Author: Wondering how to make crispy, rich, and delicious sweet pickles for canning? If you’ve never tried canning pickles before, you may be surprised how delicious sweet pickle spears can be in this sweet and spicy recipe!
This recipe was an instant winner for us and I bet that once you taste it, you’ll be adding this sweet pickle recipe to your personal collection too!
We love sweet pickles around here. They were a classic snack around my house growing up and we also enjoyed them in mom’s hearty homemade chicken salad!
About 10 years ago we stopped buying our sweet pickles from the store and started canning sweet pickles at home with this sweet pickle recipe that creates perfectly crisp sweet pickles!
Fortunately, our Back to Eden garden has given us about 400 pounds (no, seriously) of cucumbers in the last 4 weeks and is still going strong!
This is just one day worth of cucumbers… we get this many every day!
While most are going to the chickens at this point, I’m still canning pickles at an alarming rate!
We have dill spears, of course, hamburger dill slices, and sweet gherkins. All sitting pretty on the shelves and waiting to be devoured later in the year…
But with the number of sweet gherkins we go through in a year, I really wanted to up the number of sweet pickles we had in the pantry without having to wait for more tiny cucumbers to be produced.
In fact, it’s been kind of tricky to catch the cucumbers at the right stage, since they seem to grow from minuscule to ginormous in less than 24 hours!
So I set out to create a great sweet pickle spears recipe that could be used on bigger cucumbers to achieve that same sweet gherkin flavor and texture. Much to my surprise, I hit the jackpot on the first try!
Note: This recipe uses approved vinegar levels for canning pickles and only changes seasonings.
Sweet Pickle Recipe
Whether you have large or small cucumbers, this sweet pickle recipe is just the thing to use them up without having to undergo the 4 day process of making sweet gherkins!
In fact, from start to finish this recipe takes about 3 hours of total time, and less than 20 minutes of hands on time!
Another thing I really like about this recipe is that you get nice crisp sweet pickles regardless of how you slice them! I like spears, but my mom likes slices… and this sweet pickle recipe is perfect for either style!
In depth water bath canning instructions can be found in my Quick Start Guide to Water Bath Canning, and nothing changes for this delicious sweet pickles recipe except the ingredients ;-)
How to Make Crisp Sweet Pickles
If you’ve ever tried canning pickles before, you may have have a soggy finished product. That’s because the recipe likely didn’t call for any tannin ingredient!
Tannin helps the pickles stay nice and crisp even through the extended heating process.
In the past, people used grape leaves, but I prefer black tea. I love the flavor that it yields and it works perfectly for keeping the pickles crisp!
So, while I might see odd that my recipe calls for black tea, this keeps the pickles crisp through the canning process!
Just be sure to rip the bag open and pour the loose leaves into the jar – you don’t want any packaging, staples, or tags in with your sweet pickles!
Canning Sweet Pickle Spears
Ingredients
- 4 Quart Jars, with Rings and Lid Sets
- 4 pounds cucumbers cut in 6 inch spears, or sliced
- 4 cups sugar
- 3 3/4 cup white vinegar
- 3 Tbsp canning salt
- 4 cinnamon stick 3-4" long
- 4 tsp whole cloves
- 2 tsp fresh ginger sliced or diced
- 4 organic black tea bags (**See notes) I like to use English Breakfast
Instructions
- Cover spears with boiling water and let stand 2 hours. Drain. (***See notes)
- Combine sugar, salt, and vinegar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- In hot wide mouth quart jars, place 1 cinnamon stick, 1 tsp whole cloves, 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, and the contents of 1 tea bag (don't include any of the packaging!).
- Pack spears into hot jars and ladle sugar/vinegar over them, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
- Remove bubbles and wipe the rim of the jar to ensure a good seal.
- Adjust lid and ring to finger-tightness, process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
- Remove carefully from boiling water bath and place on a towel on the counter (this reduces the change of glass breakage).
- Allow to sit overnight before moving. Check seals in the morning and refrigerate anything that didn't fully seal.
Notes
PIN THIS FOR LATER
I find the taste of cloves (and allspice as well) a bit overwhelming. Would it be possible to reduce to 1\2 tsp per liter (quart)?
Hi Luc! Yes, the spices can be adjusted to personal preference without causing issues for the overall recipe safety! Enjoy!
How long should we wait before eating the pickles
Hi max! This is a no wait recipe, so as soon as the jars are cool, you can pop them open and enjoy! I like to chill one in the fridge first though, but that’s up to you!
Is it ok to use apple cider vinegar instead of white?
Hi Janet! As long as the acidity is at least 5% on the ACV, then you can! I can’t comment on how the taste would be, because the two vinegars do not taste the same… so I’m not sure how it would turn out!
Hello! I just found your recipe and was wondering about making certain alterations to it…
Could I use ground Cinnamon & Ginger vs sticks/fresh?
If so, how much of each should I add per jar?
Thanks!
Hi Emily! You can use ground instead – I would look up the conversion for ground versus fresh (I don’t have that info off the top of my head). However, just be aware that the liquid is going to be more “muddy” instead of clear with the whole spices :-)
Thank you Victoria!
You’re welcome!
Victoria! Wow, oh wow, WOW! This pickle recipe is AMAZING! I hate pickles. And now I love them thanks to you!
I did a taste test of the pickles I made, including your recipe, I would love it if you would check it out =)
https://youtu.be/YCZjhnTOYdM
Aww! Loved the video! Thanks for sharing and I’m glad you loved them!!
I was wondering if I slice the large cucumbers instead of having spears, should I skip the boiling water step or do it the same way. I was reading all the comments and in one post you said you hadn’t made this as slices, but at the beginning in the recipe you say your mother prefers slices, in a later post you mention that perhaps the boiling water step should not be done for the slices, so now I’m confused., I want to make these today and I prefer to do slices, so should I ( or should I not) pour boiling water over the slices and leave for 2 hours? Would it be to any advantage to just leave in the water for one hour since the slices are smaller then spears? Thanks. I have a bag of field cucumbers to use up.
Hi Irene! Sorry for the confusion! The comments came much earlier than my updates to the post – skip the boiling if you’re using slices. Enjoy!
Thank you, I did do the boiling water step, because I was using older cucumbers and the skin was tougher. They are fine. Thanks for all your help,
Ok great! Glad it worked out well!