Sweet Cucumber Pickles

I admit, I never made this recipe.  I found it among my mother's collection of recipes dated 1953.  I clearly remember her pickling cucumbers, in volumes much like this recipe, of many variations. 

We had large crocks just used for pickling.  (I wonder what ever happened to them?).  The cucumbers came from my father's large vegetable garden.  We had pickles at almost every main meal of the day throughout the Winter.

A "peck" is one-quarter of a bushel.  I was intrigued by the importance of boiling.

Recipe

  1. Wash one peck of medium-sized cucumbers and cover with one gal. of water, boiled and cooled; add 1 cup salt and let stand one week.
  2. Drain, wash; cover with 1 tsp. alum and cooled, boiled water for one day. 
  3. Drain; split pickles and put on a fresh solution of alum and cooled, boiled water.  Let stand for another day. 
  4. Drain.  Make syrup of 4 pts sugar and 4 pts white vinegar, 1 tsp. cinnamon bark, broken up and 1 tsp. whole cloves (put these in a bag).  Boil and pour over pickles and let them stand one day. 
  5. Drain; boil up syrup again, pour over pickles, and let stand a second day. 
  6. Drain on third day, pack in clean, boiled, jars, boil up syrup once more and pour over pickles.  Seal while hot.

Revised:  July 26, 2013