When I was growing up, the only pickles Granny ever made were Bread and Butter Pickles. After The Deer Hunter and I were married his mother, Miss Cindy, introduced me to 14 Day Pickles.
This is the original 14 Day Pickle Recipe that belonged to Miss Cindy’s grandmother Dollie. I’m glad Miss Cindy had the foresight to laminated the page to preserve it. Curtis, Miss Cindy’s father, tweaked the original recipe and his version is the one we use. The Deer Hunter and I are the 4th generation of his family to use the recipe.
14 days seems like a lot of time to put into a run of pickles, but you don’t actually have to do something on each of the days, and it is so worth the time it does take. The pickles are crunchy and sweet. Perfect with soup beans and cornbread. The Deer Hunter makes the best potato salad I’ve ever tasted and I believe 14 Day Pickles are the key to his perfection.
Days 1-7: Wash 3 dozen small cucumbers. Do not peel. Place in crock. Cover with brine-1 pint of salt (do not use iodized) and 1 gallon of cold water. Let stand one week. Weight cucumbers to keep them submerged by using a plate, a ziplock bag of water, or other.
On day 7 day pour off brine. Cover with boiling water that has cooled slightly. Let stand overnight.
Day 8: Drain. Cut in small pieces. Cover with boiling water containing Alum-lump size of walnut (2 tablespoons) and Horse Radish-root size of carrot cut in pieces (2 tablespoons of prepared horse radish may be substituted) that has cooled slightly. Let stand overnight.
Day 9: Pour off brine. Cover with boiling water that has cooled slightly. Let stand overnight.
Day 10: Drain well. Make syrup of *3 pints of apple cider vinegar, *5 quarts sugar, *3 or 4 sticks of cinnamon, *2 tablespoons whole cloves, *2 tablespoons celery seed. Bring all the ingredients to a boil, cool slightly, and pour over pickles. Let stand overnight.
Day 11: Drain syrup from pickles. Bring to a boil, cool slightly, and pour over pickles. Let stand overnight.
Day 12: Drain syrup from pickles. Bring to a boil, cool slightly, and pour over pickles. Let stand overnight.
Day 13: Drain syrup from pickles. Bring to a boil, cool slightly, and pour over pickles. Let stand overnight.
Day 14: Bring pickle syrup mixture to a boil; remove cinnamon sticks; pack in hot jars, and seal. We use the open kettle method of canning to seal the jars-meaning the pickles are hot, the jars are hot, and as they cool the jars seal themselves. If you’re not comfortable with this method, water bath jars for 10 minutes.
Have you ever eaten 14 Day Pickles?
Tipper
I have made 14 day pickles 3 years in a row but when mamone passed we were cleaning out her house and somehow lost the recipe I can assure you it was this exact recipe so I wonder how she got it or if it was just a flute she lived in Greenville South Carolina she also taught school for 20 years if I’m not mistaken but just that it was kind funny that the recipe are the same to my remembrance.
I have a question I have a great dill pickle recipe, but they stay in fridge taking up a lot of room. Can I do like this recipe and boil them pack into hot jars without them turning soft and not processing them in canner. My family wasn’t big on that either and we are all alive. Please advise!
Sincerely;
Samantha
Ps
I’m making them sweet pickles now only on day 3.
Samantha-I’m sorry I’m not sure since I’ve never made those pickles before. Hopefully someone who knows will chime in 🙂
I made your 14 day pickle recipe…only 1/2 a batch with the last of my cucumbers this year…oh my goodness were they good! I had 7 jars and I think we’ve consumed 3 of them! Thank you for sharing them. I look forward to making them next summer…and all the summers to come.
Question: When you drain the sliced cucumbers do you wash all of the horseradish off before you pour boiling water over them???
Cam-I don’t rinse them 🙂
Thank you so much! Have made these for the last 2 years and now on my 3rd batch. Love this recipe and making enough to give away at Christmas; so plenty of time for those great flavors to compound (:
Love making the 14 day pickles, but this year ran out of syrup. Wasn’t able to can the last jar. What do you do in that case?
