Well, the pickles are very mushy & fell apart. 12 quarts of cucumbers made only 9 pints of pickles! Next time, should we NOT wait until the water boils to start our cooking count-down?

BTW, we did it the same way last year with good results--but this time we tripled the recipe--perhaps that was the crucial factor?

1 gallon cukes sliced thin
8 small onions sliced or chopped
1 sliced or chopped green pepper
1 qt cold water
1/2 cup pickling salt
5 cups vinegar
5 cups sugar
1 tsp. cloves
2 tsp. mustard seeds

Soak cukes+onions+peppers 3 hours in water+salt.

Drain.

Add veggies to boiling vinegar+sugar+cloves+mustard seeds.

Cook 5 to 10 minutes after liquid returns to boil.

Pack into jars in the usual manner.

I'm starting to suspect my husband may have lost track of time in the cooking, since this recipe worked fine last year. He cooked them at least 10 minutes, *perhaps* longer (which would explain a lot).

That could easily be a too long 'cooking' time. And doubly so if you loose track of the time.

Most the B&B recipes I have used say something like - add the cukes to the boiling brine but do not boil them. Remove from the heat just as the brine returns to boiling.

NCHFP says "add cucumbers and onions and slowly reheat to boiling" then fill jars.

So I definitely would not actually boil the cukes much less boil them for 10 mins. The point is just to get them hot for filling the jars and so they absorb the flavors.

Dave

My old USDA recipe calls for boiling brine, add slices and "heat 5 minutes" which yields a nice texture, especially if Pickle Crisp is added to the jars.

Carol