This has been a crazy week and when I saw the subject for week three I moaned outloud. I used to bottle all my own fruit (off our farm- peaches, pears, applesauce, etc), and for 30 years I didn't miss a year of having the freezer stocked with Frozen Raspberry Jam. It was like a transfusion for the hubby. But that window in my life has come and gone. Just last year I cleaned all the old fruit out of my food storage area and declared "if it isn't in the refrigerator, it's time to go to the store". I once computed that in this day and age a bottle of peaches cost about 7 bucks to cold pack. Anyway, enough moaning.
I have a great recipe to share and a story to go along with it. My great-grandmother passed down a great recipe for what we called Mustard Pickles but it really wasn't pickles. She was good to share and it was always a treat at family dinners. I bottled it for many years and one year early in our marriage served it at a dinner for my in-laws. My mother-in-law became very excited when she saw the bowl on the table and after tasting it became emotional. She said that her mother has always made it but had passed away without sharing the recipe. She was estatic that I had the recipe. For many years after I would make her a few bottles when I made mine.
I just made a trip to the storeroom hoping against hope that I had 1 bottle left down there but alas I did not. I so wanted to post a picture of it. If I hadn't just finished a party for 40 people this afternoon and have another one for 30 tomorrow I would have run down to the store and whipped up a small batch just for a picture. Going to my mother-in-laws Monday morning- I'll check out her storage room and see if she has a bottle I can photograph for this post. Anyway,
here's the recipe.
Grandmother Finnie's Mustard Pickles
1 Qt cucumbers- sliced or chunks
1 Qt small pickling onions
4 green peppers
1 large head cauliflower
Prepare--Cover with brine (1 cup salt to 3 quarts boiling water) and let stand 24 hours.
Drain-- cover with hot water for 30 minutes- drain.
Sauce--3 cups sugar (I use more to taste)
1 Cup flour
1/2 cup dry mustard
1 tbsp celery seed and tumerec
2 quarts vinegar
Make sauce and add vegetables and heat to boiling point.
Then bottle and seal.
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5 comments:
that is so neat that you were able to share a lovely memory/and bring it back for your mother in law to enjoy. how neat. thanks for sharing the recipe too. we are trying to grow lots of cucumber this year..so I will have to try this recipe. thanks.
Your talk about old recipes was bringing back memories but then the cold packing and canning and storage rooms filled with rows of jars and things to eat reminded me of those days when my mom cold packed and canned and the house was a constant mixture of smells, and steam, and clanking lids. It is all gone now. I once asked my mom why we (she, actually) spent so much time canning green beans when you could buy a can at the store for a dime and she answered, "You can if you got a dime."
It's great that you saved the recipe. I still have some of my grandmother's handwritten recipes which I'm thinking of framing.
Lots of luck with the wedding.....they look so happy together!!!
I have never heard of a mustard based pickle so the recipe was quite interesting. But I bet it tastes great.
Great story about the pickles and mother-in-law.
What a great memory to have with a recipe. I still have some of the old recipes from my great grandparents to keep and pass on.
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