Kathy-I would make a small amount of syrup by decreasing all the amounts or just doing your best guess at the amounts 🙂
How big are your glass containers?
Marcia-they are 2 gallon 🙂
Kbishop277@aol.com
Hey Tipper… love your channel… I am on day seven making your fourteen day pickles. Can’t wait Question… the written recipe calls for six cups of sugar and the typed recipe called for five quarts. Would you verify which is correct please?
Thank you
Dottye Bishop
Dottye-thank you! So glad you enjoy what we do. Go by the typed measurement of 5 🙂 Miss Cindy’s daddy typed out a copy from his mother’s handwritten one. He liked to tweak things (so did Miss Cindy) so I’m sure he made the change. I have always used his recipe which calls for 5 quarts 🙂
Thanks for sharing this excellent recipe and your YouTube tutorial. Both were very easy to follow for a first timer. We’ve been wanting to make 14 day pickles like my wife’s granddaddy made for many years. These are spot on! I finished my first batch today. They are so good that I’m starting another batch. Thanks again!
I just made a batch of the the 14 day sweet pickles for the first time and they came out great. I read that if you go to any social gathering in Appalachia they have sandwiches made with these pickles ground up in them. I haven’t been able to find out what the sandwich is or how to make them. Do you have any idea? Thank you.
David-we love them in potato salad and I’ve had them in ham salad too 🙂
I just finished day 7 of these pickles and about half of them were complete mush when I drained off the water so I had to throw out them out. Any idea why they would do that? or how to remedy that if I try this again? Thanks for any help
Sheila-I’m sorry that happened. I’ve never had that happen, although I do sometimes have one or two get soft on one end. My only thought is to use smaller cucumbers that are really firm and wash the well before starting. Again I’m sorry you lost so many.
I don’t know if this will help, but here’s what I did. I read that some people say there’s an enzyme in the blossom end of the cukes that can cause them to get mushy. With a small, very pointy knife I cut out the blossom mark on each cuke, resulting in a very small loss of the vegetable. Every single one came through the first 7 days without a mushy place. Maybe it was luck, or maybe my technique helped.
Hey Tipper,
Been making since 1969 with a recipe that was a hundred years old at that point ( I remember trying to guess alum the size of a walnut and freaking out!). After this long, I can do these darn things in my sleep and everyone loves them. Since you were so kind to share your recipe, I thought I would share mine since they are different! Mine do not call for horseradish, and here is the syrup recipe portion of mine! This recipe is from the Richmond,VA area and as near as I could make out on the old recipe was written during the civil war.
Syrup
2 quart vinegar
8 pt sugar (1 6 cups)
2 T celery seed tied in a cloth
2 oz whole all spice
2 oz stick cinnamon.
Heat to boiling.
I am on day 10 and just realized I don’t have cinnamon sticks. can I substitute ground cinnamon?
Tracey-I’ve never tried that but it would likely work fine. You can also stay on the previous step for another day and buy some 🙂
Tipper ,
These are bar none , the BEST 14 Day Pickles , i have ever eaten. I am so addicted , and everyone who has ate them , i don’t know why you don’t have a “ Blind Pig & the Acorn “ 14 day pickle , you would not be able to keep
them in stock!!! Think folks might even hoard Love your Blog , your Beautiful family , and all that Appalachia offers .. God Bless you All
Candis Castorani
Can I slice the cukes from the begining versus leaving them whole and slicing later? I have done 14 day pickles that said to slice at the begnining
Lori-I’ve never tried that but seems like it would work. I’m just not sure 🙂
Great recipe. When you start with day one is the water cold or boiling. Looks like the recipe says boiling but you said cold. I am going to try these. Just have to get the cucumbers.
