The Best Bread and Butter Pickle Recipe – EVER!!! One answer I saw was that they got the name during the depression when sometimes pickles and bread and butter was all people had. I don’t think anyone eats bread and butter pickles for the health benefits. I ate cucumber sandwiches frequently growing up. So people used them in sandwiches of bread and butter because that’s all they could afford. With Bubbie's pickle chips. Well, of course it never occurred to me why they are called bread and butter pickles, duh. They really wanted to go with a tuna sandwich, but I had some leftover King Salmon in the refer and just settled for that in a sandwich to go with, lol. I eat them with sandwiches all the time, or just eat a couple of slices of pickle. I’m making my favorite Bread and Butter Pickles. :). I was always intrigued by them whenever I would hear about them while watching an English movie - I think they are mentioned in The Importance of Being Ernest, but I had always thought that cucumber or watercress sandwiches were something of a joke and not something that anyone actually ate! If a noncloudy appearance is desired, a fresh brine can be used to pack the pickles when they are … Then he made up some story (I can't remember) about why there weren't any cucumber sandwiches for her, but she saw right through his lies. The pickles were served as a sandwich filling paired with bread and butter for a cheap meal. Yum, I love some homemade pickles! Bread, butter, & cucumber sandwiches are a hold over from our country's English heritage. So they picked and pickled them- adapting and using old recipes that would appeal to their children's pallets, (always a huge concern). They have the perfect balance between sweet and tangy. I certainly never add sugar or anything sweet to them. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. They're not sour, just sweet. Copyright © 2020 Saveur. In any case, they … Something, like bread and butter, to always have on hand. My favorite were the bread and butter pickles, spicy and crisp… tangy almost. albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft. So I was wondering why they are called bread and butter pickles. I once accidentally bought a jar of Bubbie's and opened them before realizing. I have never been a big fan of pickles until I tried this recipe from a dear friend. Pickle it! Bread and butter pickles were served before meals with bread and butter. Most working people bought their meals from carts on the street - a piece of cheese, some bread, and "pickle"; or a meat sandwich or meat pie with "pickle". Place the cucumber, onion and salt into a bowl stirring the salt to coat the vegetables. They go extremely well with chestnuts. I hate bread and butter pickles but I made these for my husband. Anyone know why they are called Bread & Butter? Bread and butter pickles, unlike some other varieties, can be eaten within a few days of canning, and they do not require a lengthy time on the shelf to intensify their flavor. All rights reserved. White Flower Farms in Litchfield, Connecticut is famous for their annual spring sale featuring bread, butter, & cucumber sandwiches while people stroll the gardens. The "pickle" in Victorian times was generally pickled onions, or a piccalilli type pickle. Another story has to do with some lady who made them for a store and traded them for staple supplies, like bread and butter. To wit: "Bread and Butter" is a name given to the pickles by Mrs. Fanning's Pickles, when applying for a trademark. And I could snack on them all day long. Bread and butter pickles are just a recipe for a sweet sour pickle. I reread all of the posts this morning from this resurrected thread, and took out my old cookbooks and found recipes for Bread & Butter Pickles pre-depression, but not WWI era, so after a little searching on the internet found this bit of information: In the early part of the [Ed: 20th] century Cora and Omar Fanning of Streator, IL found themselves short on cash. I love those and don't think they taste like bread and butter either. Jams and Jellies whenever the apricot tree or black raspberries were at the ready. They have a distinct, slightly tangy taste. They are still served all over the country as "tea sandwiches". They used a recipe which had been in Omar’s family for a few generations, so it may have been a known recipe in their area. Growing up, anything in the kitchen went on a sandwich for lunch, including leftover potatoes (sliced with mayo and mustard, salt and pepper, sort of tastes like potato salad) and even leftover pork and bean sandwiches. – Make It 30 Mrs. Fanning worked out an agreement with a local grocer, who gave her groceries -- including bread 'n butter -- in exchange for the pickles. I've eaten many cucumber sandwiches, also tomato sandwiches. These bread and butter pickles are a perfect balance of sweet and tangy flavors. Omar and Cora, though, commercialized the pickle with the “Bread and Butter” name in the early 1920s, applying for a trademark on the logo for the pickles in 1923. Lisa Manderino August 24, 2020 - 11:27 pm. I only bought bread and butter pickles once - by mistake - and I threw them out because they were way too sweet for me. Backyard gardens often produced more cucumbers than any family could eat in one season. Page 5. Can anyone help with an answer to that? They are, after all, very high in sodium and most of the calories in them come from added sugar. A lady would deliver a jar of these homemade pickles to her hostess, along with or in lieu of a formal "bread and butter" thank you letter. Why are They Called Bread and Butter Pickles? I've been making fermented pickles, but I haven't gotten the spices/herbs right yet. I don't know how they got their name, but this thread made me impulse buy a jar of Bubbies B&B pickles. Even lettuce sandwiches. And a nice contrast to bread, cheese, peppers, etc. 