Icicle Pickles
John Reece concocted a sweet and sour chicken salad that won him third place in the Journal’s Main Dish Salad Contest Oct. 2 at the Dixie Classic Fair.
The key ingredient in the salad is the icicle pickles he and his wife, Dinah, make. “This is an old recipe that my mother used to make,” Reece said.
It starts out with a weeklong brine. Then the cukes are pickled with pickling, spice, vinegar and plenty of sugar. Note that these are sweet pickles.
ICICLE PICKLES
Wash cucumbers. Do not peel. Cut cucumbers in half long ways and make a V in the center removing the seeds. Slice the cucumbers until you have 2 gallons of cubed or sliced cucumbers.
Add a pint of canning salt. Pour 1 gallon of boiling water over salt and cucumbers. Stir daily for 1 week.
Drain off salt mixture. Add 1 gallon of boiling water and 1 Tablespoon of alum. Let stand 24 hours. Drain and make syrup. Syrup: 2 qt. vinegar
8 pints sugar
1 box pickling spice
Heat syrup to boiling. Pour over cucumbers. Repeat the heating of the syrup for four more mornings. On the 5th morning, drop the pickles in the boiling syrup and then hot pack in cans. Process in hot water bath 10 minutes.
