Sweet Hot Pickles

Total Time: 193 hrs Preparation Time: 192 hrs Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• 6 -7 cucumbers
• 4 cups cider vinegar
• 8 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons mixed pickling spices
• hot pepper (see *)

Recipe

• 1 scrub the cucumbers and put them in a crock or some other container and cover with boiling water.
• 2 let stand for 24 hours.
• 3 drain.
• 4 repeat this process for 3 more days.
• 5 (total of 4 days).
• 6 on the 5th day, remove the cucumbers, rinse well in cold water and cut them into chunks.
• 7 combine the vinegar, sugar, salt and the spices (tied in cheesecloth) and bring to a boil.
• 8 pour over the sliced cucumbers.
• 9 let stand 24 hours.
• 10 on the 6th day drain the syrup back into a saucepan, bring to a boil, (along with the spicebag) and pour again over the cucumbers.
• 11 let stand another 24 hours.
• 12 on the 7th day drain the syrup again, bring to boil and pour over the cucumbers.
• 13 on the 8th and final day, drain the syrup, bring to a boil.
• 14 put the pickles into hot sterilized pint jars along with a piece of hot pepper, and pour the boiling hot syrup over.
• 15 process in a boiling water bath for ten minutes.
• 16 *usecayenne peppers, or whatever fresh hot peppers you may have.
• 17 be careful though to not add too much, as pickles may be too hot.
• 18 these are also excellent without the hot peppers.