Bread and butter pickles

[B Edulis]

My friend Pearl, who loves peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, recommends bread and butter pickles, not sweet pickles. She sez there's a difference, but she doesn't know what. The sandwiches are terrific.

Anyone out there know?

[Jinmyo]

What are "bread and butter pickles"? I take it there's no bread and no butter? :confused:

[Sandra Levine]

According to Sharon Tyler Herbst:

definition of bread-and butter pickles

I think it's the slight sweetness combined with the mustard seeds and turmeric that distinguish them from all others, but I'm guessing.

[Jinmyo]

Thanks, Sandra.

Whyfor the name? Does anyone know?

[Steve Klc]

Sorry I can't be any help B.  I'm a verdant green, half-sour Kosher pickle guy myself and spit out bread and butter pickles if I pick up any by mistake.

[Sandra Levine]

I spit out half-sour and bread and butter pickles.  Full-sour, only, for me.

[researchgal]

Whyfor the name? Does anyone know?

According to the Vlasic Pickle site:  "Bread & Butter pickles received their name in the Depression Era, when pickles were as important a diet staple as bread and butter."

Frankly, I still consider pickles to be right up there with bread and butter.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Round Swamp Farms on Three Mile Harbor Road in Easthampton makes a mean jar of Bread & Butter Pickles. In fact, everything they make there is great, especially the jams. We use their B&B Pickles in the Plotnicki household all summer, great with everything from tuna salad to burgers and dogs. As for the secret recipe, I think it's the same as dill's (not garlic though) with sugar added. But their version is different than what you would get from a commercial pickle manufacturer like Vlasick. They cut the pickles very thin, which makes them very "buttery." Jarred B&B pickles are the same size slice as jarred dill slices.

[stellabella]

oh, i LOVE it when i actually know something.

i make b&bs, thought not his summer as we didn't plant cukes, since we're going away.

there are sweet pickles and there are b&bs. sweet pickles might be flavored with cinnamon, cloves, allspice in the vinegar-sugar brine.  just cukes, usually.  b&bs are flavored with the mustard and turmeric, vinager-sugar brine, and in addition to cukes i use thick slices of vidalia onion.

the first step is to slice the cukes--i get a good harvest--about enough to fill the crisper drawer, using them quickly so they're nice and fresh and firm.  i slice them about 1/3 inch thick--don't like them too thin.  the cukes must be layered in a large bowl with ice and pickling salt and allowed to rest for a couple hours before the canning--this ensures they stay crisper.

b&bs are yummy on sandwiches made with cold leftover turkey, meatloaf, etc., and a little mayo.  also good on crackers with cream cheese.  i use them in my tuna salad.  i am proud that i have learned to make them pretty well and i offer them to all my guests--so if you ever make it to the rut you can have a jar, too

[Steve Plotnicki]

Stellabella - If people in Georgia do not know about B&B pickles, nobody does.

[Wilfrid]

Jinmyo - mustard seed and turmeric - do you suppose they mean mustard pickle?  The yellow stuff?

[Sandra Levine]

No, not the same.  Mustard pickles are in a wet, mustardy-y sauce.  Bread and butter pickles use the mustard seeds, but are no wetter than other pickles.

Maybe I should put reaction to them in the "Best things you never eat" thread.

[Jinmyo]

I think so.

Gah.

edit:

Just saw Sandra's reply.

A salient point here is the English preference for moistness, American for dryness. Viz the Pret a Porter sandfwich thread.

[Wilfrid]

What does she mean, no wetter than other pickles?  Hasn't she tried Branston's?

Oh, I get it.  They mean gherkins (the big kind).

[Priscilla]

Bread and butter pickles, good ones, are good with liverwurst on rye bread.

Priscilla

[edemuth]

If you don't make your own, Bubbies are the next best thing!

Bubbies' Bread and Butter Pickles

I like them with chili.  (Maybe I should have posted this in the "worst thing you eat" thread!)

[B Edulis]

So, now I know! All this talk has be jonzing for a peanutbutter with bread and butter pickle sandwich. Pearl ate them growing up in Kansas, but it really sounds like a malaysian combo to me! But I'm glad to hear that the bread and butter has such a committed following! Thanks!

[Blue Heron]

I didn't realize there are so many pickle choices out there...never heard of sour or half sour, but they sound interesting. I'm not keen on sweet or b & b pickles if they are sweet, but I'm very fond of kosher dill pickles. Cornichons are also really nice, with a plate of raclette, especially.

[Jaymes]

I find it impossible to eat a PB&J sandwich without a pickle of some type alongside. Usually, with the sweetness of the PB&J, prefer an unsweet pickle, but really love Bread & Butter. When I was a kid, we used to put them on sandwiches made with bread and butter and nothing else. I thought that's why they were called that.

But in the "pickle" category, I especially love those sweet/hot ones you can get in Louisiana, and which we Texicans make by adding 1/2 jar chopped garlic, 3 or 4 lbs sugar and four ounces or so of Tobasco (or jalepeños, or other hotsauce) to a gallon jar of drained regular dill slices. My crowd calls them "Texas Sweethots" (but of course, we call ourselves that as well ).