Making Bread and Butter Pickles

My kids love making pickles with me.  The easiest to make with them as a project are the Bread and Butter Pickles. These are milder pickles that can be made without being boiled and sealed so there is less danger to kids. There is no real hassle and there are plenty of recipes online for these pickles.

Bread and Butter Pickles are some of the most misunderstood of the pickles as they are often mistaken for their more garlicky and dill flavored look-alikes – the Dill Pickle. This is because dill pickles are also sold as coins, slices and half pickles. A major difference in terms of packaging is that a bread and butter pickle will rarely be sold whole like dill pickles are when you see them in the jars in the store.

The main characteristic of a bread and butter pickle is that it looks like a dill pickle but tastes more like a sweet pickle. However it is not as sweet as a true sweet pickle.  A true sweet pickle almost tastes like sugar. They can hurt your teeth. Bread and Butter pickles are a little healthier for the kids and easier to eat as far as I am concern.

Bread and butter pickles are the preference of people who don't like pickles with overpowering garlic or dill flavoring or a very sweet pickle. I know that my kids simply cannot stand any food that is way too garlicky and I don't blame them. Their taste buds have yet to develop.  Bread and butter pickles are neutral pickles and go great in sandwiches because taste-wise they do not steal the show.  You can put them in everything from a salmon salad to ham sandwich to a hamburger and their taste will not overpower what you are eating. You cannot necessarily say the same of the garlicky pickles.

In England it is very common to be served bread and butter pickles for high tea.  There is even such a thing as a bread and butter pickle tea sandwich. However bread and butter pickles go the best with a slice of mild cheese on white bread.

Use bread and butter pickles in any dish where you don't want the flavor of the pickle to overpower everything else. For instance, diced bread and butter pickles go better in tuna and chicken salad or even coleslaw.  Another reason I like them is that they are small and coin shaped. This means it is easy for a toddler to hold in his or her hand.  A toddler holding a full dill pickle can be a messy sight sometimes.

As bread and butter pickles are milder in taste then other types then they might also be easier on the sensitive taste buds of children.