Well Miz Tipper, that was the most fascinating pickle project I’ve done in a long long time. Saw your YouTube video and headed out for cuc’s. Located horseradish root – yeah! Converted the recipe to grams and divided by three since there are only the two of us. Used a gallon jar for the process – got it from work and it was my daily treat for the last two weeks to see and smell how the cuc’s evolved and changed by the day to these beautiful dark shiny crispy – yes! – little nuggets that scream of wintry days and memories of summer! My mom never made sweet pickles, we only ever had store bought ones at special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thank you for setting my tastebuds free and giving my family this treasure. Will look forward to cracking the jar in a couple of months once they have mellowed. Best to you and your family. Pasha & Jesper
A friend of mine used to make these pickles for me and my family each year. We have since moved away and I miss the pickles so much. They are so very good, yes good in chicken salad, Potatoe salad, deviled eggs, and on sandwiches. I have found recipes for 14 day pickles but was not sure if they were the ones she made. After watching your YouTube video on the 14 day Pickels and seeing the difference in the amount of sugar/vinegar in the recipe I had found and yours I gave her a call. Hers also calls for twice as much sugar as vinegar, she said she used 5 lbs. of sugar to 3 pints of vinegar. I am going to make these as soon as I collect enough cucumbers. Thank you for sharing this with us. I too am from the Appalachian mountains, I grew up a coal miners daughter. I now live in the hills of Kentucky.
These look like the pickles that my friend and co-worker used to use in her chicken salad. We (all the girls in our office) just loved the chicken salad because of the pickles. She would bring me a pint of pickles but said she wouldn’t give out her grandma’s recipe. I just texted her and asked her if this was the recipe. I’m gonna see what she tells me (but even if she lies, I know this is it! Thanks for sharing.
Can you do this exact method with Okra? Or other vegetables?
Angela-I’ve never tried it with any other vegetable 🙂
Thanks!
Just yesterday I stumbled upon your blog and YouTube channel. I have fallen in love! I just adore your stories, recipes and and all things Appalachia. Thank you for sharing your family with us! I’m from western Kentucky and grew up visiting the Great Smoky Mountains and Cherokee portions and have a great love for mountain life. While I’ve had a garden for a few years, I’m new to canning, so I’m so eager to try this recipe when my pickling cucumbers come in this year! My sweet Mother-In-Law is teaching me the many ways she preserves her garden, so I’m excited to show her your recipe. Thank you so very much!
Amber-so glad you’re enjoying what we do 🙂
Many years ago, I lived in Sweeteso, TN with my grandparents on their farm. My grandmother made these picked every year! Your stories bring back such wonderful memories for me! Thank you!
I just made a batch of these. Thank you for the recipe!
Do you have issues with mold at all during the 7 day soak in the beginning? I’ve done the recipe twice now and always have it. Another website said you can just scrape it off? But??
Kendra-I usually do have a little mold after the first 7 days sitting on top of the water. As long as the cucumbers are still firm its fine to wash the mold off once you drain the cucumbers after 7 days for the next step.
I want to make sure I have this right..6 cups of vinegar and 20 cups of sugar??
Tami- yes that is correct. This recipe is for a sweet pickle.
Thank you!! I’ve made bread & butter pickles with not that much sugar and more vinegar. I’m very excited to try this recipe!!! I’ve started the 7 day process..can’t wait to try these pickles!!!
Tami- I hope you like them as much as we do. I have some in the crock right now. They are so good in potato salad and tuna salad.
My step mom used to make, but in the end she put a tiny bit of green food coloring in to brighten them I guess. The name on the old recipe card was green crystal pickles. Since she only made a batch or two, she threatened us every year not to eat any until the holidays, cuz she would serve them at Thanksgiving and Christmas then we could open a couple between then and Easter. Or somebodies birthday, but they were always for special occasions! They were so good. So glad I found your channel and thAt you shared this recipe. None of the kids had it, so this is really special and I’m 72. I gonna make some. Oh by the way. I’m from Idaho. Fun fact, always thought it was a pioneer recipe. Guess it is!
Thanks for the recipe. I have made them twice before and was not satisfied with either recipe, which were completely different from this one. Think I will try again now.
