My late mother-in-law taught me how to make refrigerator pickles with celery seed, which makes advantage of the plentiful cucumber supply in the summer. Four 5-gallon buckets of cucumbers from a neighbor’s garden were just given to me, and I made pickles for the entire neighborhood with them. For two and a half to three weeks, the pickles will remain fresh in the refrigerator.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Servings: | 40 |
| Yield: | 8 to 10 cups |
Ingredients
- 7 cups cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 cup diced red onion
- 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
- 1 cup cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon celery seed
Instructions
- Mix together cucumbers and salt in a large bowl and let sit for 1 hour. Do not drain mixture.
- Add sugar, onion, bell pepper, vinegar, and celery seed to cucumber mixture in the bowl; mix well. Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator.
Reviews
I used rice vinegar and substituted carrots for the bell pepper. I loved the taste, vinegary with a sweetness that wasn’t overbearing. I’m a novice in the kitchen and this recipe was easy. The small complaint I have is the next day the cucumbers had zero crunch.
This is an excellent recipe. I love cider vinegar and used 1 Cup of white sugar. I used red onion hopefully it does not discolor my cucumbers. I also cut red,yellow peppers and carrots. Can not wait to share. It’s a keeper
I have made these pickles for years! My Grammy called them Ice Box Pickles. I have recently eliminated all sugar from my diet (keto), and decided to convert my old recipe using a small amount of granulated monk fruit sweetener and it was fab! We use it for a side salad and as a condiment all the time! I use the baby English Cukes that come in a bag, salt with a good sea salt or Himalayan Pink salt to sweat your cukes. Mix your Braggs apple cider vinegar, sweetener to taste until dissolved, and any other things you want to “garnish” your cukes with! I use a combo of: chopped garlic, whole mustard seeds, celery seeds, diced red bell pepper, chili flakes or a whole dried red chili, grated fresh or dried powdered turmeric, diced red onion, chopped fresh or dried dill weed.
We aren’t big on sweet stuff so we halved the sugar. Turned out great and we will be making again!
Update to my previous review: I do, definitely recommend you halve the sugar.
I was given a bunch of cucumbers from a friend’s garden and decided to use this recipe. I thought no way will they be ready by dinner time. Oh My ! They were delicious! I didn’t change the recipe at all. I only added white sweet onions to the mix. Yum and a half!
These were so very good. A little too sweet. I used red pepper instead. And i am doing less sugar next time. Great for salads.
These are great pickles! My whole family loves them! The only things I changed were, I used a whole sweet red pepper for color, Vidalia onion instead of red and I only used 1 1/4 cup of sugar. Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe!!
very yummy will make it again
I leave a little of the skin on the cukes (for texture), slice them to the thickness of a good bread & butter pickle and instead of dicing the onions and peppers, I slice them into thin strips. Awesome on burgers and sandwiches!! Note: be sure to first put the pickles into jars, and then distribute the liquid evenly.
Delicious! Absolutely what I was looking for and I hate pickles but I love these.
Very good, will make it again will use half the recommended amount of celery seeds
I made them just as written, and they are very good. So easy, and fast.
This is a very easy recipe to make. Much like what my mom used to make. I found though there was way too much salt and I did much less sugar as Instead of using white sugar I used cane sugar so maybe that made it more sweeter.
I love this simple, easy, delicious recipe and so does everyone with whom i’ve shared the end result! These are outstanding. I use the small cukes and have omitted the peppers when I lacked them to no detriment. Top ratings!
I made these but cut the sugar in half. Quick and easy ! Thank you for sharing.
Great concept, but definitely halve the sugar. I used a vidalia onion because that’s what I had on hand. I added a sliced salsa pepper for a little kick to balance the sweet.
I don’t like the flavor, salt was too much.
Used sweet peppers from my garden instead of bell pepper, turned out great
There should have been a warning in here somewhere that these are like bread&butter pickles. I followed other recommendations and used half the sugar but they’re still really sweet.
Made these according to recipe, very happy and will pass the recipe along..Thank you