Pickling Woes

Nanny called yesterday afternoon and said that she'd picked a 5-gallon bucket full of cucumbers and a 3-gallon bucket of squash.  She said she was going to make another batch of relish with the biggest cucumbers, and that I should come get the rest.

I'd already made several jars of relish and several jars of pickles, and I decided that this time I would try to make those good, cinnamon-y cucumber rings that taste like apples, the ones you make with Red Hots.  I stopped by the grocery store for supplies, and found everything but the pickling lime.

That made the third time I've looked for pickling lime without finding any.  What's up with that?  All of the stores are carrying a product called "Pickle Crisp" instead of lime.  You don't soak your cucumbers in it; you sprinkle it on the cucumbers in the jars, pour the pickling brine in, and then seal up the jars.  I did this with the first batch of kosher pickles.

The Cinnamon Cucumber Rings recipe calls for soaking the cucumbers in lime overnight.  The next day, the cucumbers are rinsed and simmered in water and vinegar, then they're supposed to soak overnight in a mixture of vinegar, sugar, Red Hots, cinnamon, and water.  Since I couldn't find any lime, I skipped that step and went straight to the simmering. 

Big mistake.  I ended up with a pan of limp zeroes.  I went ahead and made the Red Hot brine to pour over them, but I will probably wind up throwing this batch away.

While the cucumbers were simmering, I opened up a jar of the pickles I'd made with the Pickle Crisp.  They are not mushy, but they are not crisp, either.  (I'm hoping that a few hours in the refrigerator will perk them up.)  I am not confident that the Pickle Crisp can revive the poor cucumber rings without divine intervention. 

I did a little research and discover that pickling lime is no longer recommended.  It seems that if you don't wash it off well enough, it can jack around with the acidity of your pickles, and botulism can grow.  That must be why the stores aren't carrying it.

Phooey on that.  Mrs. Wages is still selling pickling lime on her web site, and I have ordered four bags of it - enough to get me through the next couple of seasons, I bet!

But I'll be very careful to wash it off well.