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. Rinse the cucumber mixture in a colander and pat dry with paper towel to remove all excess water. Fresh pack or quick process pickles are not fermented. I do not like any sweet cucumber pickles, and now I make my own, although I admit that Clauson dill pickles are better than mine. Historically, Germans and Italians have outnumbered the English in the number of immigrants who came here. Every patch of dirt had some sort of vegetable growing. Of course I have had cucumber sandwiches and probably made dozens of them over the years, but it never occurred to me that Bread & Butter pickles would be used in the same manner. If you go to a tea garden in California, it will be either Japanese or Chinese - not English! I've never made them with bread and butter pickles but have made cucumber sandwiches at home too. nothing quite like them. They are perfect for burgers, sandwiches, or snacked right out of the jar. They look so good! I can definitely see the marketing value of the name. Never saw cucumber sandwiches on a menu.....but often on a sandwich tray or on a plate with a salad.If you grew up in an Italian neighborhood in south Philly, likely you didn't ever see cucumber sandwiches...onion sandwiches were likely the thing. I just looked in a couple of old cookbooks....and in the Boston cookbook 1942 edition, there was a recipe for bread and butter pickles....but in another edition dated 1914 there wasn't such a recipe.I think it unlikely that bread and butter pickles were a depression thing... and made it into a cook book that quickly. Bread was homemade, and 8-10-cents per loaf if bought from the store. Not wanting to waste anything they took the cucumbers they grew that were too small to sell and made them into sweet and tart pickles. I'm pretty good at making kimchi by now, however. Cucumbers are easy to grow and prolific, so they … -- Feingold News. I think they are right about naming Bread and Butter Pickles prior to WWII. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for 2- 3 hours. I've never seen them in Texas or the Southwest or Louisiana. It's like sauerkraut or cranberry sauce with Thanksgiving dinner. I would assume that your mother made the cucumber sandwiches - I was referring to never having seen them on a menu. I remember an elderly neighbor when I was about 12 eating garlic sandwiches. I don't know about other brands, because the exact flavor is probably important. According to some sources, they were used as a common sandwich filling served with bread and butter during the Depression. You will find them on the menu in restaurants or Tea Rooms serving Afternoon Tea. Cucumber Sandwiches are very British. Reply. I have used them in a Sandwich and Hoagies but always with Lunchmeat and Cheese. A fermented food was almost always served with a meal (sweet pickles, dill pickles, pickled beets, even sweet & sour sliced cucumbers in vinegar/sugar...). After a certain time, the English started going to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and there weren't enough left to make that much of an influence here, except on the East Coast. We had elderly neighbors who always called cucumbers "pickles" whether they were pickled or not, so I would tend to go with the Depression Era origin for the name. I think that the pickles as we know them originate from India. The words "Bread & Butter" refer to the taste and not the preparation method. Bread & Butter Pickles – One of the Great Depression’s Greatest Hits During the Great Depression, sandwiches weren’t quite what they are today. [14] ". If the cucumber is too large, over 2 inches across, the pickling solution is not able to penetrate the core properly. Bread and butter pickles were invented by Omar and Cora Fanning in 1920 by a husband and wife farmer team in Illinois. Forget about choice of aioli, or did you want roast tri tip or smoked turkey; back then it was more like, “Did you want cucumbers in your sandwich, or nothing in your sandwich?” Actually, the roasted and peeled chestnuts from Trader Joe's. The contemporary descriptions call them "sweet and sour". I make piccalilli - so simple and so much better home-made. While we know now that cooking destroys many of the vitamins in any food product- back then they did not know that. I like the sharp contrast of a bread and butter pickle with whatever else I'm eating. I don't remember the exact dialog but I do remember it being pretty entertaining. At wordorigins, an etymology site, a professior says he can not come up with anything earlier than Wikipedia's "The origin of the name and the spread of their popularity in the United States is attributed to Omar and Cora Fanning, a pair of Illinois cucumber farmers who started selling sweet and sour pickles in the 1920s and filed for the trademark "Fanning's Bread and Butter Pickles" in r1923 (though the recipe and similar ones are probably much older). 