Red Cinnamon Pickles Food

CHRISTMAS RED PICKLES

Steps:

• Peel cucumbers, halve lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Cut the cucumber into 1/4 inch half circles, and place into a glass or ceramic crock. Dissolve the pickling lime in about 1 quart of room temperature water, pour over the cucumbers, then add additional water until the cucumbers are covered by 1/2 inch. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours.
• Drain the cucumbers and rinse well with cold water. Place into a large stockpot, and cover with cold water. Allow to stand for 3 hours, then drain and rinse again.
• Return the cucumbers to the pot, add the food coloring, alum, 1 cup vinegar, and enough water to cover by 1/2 inch. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to a simmer, and cook 2 hours. Once the cucumbers have cooked for 2 hours, drain and allow to cool a bit before placing into the glass or ceramic jar.
• Stir together sugar, 2 cups vinegar, 2 cups water, cinnamon red hot candies, and cinnamon sticks in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar and candies dissolve. Pour this mixture over the warm cucumbers, cover, and let stand overnight.
• Pack pickles into pint jars, and process in a hot water bath for 15 to 20 minutes. Refrigerate any jars that do not seal.

RED HOT CINNAMON CUCUMBER PICKLES

Steps:

• Peel and seed cucumbers if using overripe or large cukes. If using small pickling cucumbers, peel and cut into 1/4" slices.
• Mix the pickling lime with a 3 or 4 cups of water in a very large bowl and stir. Add the cucumbers and add more water to cover them. This should be done in a glass or ceramic bowl as the lime can pit or etch some surfaces. Let stand for 24 hours. It's not necessary to refrigerate or stir the cucumbers during this process, even though some of the lime will settle to the bottom of the pan.
• Drain the cucumbers and thoroughly rinse them to remove as much of the lime solution as possible.
• Cover the cucumbers again with cold water, adding some ice to it. Let stand for about 3 hours.
• Drain the cucumbers and rinse well again. All of the lime needs to be removed from the cucumbers. Alternatively, you can drain, rinse, and cover your cucumbers with fresh water every hour for a total of 3 hours of soaking time. OR, you can eliminate the ice and do this overnight in the refrigerator.
• In a large pot, mix 1 tsp. red food coloring (optional, you will get a beautiful red color from the candies alone if you don't want to use food coloring), 1 cup white vinegar, and 3 or 4 cups of water and stir. Add the cucumbers and add more water to cover them.
• Bring the water to a simmer (not a boil) and simmer for 2 hours. Watch to make sure the water does not evaporate so much that you risk burning the cucumbers.
• 4. 1 hour before the end of the simmer time, make the Red Hot Cinnamon syrup by mixing 2 cups white vinegar, 2 cups water, 7 cups white sugar, 1 T salt and the 2 packages of Red Hot cinnamon candies.
• 5. Drain the cucumbers, pour the Red Hot Cinnamon syrup over them, and let them stand overnight.
• The following morning, heat the cucumbers and syrup to a simmer. The pickles will be a beautiful red color and will have a translucent quality to them, characteristic of pickles made with pickling lime.
• Pack them into hot pint size canning jars that have been sterilized leaving 1/4 inch of head space in each jar. Include a stick of whole cinnamon in each jar if desired.
• Cap with sterilized canning lids and rings. Process the jars of cucumber rings for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.

CINNAMON PICKLES

Steps:

• Prepare the cucumbers: peel, removed ends, core, and cut into rings or sticks.
• Combine water and lime.
• Soak prepared cucumbers in lime-water for 24 hours.
• Drain and wash 3 times in cold water.
• Cover with cold water and let sit for 3 hours.
• Combine alum, vinegar, 2 cups water, food coloring, sugar, cinnamon and red hots to make a syrup.
• Add drained cucumbers and simmer, covered, for 2 hours.
• Let stand overnight.
• Drain off syrup, reheat and pour over pickles daily for 3 days.
• Pack in hot jars and seal.