MICROWAVE BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES

One of our new favorite ways of making Bread and Butter pickles.  The microwave!  And this recipe comes to us courtesy of sweet Texas Rose, a frequent commenter.   

Here is the end result, yummy!

Now these aren't "canned" but if we're being honest, they don't last long enough to worry about that, ha.  You just keep them in the fridge and use like any other pickle. For the batch above, we used this glass bowl with lid but the next batch (bottom of this post) was in a canning jar (again, NOT canned, these are not shelf stable, just easier in a jar).  

Bread and Butter Microwave pickle ingredients

Here are the ingredients.  Cucumbers, sugar, vinegar, onion, celery seed, salt, turmeric and mustard seed. That's it!!  Recipe is at the bottom of this post.

Slice the cucumbers (we like them thick but you can make them thinner).  Cut up the onion and then add all remaining ingredients to microwave safe bowl. 

Stir to combine.

Bread and Butter pickles in the microwave

Cover with plastic wrap, and microwave on high for about 10 minutes, stopping every 3 minutes or so to stir.  Be careful when pulling back the plastic wrap, they are hot!

After the first three minutes, stir.

After six minutes, stir again.

Finally, the last three or four minutes stir and remove to counter to cool.  You can see how they change from the beginning.

Microwave Bread and Butter pickles

Once cool, put in a jar or container and refrigerate. In the interest of full disclosure, this jar WAS full but I took the picture after we had eaten half, LOL!

MICROWAVE BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES INGREDIENTS:

2 Cups sliced cucumbers (about 4 large)

1 medium onion, sliced (about 1 cup)

1/2 cup white vinegar

1/2 tsp mustard seed

1/4 tsp celery seed

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

Mix all together, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave on high for 10 minutes, stopping to stir about every 3 minutes or so.  Put into a container, allow to cool and refrigerate.  You can enjoy them right away but after a couple of days in the fridge, they are SO good.  Crunchy with a great sweet sour flavor.  Enjoy!

EDIT TO ADD THIS DESCRIPTION:

WHAT ARE BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES?

Bread and Butter pickles are a combination of sweet and vinegary pickles.  Some might consider anything other than sour/dill to be a sacrilege to the history of the beloved pickle but these sure are good.  

So where did the name come from?  

There are two stories:

The first story involves cucumber farming family during the Great Depression that created these sweet and sour pickle slices with a surplus of cucumbers. They traded them to their grocer in exchange for some of the basics, "bread" and "butter", the name stuck and here we are.

The second story also comes from the Great Depression.  Times were tough, there wasn't a lot of food around, certainly meat, but cucumbers were easy to grow (we understand).  Someone came up with these sweet and sour pickle slices and when they were eaten on a slice of buttered, brown bread, it actually made for a substantial and filling meal.

SO, I guess the true story may be lost to history...which one do YOU like?