Christmas Pickles
Submitted by Gibbie
Bright red cinnamon-spiked Christmas pickles made from cucumber rings soaked in lime water, boiled with red hots candy, and canned in a sweet syrup. A multi-day Southern canning tradition.
YIELD
8 servingsPREP
5 daysCOOK
0 minREADY
5 daysThese aren’t your everyday dill pickles. Christmas pickles are candy-sweet, fire-engine red, and crunchy as a fresh apple.
The process takes several days, and that’s part of the charm. Thick cucumber rings soak overnight in pickling lime water, then get boiled with vinegar, alum, and red food coloring until they turn a deep crimson.
The real magic happens when they sit in a cinnamon-and-red-hots syrup that gets drained, reheated, and poured back over the pickles for three straight days. Each round pushes more sweetness and spice deeper into the rings.
By day four, you’ve got jewel-bright pickle jars that look like they belong on a Christmas card. Pack them as gifts with a cinnamon stick in each jar.
Kitchen Tips
- Use a porcelain or glass container for the lime soak. Aluminum reacts with pickling lime and ruins the batch.
- Remove seeds with an apple corer before slicing into rings. It’s faster than scooping and gives you cleaner rings.
- Drain and reheat the syrup faithfully for three days. Skipping a day means the pickles won’t absorb enough sweetness and color.
- Sterilize your jars properly before packing. These are a labor of love, so don’t lose a jar to spoilage.
Ingredients
Directions
- Peel and remove seeds from 8 to 10 large cucumbers. Seeds can be removed with an apple corer.
Slice into ½ to ¾ inch wide rings. Soak overnight in lime and water in a porcelain container (use non-aluminum).
- Wash, drain; soak in clear water and covered with ice cubes Drain.
- Put in large pot. Cover with water and other ingredients for the boiling solution. Boil for 1 hour; then drain.
- Make syrup and bring to boil to dissolve sugar. Use one cinnamon stick for each jar you think you will have. Pour syrup over cucumbers and let stand overnight.
- Drain syrup from cucumbers into separate pan and bring to a Pour back over cucumbers. After cool, cover with Saran wrap.
- Repeat step 5 for 3 days.
- On the fourth morning, heat syrup again. While heating, pack cucumbers in sterilized pint jars (larger jars can be used) with cinnamon stick. Pour heated juice into jars to fill up almost to top. If you don’t have enough, make more juice of water and red food coloring. Seal jars. Putting in water bath is optional.
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