Bread butter pickles are the crip, sweet and sour pickles that are perfect for snacking on or adding to your favorite sandwich or hamburger. This easy bread and butter pickle recipe included canning instructions.

Once you make these delicious pickles you are going to want to check out one of the most popular recipes on my site: pickled banana peppers! Your sandwiches are going to thank you! And if you have never had pickled onions with your sous vide flank steak fajitas you don't know what you are missing!
🥒 Ingredients needed:
Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the recipe at the bottom for quantities.
- Pickling cucumbers (25 large)
- Mrs. Wages Pickle Mix: Bread & Butter
- Mrs. Wages Xtra Crunch Granules
- White Vinegar (5% acidity)
- Sugar
🔄 Substitutions
Apple cider vinegar can be used in place of the white vinegar as long as the ACV has 5% acidity.
Add a ¼ teaspoon of red pepper flakes or additional celery seed or mustard seeds, if you wish.
Equipment
Canning equipment can be found at yard sales for a great price but be sure the check it to make sure it is in good condition. It might just be worth the extra investment to purchase new if you are looking to make canning part of your skillset.
- Canner
- Canning jars: regular or wide mouth, pint or quart.
- Canning funnel
- Jar lifter
- Large saucepan
- Large cooking pot
- Paper towel
- Cutting board and knife
🔪 Bread and Butter Pickle Recipe, basic instructions
- Prepare the jars.
- Make the brine and slice the cucumbers.
- Fill hot jar with slices of cucumber.
- Ladle hot pickling liquid over the cucumbers, removing extra air bubbles.
- Wipe the rim of the jar, place on a new lid and a clean ring.
- Process the jars.
- Remove the finished jars and cool undisturbed for 24 hours until they are room temperature.
📷 Making Making Homemade Pickles, photo instructions
- Fill your canner with water and turn it on high as it takes a while to boil.
- Prepare your canning jars by washing them in hot soapy water. Use brand new lids, rings can be reused if they are not rusty and in good condition.
- Fill large pot 3⁄4 full of water and place on the stovetop.
- Place jars in the simmering water, along with rings and lids. You may only be able to do a few at a time.
- Prepare the cucumbers by washing the cucumbers and allowing them to drain.
- Cut a slice off the end of cucumbers and discard. If there are any bad spots on the cucumbers, remove those as well.
- Cut cucumbers into thicker slices, you can do spears and slices as well. Set aside in a large bowl.
- In a large pot, combine vinegar, Mrs. Wages pickling mix, water, and sugar according to package directions and bring to a boil. Stir constantly until the pickling brine mixture dissolves. Remove from heat.
- Using tongs, bring your hot jars and lids to your workspace. Fill the jars with cucumbers, leaving ½” headspace. Place the funnel on top of the canning jar and pour the hot brine mixture over the cucumbers filling the liquid up to ½” from the top of the jar.
- Add the Xtra Crunch granules to each jar. (For quart jars, add 1⁄4 teaspoon and for pint jars, add ⅛ teaspoon.)
- Wipe the rim and jar threads with a clean, damp paper towel to make sure there isn't any liquid or particles that would prevent a proper seal.
- Place the lid and band on the jar and tighten to finger tight. Use the tongs to place the sealed jars inside the water bath canner. Repeat filling the jars and placing them in the canner until the canner is full.
- When the water comes to a rolling boil again, set the timer; The processing time for pints is 10 minutes and 20 minutes for quarts.
- After the appropriate time, use the canning tongs to remove the jars. Place them on a cooling rack or countertop and listen for them to pop and ting…that's when you know they've sealed.
24 hours later
- After 24 hours, double-check the top lid has been sealed by lightly pressing. There shouldn't be any give when pressed. Remove the band and store the jars in your pantry or cupboard for up to one year.
❄️ Storage tips
- Do not stack jars, if there is any leakage, the weight of a jar on the lid may prevent you from realizing it.
- Remember to label your lids. If you have extra brining liquid, you can store it in the refrigerator for 1 week. Heat it up and make more bread and butter pickles.
- Allow the pickles to set up for at least 4 weeks before eating. We typically wait at least 8 weeks.
👩🍳 Chef Tip
I am not a fan of thinly sliced cucumbers for these sweet pickles. I think the sliced need to be at least ¼" thick to maintain the proper crunch. But experiment with the thickness that you like.
📝 Frequently asked questions, answers and tips:
The short answer is no. There is way too much white sugar in these pickles for them to be keto or low carb. If you are looking for a low-carb pickle option I would point you to my cucumber and onion salad recipe. Just be sure to omit the sugar.