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Bread and Butter Pickles became quickly popular in the 1920s, alternately being marketed as “old-fashioned” and “the latest thin… The pirate girls at one point lay siege to RA and A, and taunt them by setting up a picnic outside and remarking loudly on the treats they are enjoying. Yes they are! Posted by publickman (My Page) on Wed, Dec 21, 11 at 20:56I think they are mentioned in The Importance of Being Ernest. In the City everyone had a garden during the depression and during WW2. (cue the Twilight Zone music!). I like them as an alternative to a cookie. They may very well be common here, and I just never have happened to see them. And then there is pickled eel?? I was curious as to why they were called ‘bread and butter pickles’ and found out that they used to be served on bread and butter during the depression era because they were so cheap and easy to make. The basic bread and butter pickles recipe adds a sliced sweet onion to the pickling mic of cucumber, white vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seeds, coriander seeds and celery seeds. I grew up in central Illinois in the '40s loving bread and butter pickles on hamburgers. The tea garden in San Antonio was also originally Japanese. It appears that Bread and Butter Pickles may have originated with an Omar and Cora Fanning in Illinois. But another thought, sweet pickles (aka bread and butter pickles) were always served on the table with a plate of sliced bread and butter. staple. I loved this type of pickle growing up. What are the odds?Jane. The story, true or not, given by the pickle company is that Mrs. Fanning made them from the cucumbers too small to sell and traded them to the grocer for bread and butter. October 1996. Without knowing any of this when I was young I like to make a sandwich of mayo, chedder cheese, and Bread and Butter Pickles. While there is no definitive answer, we pose two possibilities: One dates back to the Great Depression era because pickles were an affordable staple to have on hand in many households. Supposedly the name goes back to the Depression era, when food was scarce. Something we'll never find evidence for is the likelihood that "sweet and sour" wasn't trademarkable for pickles, being just a descriptor in common use, so "bread and butter" having a similar assonance, and rhythm (even though different syllables), was put down on the form instead. I don't like sweet and sour pickles! Bread and butter was a staple at meals, kind of food extenders, to make the small amounts go further, add pickles to the mix, bread and butter and pickles. While fermenting pickles, the brine might become cloudy due to lactic acid bacteria growth during the fermentation period. Why are they called “bread and butter” pickles. 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 fermented or crock pickles, the most common reason for hollow pickles is improper curing. Bread and butter pickles are just a recipe for a sweet sour pickle. I always thought the cucumber sandwich was an English influence because my mother was from Canada and I don't remember other families in our neighborhood ever eating cucumber sandwiches like we did. It … Available in smooth- or waffle-cut chips or chunks. When she retired, I remember canning watermelon pickles, dill pickles, chow-chow, and bread/butter pickles each summer… tomatoes, pears, and peaches in the fall. Never saw anyone eating Cucumbers and Bread. A lot of foods were pickled, to preserve them. They were named by Cara and Omar Fannings anscestors and they got the official patent for the name in 1924. I call them "sugar pickles". The best! I don't know the origins of the pickle name but cucumber sandwiches are alive and well in American tearooms. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for 2- 3 hours. Interesting discussion. Lots of gardens grown then also. This looks like a great recipe! I agree with sushi.....but think the term originated earlier than the depression. Why are they called bread and butter pickles, they don't taste like bread or butter. Pickles go back a long way. Place the cucumber, onion and salt into a bowl stirring the salt to coat the vegetables. I used to grow watercress in my pond in Venice, but I never made sandwiches out of it, although I added it to sandwiches, as I did with arugula. We lived on raw cucumber sandwiches (bread/butter/cucumber slices and salt and pepper) for lunch, as well as tomato sandwiches (not BLT, just bread/butter/sliced tomatoes/salt and pepper) all summer long, growing up in Kansas. It was an accidental then repeated combination from a collation, so, yes, other things on the table, but half a chestnut on a Bubbie's b&b pickle chip is its own little mismatched-texture canape of happiness. Always had to eat the savoury before the sweet at tea-time! That's what my grandma always said, also because they were so easy to make, like bread, and butter. The following types of pickles are categorized as sweet. As a child I thought it odd, but perhaps it was a treat back when the book was written. Use proper brine strength and keep the product well-covered. So after reading that, I tried some of these pickles on a piece of bread with some butter… My friend kept bringing me cucumbers so I gave these a try. And yes, we had them with bread and butter when the pickles were freshly made, and the bottle opened warm, between two slices of bread and butter. Supposedly they got their name because during the Great Depression, they were a cheap staple in households. And that movie is what I always think of when I hear of cucumber sandwiches. In an old Raggedy Ann book I have, RA and Andy encounter some pirate girls who have stolen Babette the French doll. In the summer cucumber sandwiches were very popular, thin slices of cukes on bread with butter- very English. The evidence presented at the link Grainlady provided many years ago is convincing. The onions are a nice complement to the pickles and also look great in the pickle jar. According to Wikipedia: The origin of the name is attributed to Omar and Cora Fanning, a pair of Illinois cucumber farmers who started selling sweet and sour pickles in the 1920s and filed for the trademark “Fanning’s Bread and Butter