German Pickles aka 7 Day Pickles.

Or as I like to call them….the best pickle in the entire world. Here’s a quick run down of how to fix these bad boys.

2 gallon of pickles.

Cut off ends, leave peels ON, cut 1/4’’to 1/2’’ thick. Dump into pickle crock.

Pour 1 gallon of cold water over top of pickles.

Press a plate down on top of the pickles until all are submerged under the water. I had a cute flower shaped plate that worked perfectly.

Now walk away and let the pickles sit under the water for 7 days. Don’t touch them at all. You might want to peek in ever so often to make sure some of the cucumbers hasn’t floated above the water or over the plate.

After 7 days you’re going to think something went terribly wrong with your cucumbers. They’re going to look like this:

Uber gross I know.  Take a pair of tongs and pull the mold off. Mine came off in 3 small pieces.

Use a big colander and drain the water off the cucumbers.

My colander wouldn’t hold 2 gallons worth of cucumbers so I had to dump and drain in batches.  Wash out your crock with only water then dump the drained cucumbers back in.

Boil, almost, a gallon of fresh water and dump this over pickles. 

Replace the plate on top, making sure to push the cucumbers down and let this stand for 24 hours.

Drain cucumbers again.

Add them back to the crock. Bring almost a gallon of fresh water to a boil. THIS time you’re going to add Alum to the boiling water.

What is Alum? Alum is an ingredient in baking powder and is used to give crispness to pickles and maraschino cherries and to harden up gelatin. Alum is only used in a soak solution and needs to be rinsed off thoroughly before you can your pickles.

Add a heaping Tablespoon of Alum to the boiling water then pour boiling water over  cucumbers. Replace your plate and let this stand for 24 hours.

Are you tired of draining and watering cucumbers by now?

Now you’re ready to drain off the cucumbers one last time. After you’ve drained them move them over into a big bowl to hold until you’ve completed the syrup below.

Syrup recipe:

In a large pot bring to a boil the following:

1 1/2 pints of apple cider vinegar

12 cups of sugar (yes 12)

1 tsp celery seed

1 TBS mixed pickle spice

1/2 tsp cloves (ground or whole doesn’t matter I went with whole)

2-3’’ sticks of cinnamon broken up.

Dump your cucumbers, that look more like pickles now, back into the pickle crock. Pour on the hot syrup.

Replace your plate and let this sit for 24 hours.

After 24 hours drain the syrup off, back into the large pot and bring to a boil again. DO NOT DRAIN OFF THE SYRUP. Leave the pickles in the crock as you bring the syrup back to a boil. Pour on the boiling syrup, replace your plate and let this sit another 24 hours.

Repeat once more. So in all you should have 3-24 hour periods, back to back. of boiling your syrup and pouring back over the pickles.

ON the 4th day, drain your syrup back into the pot, bring it to a boil. As you’re waiting for your syrup to boil, take your pickles and start packing them into pint size jars. The more pickles you can pack in the better. Leave about 1/2’’ headspace so you can seal your jars properly.

Once the jars are packed and your syrup is back to a boil, ladle the syrup over the packed pickles. Put the lid and ring on your jars and turn them upside down to seal.

I’m going to gift some of these pickles so I use smaller jars as well as pint size.

German Pickles aka 7 Day Pickles…..done!

~Jess