Ask your farm stand or grocery if they carry Chicago Pickling Cucumbers when you want to make crunchy pickles. No matter what cucumber you chose be sure they are small, firm, is blemish-free, and of a consistent size.
The recipes for both pickles use vinegar, salt, mustard seeds, onions, and ground turmeric. Bread and butter pickles add sugar to give them their extra sweet taste, while dill pickles add dill weed, peppercorns, and dill and sometimes garlic to give them an extra kick.
I was always told that the pickles we know today as bread and butter pickles were made to go between slices of bread and butter in the depression era. Another story I have been told is that farmers would use the end of the season, small cucumbers to make pickles and barter for bread and butter. I am sure the truth is somewhere in there.
Bread And Butter Pickles
There is more to a recipe than just the recipe card. Frequently Asked Questions within the blog post that you may find helpful. Simply scroll back up to read them!
HELPFUL KITCHEN TOOLS
Ingredients
- 25 pickling cucumbers
- Mrs. Wages Pickle Mix: Bread & Butter Mix
- Mrs. Wages Xtra Crunch Granules
- 6.75 cups White Distilled Vinegar (5% acidity)
- 7 cups sugar
Instructions
- Fill your canner with water and turn on high as it takes a while to boil.
Prepare the jars
- Prepare your canning jars by washing them in hot soapy water. Use brand new lids, rings can be reused if they are not rusty and in good working condition.
- Fill large saucepan 3⁄4 full of water and place on the stove top.
- Place your clean canning jars upside down in the simmering water, along with rings and lids.
- You may only be able to do 2-4 at a time.You want to keep your jars hot during this process.
Prepare the cucumbers
- Wash cucumbers and drain.
- Cut 1/16” slice off the end of cucumbers and discard. If there are any bad spots on the cucumbers, remove those as well.
- Cut cucumbers into pickles, you can do spears and slices as well. Set aside in a large bowl.
Prepare the brine
- In a large cooking pot, mix together Mrs. Wages pickling mix, water, sugar, and vinegar according to package directions and bring to a boil.
- Stir constantly until the brining mixture dissolves.
- Remove from heat.
Canning pickles
- Make sure the water in the canner is at a rolling boil.
- Using tongs, bring your hot jars and lids to your workspace.
- Fill the jars with cucumbers, leaving ½” headspace.
- Place the funnel on top of the canning jar and pour the vinegar mixture over the cucumbers filling the liquid up to ½” from the top of the jar.
- Add the Xtra Crunch granules. (For quart jars, add 1⁄4 teaspoon and for pint jars, add ⅛ teaspoon.)
- Wipe the rim and jar threads with a clean, damp paper towel to make sure there isn't any liquid or particles that would prevent a proper seal.
- Place the lid and band on the jar and tighten to finger tight.
- Use the tongs to place the sealed jars inside the water bath canner.
- Repeat filling the jars and placing them in the canner until the canner is full.It's important to do this process with the same size jars, do pints together, and quarts together.
- When the water comes to a rolling boil again, set the timer; 10 minutes for pints and 20 minutes for quarts.
- After the appropriate time, use the canning tongs to remove the jars.
- Place them on a cooling rack or countertop and listen for them to pop and ting…that's when you know they've sealed.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclosure
Nutritional facts are estimates and are provided as a courtesy to the reader. Please utilize your own brand nutritional values to double check against our estimates. Nutritional values are calculated via a third party. Changing ingredients, amounts or cooking technique will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
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originally published July 2011.
Anne
Bread and butter pickles are my favorite too, so much tastier than dill!
Glenda
I would have to hide these from my husband and son-in-law! They could polish off a whole jar just between the two of them. They're so good!
Jane V
This looks amazing. We go through so many pickles here and am always looking for variations for our canning. Thanks!
Jac Bagis
I wonder what kinds of seasoning has this bag, here in Brazil does not.
Joffre Vincent Narron
Sarah - I tell you what......you are great at giving directions. Plus, your enthusiasm is contagious. I love bread & butter pickles. However, Vince is afraid I am "forgetting my way to the kitchen." But, I actually DO still know where the, uh, the.....you know.....the stove is.
Sending love to all the Mocks!
Martha
Anonymous
These really are simple! I hope you find that they are as well. Thanks for the comment!
Stephen Belyea
I love bread and butter pickles, but I've never tried making them. The only ones I've tried are Lady Ashburnham mustard pickles... but surely if I can master those, then I should really stop buying bread and butters and at least TRY to make them!
Thanks for posting a great "how to"
Happy Pickling :-)