Melissa-great to hear from you-thank you for the comment! You know I never noticed the difference in her recipe and the one her son (my husband’s grandfather) handed down through the family to us. His recipe is typed so I guess I just assumed hers was the same : ) But his is the one I’ve used for the last 20 years and it does indeed use 5 quarts of sugar. The end result is a very thick syrup which surrounds the pickles. I believe the sugar is part of the preservation factor for the pickles as well as the reason the pickles keep such a nice crunch even after they’ve been canned. Its funny you should comment on the old post-I’m getting ready to have a pickle along on the blog in the next week or so. I’ll share each step of the 14 day pickle process as I go and invite folks to pickle along if they’d like.
I also wanted to mention-the recipe is easily halved if you’d like to give it an easier try the first time around.
I hope you have a great evening and I hope you drop back by the Blind Pig often!
Tipper
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
I can do the math….63 years missing her mom. DUH.
UPDATE: Brought the pickles to my family gathering. Mom tasted them, her eyes widened as she exclaimed these are my mother’s icicle pickles! Her mother had died when mom was 12. She hasn’t tasted these since that time……Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe-it gave my mom back a little of her childhood. No small thing when she is 75 years old-missing her mother for 53 years…
WOW! These are hands down the best pickles I’ve ever tasted, and I’m only on day 12….Thanks for sharing your recipe,Tipper….The food grade bucket is working well. Next year I’m making a huge batch. Or maybe this year, if I can find some more cukes. The cuke season is coming to a close here:(
My dear husband, the Pastor, stated flatly that he hated sweet pickles. I asked him to taste these, and his eyes flew open and exclaimed that these were really good! There was flavor-instead of the flat sweet candy pickles that the store sells. Yippee!
These sound so good!! I hope my cukes start producing soon. I would like to try these!
Thanks for linking up at the Carnival of Home Preserving!
I just had to make a commment about these pickles, when we were growing up mom and dad always had a large garden and canned alot of things, there were 9 of us kids, and mom canned pickle just like these, mom passed away in 1994, and whenever us kids got together, we would always talk about the “good old day” and these pickles would always be mentioned, we always called them Mom’s Pickles, well, this summer my youngest brother and his wife made them…wow, talk about bringing back memories….
Ooooh, that sounds good! Thanks for the recipe and thanks to B. Ruth for more advice. Sometimes you just can’t find some of the old timey things, like alum.
Love, love, LOVE pickles. Can’t get enough of them. Have never tried to make them, but might give it a shot. Farmers’ markets haven’t had many cucumbers for sale yet (late spring making everything kinda behind). Will keep my eyes open and maybe give it a shot.
Jim-I don’t have a clue!!! You’ll have to tell us if no one gets it right : )
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
I’ve never done 14 day pickles. We canned pickles last weekend and I just used the dill packet from the store method. They turned out really great though – nice and crispy!
I’ve only made bread and butter pickles and they aren’t very crunchy. I’ll have to try these.
Tipper,
Tell your readers that usually any good hardware,especially smalltown hardware stores, Tracter supply, Co-ops has new crocks for sale..I would rather use a new crock rather than an antique unless it has been used every year for generations like Tippers..I would not buy an antique crock to use..I do not trust the condition of the glazes..If I lived close I would loan you my crocks..I bought new to make pickles in several years ago…
If you are close to a Mennonite or Amish community, their stores usually carry crocks and all canning supplies..I buy a lot of things from them..cheeses are great…’wait we are talking about pickles’ ha…Also…you could substitute a new product probably in your pickles made by Ball called Pickle Crisp, it is being substituted for alum….Some folks got scared of alum and started using Pickle crisp…the directions are on the bottle..I put it in my freezer pickles this year to make them crisper…A lot of folks don’t like to use slaked lime for crispness either, In recipes using slaked lime it is always washed drained and washed away…I still used slaked lime recipes and always added a tiny bit of alum to my pickled beans and okra as well as pickles…I always found alum in the grocery store in a small tin..well guess they are plastic or glass now..otherwise a good canning supply store should have alum..
The way I figure this is my Mother, Grandmothers and Aunts used slaked lime, alum in all recipes that needed it for crispness, etc..One Granny lived to 79, one lived to 89 and Mom lived to 93..and a great Aunt lived to 103 actually just short of 104..so I think it wasn’t any of those things that did them in..
