Bread and Butter Pickle Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes bread and butter pickles different? ›

You might remember them from their trademark crinkle-cut chips in your childhood refrigerator door. The pickling brine calls for a full cup of sugar, putting them in the sweet pickle category, which is the difference between bread and butter pickles and kosher pickles which are more sour.

Ingredients for Bread and Butter Pickles

The Brine: This is where the classic sweet and tangy flavor comes from! Use a combination of vinegars (white vinegar and apple cider vinegar), sugars (granulated sugar and brown sugar), and spices like mustard seed, celery seed, and ground turmeric.

Bread and butter pickles (whether they're water bath canned or not) can be eaten as soon as 24 hours after making, but they'll have the best flavor if you let them sit for at least a week (ideally 3 or more weeks).

Those pickles have been briefly cooked in a brine, and should be refrigerated after you open the jar. The salt and vinegar should keep them safe for a while, but they will likely go bad at room temperature before you finish eating the whole jar.

Eat bread-and-butter pickles in moderation to limit added sugars, and keep an eye out for sodium too—if you already eat out or eat foods high in sodium, a pickle spear or two per day could push you over the limit. Buy fermented pickles for added gut health benefits.

Despite the name, bread and butter pickles don't taste like bread or butter. These thinly sliced pickles are actually a type of sweet pickle thanks to the sugar used in the brine.

Many pickle recipes like this one from The Spruce Eats call for the addition of spices such as black pepper, mustard seeds, and allspice berries to your brine that can lean toward the bitter side naturally.

Bread and butter pickles are best described as being a lot like sour dill pickles, but with sweet onion and sugar added to the pickling mix to give them their one-of-a-kind flavor. They are right at home on deli sandwiches, burgers, and charcuterie boards. And they're fantastic just straight out of the jar!

Today, the term is well known as a sweet pickle, like my Bread & Butter Chips. These pickles are sweeter than my dills, but they still have that pungent garlic flavor.

It may be a normal reaction during fermentation caused by bacteria. If the pickles are soft, they are spoiled from the yeast fermentation. Don't use them. Using too weak a salt brine or vinegar solution may cause soft or slippery pickles, as can using moldy garlic or storing the pickles at too warm a temperature.

When should you not eat pickles? ›

As a result, eating too many pickles may be risky for anyone with liver disease or kidney conditions. Diets high in sodium may increase your risk of gastric cancer. High salt intake may damage your stomach directly, leading to cancer, or it may lead to infections and ulcers that eventually become cancerous.

McDonald's uses dill pickles in their burgers including in the Big Mac®.

If they emit a pungent or off-putting odor, or if they simply smell less than fresh, this is a good sign that the pickles are no longer safe to eat. The taste should be the last test - if they taste sour or off in any way, it's likely best to discard them.

You can store these pickles for a few years in a properly sealed (canned) and unopened jar! Once opened, or if you choose to not seal them with a water bath, they will last for up to 3 months in the refrigerator.

Overall, pickles aren't harmful to dogs in moderation. Offering your dog a plain pickle every once in a while is okay! Just don't give your dog pickles covered in garlic, peppers, or onions because these ingredients are highly toxic to your pet.

The biggest difference between dill and sour pickles is that the former includes fresh dill weed (and occasionally dill seeds or oil) for a boost of herby flavor. Also, dill pickles nowadays are typically vinegar-based, while sour pickles are always fermented in a salt brine.