• 1/8 tsp. turmeric

Instructions

• Place cucumbers in a large bowl and toss with salt; cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Transfer to a colander and rinse under cold water to remove the salt. Drain well and return to bowl; add sliced onion.
• In a medium saucepan combine sugars, vinegars and remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pour hot pickling liquid over cucumbers and onions. Allow to sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
• Transfer pickles to covered jars and refrigerate for 24 hours. Store refrigerated for up to two weeks.

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Who would’ve thought that eating a loaded hot dog could fall into a Healthy Choices category?  I’m here to tell you that the Chicago Style Hot Dog with it’s nine layers of flavor can easily weigh in at less than 250 calories (only 5 WW Pts+).

Not only did I have fun assembling our Chicago Style Hot Dogs, but once the pictures were taken I sat down and savored every bite!  Hats off to our Chicago friends for engineering this signature dog.

Yes, I said 9-layers, aka “The Works.”  Count ’em down.

1. Poppy Seed Bun ~ I can not lie.  I bought the lowest calorie hot dog bun I could find and ‘poppy seeded’ it.  I wasn’t going to tell you, but my conscience got the better of me.
2. Steamed All Beef Hot Dog ~ Ball Park brand were on sale, but Vienna Beef seems to be the favored dog.  I chose the lowest calorie beef frank (80 calories).
3. Yellow Mustard
4. Sweet Pickle Relish
5. Sliced Tomato
6. Dill Pickle Spear
7. Diced Onion
8. Sport Peppers ~ which for us meant a jalapeno straight from our Southern Hot Sauce jar.
9. Celery Seed ~ don’t skip this step, if the tomato and pickles don’t seem odd enough, celery seed surely will.  Yet each of these layers of flavor work together.

I was tempted to leave off the ingredients that I normally would never add to a hot dog, but I didn’t.  I wanted to appreciate a Chicago Style Hot Dog as the originators put forth.  Here’s a fun article on the story behind the Chicago Style Hot Dog and who those originators might have been.

Recipe inspiration came from Weight Watchers.

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