Cinnamon . . . Cucumbers?

Pickles. Those sweet or sour or salty cucumbers that you usually either love or hate. I like pickles and last year our 3 cucumber plants produced enough cucumbers that we made around 100 jars of pickles - sour, salty, dilly kosher dills, spicy bread and butter, old-fashioned sweet pickles and I made a batch of these. I can remember my Mom making these, and she did half of them green and half of them red. Oh, so pretty at Christmas time in a sparkling cut glass dish. They are crisp and most people think they are candied apples. They do take some time and some doing to make, but they are worth it, in my opinion.

Cinnamon Pickles

7 pounds peeled, seeded cucumbers in thick rings (I used an apple corer to take the seeds out)
1 cup pickling lime
1 gallon water

1 cup vinegar
1 bottle red food coloring
1 tablespoon alum
Enough water to cover pickles

3 cups vinegar
2 cups water
10 cups granulated sugar
2 to 3 large packages Red Hots cinnamon candies (see NOTE)
8 sticks cinnamon

Soak cucumbers, lime and 1 gallon water for 24 hours.

Wash cucumbers - be sure to wash them thoroughly, at least 3 times to get all of the lime off. Soak in ice water for 3 hours. Mix 1 cup vinegar, food coloring, alum and enough water to cover pickles. Simmer in this mixture 2 hours.

Pour off liquid and throw away. Boil 3 cups vinegar, 2 cups water, sugar, candies and cinnamon. Pour over cucumbers. Let stand 24 hours.

Drain liquid and bring to boil. Put cucumbers into jars with 1 to 2 sticks cinnamon in each jar. Pour hot liquid over jars and seal.

NOTE: This information is from Yvonne in Mississippi.

DO NOT use red hots candy that lists cornstarch as an ingredients. They will not work for this recipes. The brand to use is Farley's which uses sucrose, corn syrup, artificial flavor, red 40 and beeswax. This will work great and the pickles will be free of white matter after processing is done.

These can also be ordered from the Cane & Reed Company in Connecticut. Phone number is 1 860 646-6586



These are good to make at the end of the year, and with fairly large cucumbers. The alum and lime crisps them up nicely, and you take the seeds out anyway. Wonderfully spicy at Christmas time and so pretty red. They go great with turkey sandwiches!

Recipe courtesy of That's My Home recipes.