On Thursday, I decided my goal was to make pickles. Â Dave brought me by the market on our way to pick Sam and Nata up from school. Â I haggled with the cucumber vendor for 4 kilos of small cucs and a ton of salt. Â I paid about $.75 a pound. Â I love the market. Â While we were gone, Petite Marche burned to the ground. Â Thursday, I bought my cucumbers on a side street near the old market.
When we got home I soaked the cucs in bleach for 45 minutes and then rised them and put them in the fridge to cool. Â It became quickly clear that my day was not going to allow for pickling. Â Dave went out Thursday evening to see Moumouni’s father who was in Niamey for only one day. Â When he returned home, I had the kids ready for bed and saw my opportunity to pickle.
I sterilized the jars and cut the cumbers into slices for dills, and rounds for the Bread and Butter.
I did the dill spears first, filling each jar with ingredients, then the cucumber spears, then boiling water. Â I shook each jar and then put the jars back in the boiling water to try and get the jars to seal. Â They make a very satisfying pop when this happens.
You can buy pickles here at the grocery store, but they are small like gherkins and taste very different than the kind we like. Â These dills are very sour and strong.
After I finished the dill spears, I realized I should have done the Bread and Butter first. Â They had to sit for 2 hours in salt. Â I started this at 10 p.m. Â I decided just to get it done. Â The bread and butter are our favorite. Â They are ready for eating immediately. Â I let the dills sit for 24 hours before opening the first jar.
Two years ago, our friend Jan Finck introduced me to the idea of making pickles in Niger. Â They are a special treat for us to enjoy. Â Just another one of those little things we miss from America and are happy to have here.
I can’t imagine why anyone in America would want to make pickles. Â BUT for my friends in Niger or those feeling a bit inspired….
Jan Finck’s pickle recipes.
Bread and Butter
(I did some fancy math and make only 1-2 kilos of cucs)
10 kilograms cucumbers (1 k= 2.2 lbs)
3 L water
3 kilograms onions
2 T mustard seed (I used crushed mustard because that’s what I had)
2 C salt
5-7 C sugar
3 L vinegar
2 T ginger
2 T celery seed (I left this out because I didn’t have any)
1 T tumeric
Wash, slice cucs and onions. Â Add salt. Â Let stand 2 hours. Â Drain. Â Heat all to boiling. Â Boil until tender.
Dill
1/2 C vinegar
head of dill, 1 dry dill (I used a couple tsp of dill weed)
1 tsp alum
garlic bean (I used a few cloves in each jar)
2 T salt
Fill jars with boiling water. Â Put on lid and shake.
okay i have to ask… why did you soak them in bleach? is this typical for all pickling? or due to where you live?
Hope,
I have Grandma Great’s “depression” bread and butter pickles. I love them because you don’t have to “bathe” the jars. They supposedly use less sugar and that’s why they are “depression” pickles. When I was your age, I made them too. Now, HEB has these aisles that I say are the rows of my garden. Pretty spoiled are we.
Thanks so much for sharing your blog. It is so fun to read! Praying for you guys always,
Ann
Hi Ya’ll,
I just love reading your blog. Know that we are praying and have you all in our thoughts too. We are doing well and counting down the days ….68 to be exact. We will be leaving on the Nov. 20th. I will wave at ya’ll as we pass over the closest point. Ha-Ha!!!!. Your pickles sound like they will taste amazing. We love you very much and are so proud of ya’ll.
So for the dill pickles, is the recipe you posted what you put in each jar? I am assuming this… Thanks for sharing the recipe! Dill pickles is one thing our family misses very much while in Niger. I’ve messed around with a few recipes, but never found a favorite yet. Here’s a new one to try! Enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Hope – You are not alone in creating yummies to sustain today’s bounty for tomorrow. Chris’ sister is a great canner – a few different kinds of pickles, pepper jams, tomatoes; she also has the talent and enjoyment in growing the veggies herself. I spent the morning today making applesauce, applebutter and an apple cobbler from about half of the apples we picked last weekend… the applesauce is next to the tomato sauce containers in the freezer, the applebutter next to this year’s strawberry and peach jams in the pantry. My mom taught me well, and I love seeing that others are taking the time to put love in a jar. (I did learn an important lesson this summer about powdered citric acid: definitely NOT an even exchange for lemon juice when preserving peaches.) So glad you are settling into the routines, relationships and tastes that have become so important in your life… And in the lives you positively impact. Love, Carolyn
Wow! I love to get comments. It’s encouraging to know that so many of you are reading and interested. It’s fun to need to respond to your questions!
Mercury: We bleach all of our fruits and veggies here. There is a high likelihood that these foods have been exposed to bacteria and disease. That’s just the nature of living in West Africa.
Ann: I would love to have Grandma Great’s depression b&b recipe. Can you send it to me? 😉
Beka: Yes! I put all of that into one mason jar and then filled the jars with boiling water. The dills came out strong- they make us pucker. It made me wonder if my friend Jan didn’t use a bigger container. I think for my next batch, I will use the same juice and fill the jars again with water so it’s a little dillouted. I would say that for a regular mason jar, half to three quarters of the recipe amount would probably work fine.
Carolyn: It’s so fun to think about you canning. I would love any recipes you have. I’m new to this, but I think it’s very fun, and I love the idea of being able to keep things to use when they’re out of season.
Hey Hope! I have made jams, salsa, hot pepper jelly pasta sauce and a few other things in canning for years but I have never tackled pickles! I sorely miss dills in Niger too but I didn’t think we had the ingredients. Let’s plan a pickle date when I get back! Love you !
PS- 4 years and I have yet to bleach any veggies or get sick. I just wash the outside well since I don’t want the bleach exposure 🙂
I can my own pickles here in America! I think they taste better than store bought and Silly me – I actually enjoy putting up the summer’s bounty. I also do tomatoes and Salsa! I think the heat in Africa would detract from the “fun”part, makes for an awfully hot kitchen! Love and Hugs!