Thanks Tipper,
As I was reading the recipe I was thinking…where may I get my hands on a crock. Thank you for this advice. We do have an Amish store we frequent. If I don’t see crocks next time I will ask.
Tipper–I’m not a huge fan of most kinds of pickles, but I do like them in tater salad and deviled eggs. Anastasia’s post does remind me of two kinds of pickles I do like–watermelon rind and peach. I think that’s partly because they are a treasured food memory, something most of us carry with us as part of our mental baggage, whether we realize it or not.
My Grandma pickled lots of peaches, and about mid-afternoon on a summer day as hot as this one is, I’d go to the refrigerator and get one out of the jar of peach pickles which always seemed to be there. Similarly, I fondly remember eating watermelon with strick instructions from Grandma: “Now you’uns save those rinds, I’ll make a run of pickles out of ’em. I haven’t had either, at least not the home-made version, in a ‘coon’s age.
P. S. I’m guessing that most of you wonder what in the world Anastasia is talking about when she mentions aubergines. I know, but only because of having spent several years of my life in the British Isles. How many know what the vegetable is?
I’m nearly 11 years late, but I believe the vegetable in question is eggplant.
We grew up with our Mother’s warning….save the watermelon rind. And just talking recently with my sister we cannot remember seeing her make them! But we do remember the blue pint jars with green watermelon rind pickles!
I am thinking aubergines would be eggplant but not sure. I always have thought it was a pretty name!
I remember bread and butter pickles! These sound really good. I don’t imagine I will try them but admire you for doing so. Thanks for visiting my blog!
Tipper,
I’ve never tasted these pickles before. They sound delicious. We used to make bread and butter pickles when I was growing up. I like pickles especially with pinto beans. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Sheryl-you can usually find Alum in any grocery store-its with the other spices, salt, pepper, etc. If you try them I hope you like them : )
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
I really don’t know if I’ve had them or not, so many friends make pickles. This recipe looks doable, I might try my had at it if I can find alum. drugstore?
Jen-last year when we were talking about pickling in a crock-several readers said they had tried plastic buckets-food grade-and had good success with them. I know buckets are waayyy cheaper than crocks.
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
I use the plastic bucket to my ice cream maker. I plug the drain hole with a ball of plastic wrap.
Anne-what a great idea! Thank you for sharing the tip 🙂
Tipper,
Pickles are good and we eat them a lot. I’ll bet The Deer Hunter’s potato salad would be super good!
Bradley
I have never made pickles, but I adore them. Need to find a crock…wish me luck!
Sounds like a great recipe and I shall have to try it!
Oh yes, my Aunt Helen always made 14 day pickles. The house would smell so good. She has been gone a number of years. I tried to find her crock, whick was huge. It had disappeared, dont know who took it. Wish that I had it just for the memories. Picked my first pickle from the the test plants. The good day and the bad ones are the same for now. Barbara
Tipper,
How great to have a family recipe that you know has been used with success for generations…
I have a similar recipe for sweet crisp cucumber pickles..but doesn’t take quite 14 days..
I am like you the best potato salad made, is one with sweet crisp homemade pickles in it…Thanks for a great post…
Makes me want to can more pickles…NOT…I’m over pickles here for one year…but I would gladly take a jar of yours..they look so good..Ha
Thanks Tipper,
I’ve made my mom’s 14-day pickles. That recipe calls for oil of cinnamon and oil of cloves rather than the whole spices. It makes a great, crispy sweet pickle.
In Cyprus, we pickle all sorts of vegetables such as peeled onions, peppers, aubergines, marrows, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, cabbage, cauliflower but also fruit, hard eggs and walnuts. Homemade wine can be used or cider vinegar for pickling but it must be prepared in advance by adding whole spices in a muslin bag for about 6 weeks. Ground spices cause clouding. The spiced vinegar can be used either cold for vegetables that are best crisp, such as cauliflower and onions, or hot for fruit pickles.