Pickles… Reply. They’re also referred to as “new dills.” Sweet: These pickles are made in a mixture of vinegar, sugar, water, and spices. And a question that DH asked me just last week,too. What a lost culture. Inspiration for dinner time under the stars, Inspiration for making that best pizza ever, Natural Swimming Pools: More Beauty, No Chemicals, The Contemplative Garden: A Place for Quiet Reflection, View all Gardening and Landscaping Stories. My favorite pickle. Bread and Butter Pickles. Many people wonder, why are they called ‘bread and butter pickles’? They … Those three things were always placed on the table no matter what else was being served. I've read some books by Anne Perry recently, set during the Victorian reign, and "pickle" was always on the table. In 1923 they filed a trademark on the name “Fanning’s Bread and Butter pickles”. And I’m gonna show you my little secret. "We have bread and butter and dill pickles!" He was hungry and ate them all up even though they were meant for his Aunt who was coming to visit. Thanks so much for the information. It was always my understanding that Bread & Butter pickles got their name from folks in the 1920's who used their so called Sweet & Sour pickles to barter for staples like bread and butter, so they were eventually called Bread & Butter pickles. If so, it would be clever, because bread and butter are a basic part of any old shopping list, so bread and butter pickles implies you should have pickles in your shopping basket as a matter of course. Judges called them "an essential ingredient for a great cheeseburger." I haven't seen them on the West Coast either, and so I think they are mainly an East Coast-Midwest-Southern type of dish. I tried Googling, and have found a couple answers: According to egullet.com, bread and butter pickles are named such because during the Depression, they were as regular a part of a diet as bread and butter.. Another answer was. Why are my pickles turning cloudy? Feingold Association of the United States. Was brought up on cuke sarnies as a child in England. Saveur may receive financial compensation for products purchased through this site. I call this recipe Granny’s Bread and Butter Pickles. The Little Gourmand has decided he likes them and asked me why they were called Bread & Butter pickles. I make these – A LOT. Sweet pickles use cinnamon, cloves, and allspice in a vinegar-sugar brine. Lisa, yes, roasted. Maybe I should give it another go. I do not think that cucumber sandwiches are served all over the country - but mainly in the parts where Anglos and the English settled. Note that Wiki also says that likely the recipe is much older.....and the only thing Wiki knows is what people tell it....not always correct information.If the story is true about the Fannings originating the name, It sure did spread fast without national advertising nor TV nor...facebook>From 1924 being patented by a family in Streator Illinois to being published as a recipe in a cookbook published in Boston Massachusettes in 18 years, seems improbable.I don't doubt they patented a recipe by that name, but I contend "Bread and butter pickles" was part of the vernacular describing a simple sliced sweet pickle, long before the Fannings got a patent. Which they seriously thought were nutritious. I tried to make some years ago, but they weren't very crunchy. I always buy their dills (better than any other I've found) and the B&B's are really good, too. Bread & Butter - Sweet, thinly-sliced pickles made from cucumbers, onions and chopped green or red peppers. What they had going for them, however, was a reliable crop of cucumbers and Mrs. Fanning's great recipe for sweet & sour pickle chips. They are a little sweet and a little sour. Never have! Tips for Canning Bread & Butter Pickles Roasted chestnuts and sliced b&b pickles? While folks back then served what they could grow- and cucumbers were easy to grow in many climates- still the produce outstripped the consumption. I love bread and butter pickles! I always have Bread and Butter Pickles on hand but never made a sandwich with just the Pickles . American Spirit. I take it that bread and butter were cheap and available at that time. Some restaurants did that, too, although I cannot recall ever hearing how they were named. 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. ANSWER 0 cinny ANSWERS: 1. Alexandria, Virginia. Bubbie's are sugary tasting and otherwise mild. DH grew up in Southern California, as did his parents, and grandparents. Promotes Digestion. Here is a link that might be useful: Cooks Info - bread and butter pickles. While similar pickles have been around for generations, the original recipe for bread and butter pickles is thought to have come from Omar and Cora Fanning. Combine cucumbers, onion, garlic, and peppers in a bowl, sprinkle kosher salt over the top and stir … The topmost one is cucumber with watercress butter. There's vinegar, but no acidic or even briny flavor, stands out, just a general mild pickle flavor and sweetness. A bread and butter pickle is to sweet pickles as Kendall Jenner is to the … Many products featured on this site were editorially chosen. The pickles are safe to eat. I think probably during the depression which was directly prior to the war. I was born & raised in California. I was trying to make them like Bubbies bread and butter pickles- they are so good and stay really crisp. The story attached to the nameis that the Fannings survived rough years by making the pickles with their surplus of undersized cucumbers and bartering them with their grocer for staples such as bread and butter. Anything else on the table? Really, pickles and chestnuts--that is very intetesting!