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
Can you shed any light on why my pickles got soft? I had to double the recipe for tha ammont of cucmbers I had. I’m very sad, my garden only produced a small amount of very good cucmbers and now they are ruined.
Hi Lacy, I’m so sad for you too! I know how heartbreaking and discouraging that can be :-( I can think of a few reasons they might have gotten soft, but it’s hard to pinpoint without knowing exactly how the process went for you. Here are my off the top of my head thoughts.
1. Did they sit in boiling water longer than 2 hours?
2. Did they sit on the counter after they were cut for very long before they were soaked?
3. What type of tea did you use, was it black tea? This point is very important.
4. Did you use canning salt or another kind?
I hope I can help you get to the bottom of things! In the mean time, you can chop the pickles up for salsa (it’s delicious on tortilla chips!) or relish instead. I’m sorry that happened <3
Could you use a pressure canner instead of a hot water bath?
Hey Greg! There are two ways I could read your question and I’m not sure which you meant, so let me answer both!
1. Can you pressure can this recipe? I mean, technically yes, but I think the pickles would be complete mush, so I wouldn’t recommend it.
2. Can you use a pressure canner as a water bath canner? YES! Just fill with water and use as a water bath canner and don’t put the lid on during processing. I do this with all my water bath quart jars!
If that didn’t answer your question, let me know!
Can you use regular cucumbers or does it have to be pickling cucumbers
Hi Rhonda! Yes, you can and I have! I think the pickling cucumbers yield a more crisp finished product, but both are delicious :-)
Hi Victoria,
I live in Melbourne Australia and was faced with an abundance of cucumbers this Summer.
I love sweet gherkins but didn’t believe I could emulate the flavour.
I made a batch of sweet pickle spears last week following your recipe and they are amazing!
Thank you for sharing.
Oh I’m so glad! We love this recipe too and I’m SO happy to hear this worked as well for you! Enjoy!
This will be my first attempt at something like this. Do I boil the cucumbers for 2 hrs or pour boiling water on them and let them sit. 2nd, do I cover the jars in boiling water or how much water. Thank you.
Hi Scott! Congratulations on your first try! Let me help clarify these points for you:
1. Place slices cucumbers in a large bowl, pour boiling water into bowl with cucumbers, and let them soak in that boiling water for 2 hours.
2. For water bath canning the jars need to be completely covered by water when they are placed in the pot. At least 2″ of water is needed above the jars for proper canning temps and pressures to be reached. If you want to do quart jars, you will need a very tall stock pot, or a canning pot to achieve the 2″ of water above the quart jars.
Let me know if you have any other questions, and good luck!