I love the ability to be able to can and "put up" what we harvest out of the garden. This week it has been pickles. I put up spicy dills and today I am working on bread and butter pickles. I never did know why they were called bread and butter but any way they have a nice flavor and I love how they smell when canning them. I guess I will have to research to see why they are called that. If any one knows, leave me a comment.?
Bread and butter pickles are just a recipe for a sweet sour pickle. They got the name "bread and butter" during the great depression when fresh cucumbers were eaten for lunch with bread and butter, and a cheap source of what was considered a vegetable back in the day. Moms could grow the cukes, serve them fresh as long as they lasted without refrigeration, but then had to pickle them to make them last all the rest of the year. In the summer cucumber sandwiches were very popular, thin slices of cukes on bread with butter- very English. But what then to do with the leftover garden produce?? Pickle it!
While folks back then served what they could grow- and cucumbers were easy to grow in many climates- still the produce outstripped the consumption. Backyard gardens often produced more cucumbers than any family could eat in one season. So they picked and pickled them- adapting and using old recipes that would appeal to their children's pallets, (always a huge concern). While we know now that cooking destroys many of the vitamins in any food product- back then they did not know that. So they used the bread and butter pickle as a substitute for fresh cucumber sandwiches. Which they seriously thought were nutritious.
~ I gleaned this information from a garden web forum. I can see this being so true. I have had/served cucumber sandwiches at a tea and loved them. I can definitely see the English influence in this dish. Do you agree?
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