Crisp Sweet pickles or "Polly's Pickles"

Fill a two gallon container with sliced cucumber pickles ( not too thin). Add 1 pint of salt to 1 gallon boiling water. Pour over the cucumbers and let stand for 5 days.
6th day- Drain off salt water and cover with boiling water. Let stand 24 hours.
7th day- Drain,cover with boiling water and 1Tbl. Alum, 8c vinegar, 16c sugar, 1/2c pickling spice.
9th day, 10th and 11th day- Drain syrup- bring it to a boil and pour over pickles again. Do this every day.
12th day- put pickles in jars. It is not necessary to heat before canning, ot to seal jars air tight. Do NOT heat cucumbers or seal or they will get soft.
Makes about6 quarts.
MArlene Mkea33@aol.com

You will need some kind of crock (glass or glazed pottery)-- I bought a couple at Walmart year before last - they are clear glass (2 gallons each) with glass lids, sort of like the glass jars they used to have candy in at old timey general stores. Don't know if they still have them.

Anyway this is the recipe.

Lay crock on its side and pack cucumbers in as tightly as possible. (This recipe is not exact. I have tweaked it some with regard to quantities though, and it still works out fine.) These are the quantities I used for one - 2 gallon crock.

Day 1 -
Dissolve 2 cups of salt in 1 gallon of boiling water. Pour over cucumbers and let stand 24 hours.

Day 2 -

Dissolve 1 to 1 1/2 jars of powdered alum (the recipe is old and says a box of alum-- don't think it comes that way anymore - 1 used 1 and 1/2 containers - which were 1.9 ozs. each for the 2 gallon crock of pickles.

Day 3 -
Drain cukes. Pour fresh boiling water over cucumbers and let stand 24 hours.

Day 4 -
Drain. Boil together 1 gal. vinegar and about 1 oz. of pickling spice ( put spices in cheescloth or old clean handkerchief and tie up)-- put in pot with vinegar. After you pour the vinegar over the pickles, put the bag of spices in the top of the crock with the cucumbers.

let stand for 9 DAYS.

After 9 days - Drain cucumbers and slice crosswise. Put a layer of cucumbers and a layer of sugar in large plastic bowls or some type of non-reactive container. Use plenty of sugar so you have enough syrup to cover the cucumbers when you pack them in jars. (I think about 5-7+ lbs. for the 2 gallon crock.) Let the sugar melt and then fill clean jars. (qts. or pints) No need to process. These keep very well for a couple of years in a dark dry place.

The amount of pickles you have depends on the size and quantity of cucumbers. But like I said I'm doing a 2 gallon crock and I expect to have probably about 5-7 qts. of pickles.

For potato salad, chicken salad, etc. these are the absolute best. Make sure to chill before using.

Please excuse the approximate quantities. This is a very old recipe, but I've never had a bad pickle.

I will be glad to answer any questions.