Vera's Mustard Pickle Recipe for the Sisters

The Sisters of the Blog asked in a comment this week if we would offer up the recipe for Granny's Mustard Pickles and here it is. The picture above is of the actual note she wrote all those years ago. Granny is 94 years old now and this is her mother's recipe so you could say that it is time-tested!

I was really glad to have been watching her make the pickles that day because her measurements were a little off. She would chop the vegetables and pile them to the very top of her 4 cup measure and call it a quart. It was really more like 5 cups or a bit more. My cousin's wife tried making them with the amount listed and her pickles were way too runny.

I've tranlated the note for you below (my comments are in bold).

Dutch Salad Pickles (Mom’s)

Chop fine;

1 qt. green tomatoes
1 qt. green cucumbers
1 qt. onions
1 small cabbage
1 small cauliflower
2 red peppers
2 green peppers
note: 1 qt. = 5 cups for this measure

Put all vegetables into a large plastic tub.
Add ½ cup salt (coarse), cover with cold water and leave overnight.

In the morning, drain well. (This is the secret)

Add (make) dressing.

In a large canning pot mix:
10 tsp Keen’s dry mustard
1 cup flour
6 cups white sugar
½ ounce tumeric

Mix with a little cold vinegar and add 1½ qts.(6 cups) of vinegar.
Bring to a boil (gradually) and pour on pickles (add the vegetables to the hot dressing) and boil 20 minutes (bring back to the boil and then time 20 minutes). (I use some of the 1½ qts vinegar to mix the flour, sugar, mustard and tumeric. I find that it is too thin after the pickles cook if I add more vinegar to mix.) And you can cook them less, it won’t hurt, you have to be careful that it doesn’t stick to the pot and burn (stir constantly!).

Makes about 6 to 6 1/2 litres.

If you make these please tell everybody that they are "Vera's Mustard Pickles". She would be very glad to know you did.