Home > Recipes by Category > Condiments & Sauces > Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles
Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles
A wonderful, simple recipe for homemade refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles. No canning equipment required! Just prepare and pop in the fridge!
About five years ago, I vowed to spend the summer learning how to can and had grand plans to can ALL THE THINGS. I bought a book, read it, and had a list of recipes I wanted to try. Then I blinked, and summer was almost over. Oops. Then I saw this recipe for refrigerator bread and butter pickles, and I was immediately drawn to it because there was no canning equipment required. You could make these pickles in just about no time and pop them straight in the refrigerator. Score!
Bread and butter pickles have always been my absolute favorite sandwich pickle. A dill spear is great on the side of a burger for munching on, but give me bread and butter pickles on a big sandwich any day. They’re a little sweet and little zesty and with a kick. Love them!
You start out with beautiful little pickling cucumbers…
MY OTHER RECIPES (If you have especially small regular cucumbers, you could use those, as well!)
You’ll slice up the cucumbers into pretty little pieces, about ¼-inch thick (you don’t want them to be super thin). I found this little wavy slicer thing (a very technical term) at the checkout in Bed Bath & Beyond about 10 years ago. I can’t find it on their website anymore, but I did locate it on Amazon, if you want the cute fancypants crinkle cut (which I happen to love).
Otherwise, just grab your favorite knife or a mandoline and slice away!
Once the cucumbers are all sliced up, you sprinkle them with salt, toss to combine, cover the bowl and pop them in the refrigerator for about an hour and a half.
After that hour, you rinse the cucumbers with cold water, drain, and then toss together with the thinly sliced onion.
Set those aside and get your pickling concoction together. You’ll combine white vinegar, cider vinegar, white sugar, brown sugar, mustard seed, celery seed and ground turmeric in a saucepan and get it to a simmer, making sure the sugar dissolves.
Once you reach that point, pour the liquid over the cucumbers and onions and let it sit at room temperature for about an hour.
That’s it! You’re done! Transfer the pickle and onion mixture (including the liquid) into the container you wish to store them in (I love these jars – they’re the perfect size!) and pop them in the refrigerator. After about 24 hours you will have absolutely delicious pickles!
I just made this recipe again last week with pickling cucumbers from my father-in-law’s garden, and they are delicious as always!
If You Like This Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe, Try These:
Three years ago: Peach Crumble Pie
Four years ago: Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bars
Watch How to Make Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles:
Did you make this recipe?
A wonderful, simple recipe for homemade refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles. No canning equipment required! Just prepare and pop in the fridge!
Combine cucumbers and salt in a large, shallow bowl; cover and chill 1½ hours. Move cucumbers into a colander and rinse thoroughly under cold water. Drain well, and return cucumbers to bowl. Add onion to the bowl and toss with the cucumbers.
Combine the granulated sugar, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, mustard seeds, celery seeds and ground turmeric in a medium saucepan; bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
Pour the hot vinegar mixture over cucumber mixture; let stand at room temperature 1 hour. Cover and refrigerate 24 hours. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator up to 1 month.
- I do not recommend using this recipe for canning or long-term storage.
- The jars pictured in the post are Bormioli jars - love them!
Nutritional values are based on one cup in juice
Calories: 308kcal
Sodium: 2629mg
Potassium: 347mg
Carbohydrates: 71g
Fiber: 2g
Sugar: 67g
Protein: 1g
Vitamin A: 2.6%
Vitamin C: 10.7%
Calcium: 5.7%
Iron: 4.8%
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
This recipe was originally published on August 25, 2011.
I love these pickles! My mom used to make them all the time when I was growing up. This summer did go way too fast, we all need another month so we can get that list of things to do finished off!
Do you have a good one for mustard pickles??
These pickles look so good. They seem so easy to make too. Love the pictures…now I’m craving them.
These look really good. I just made a few jars of them last weekend. Canning is such a rewarding thing to learn how to do! It’s hard because it’s so hot in the summer, but totally worth it when you can have fresh fruits and veggies all winter long!
Not a big fan of bread and butter pickles but my family loves them so i will definitely try making these! I also love the jars, I bought mine at IKEA!
I never knew that pickles were so easy to make!
Just curious – what book did you get about canning? I’m interested in learning to can as well.
Hi Danielle, I bought the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
My hubby got me that one for my birthday, and it’s wonderful. I hope you love it! :)
Also, I just tried these pickles; they’re so good! Thanks for the recipe!
I like all the onion flavoring in there.
I love the jars you are using..where did you find them?
Hi Jessica, Thank you! If you scroll back up, I provide a link to the jars at the end of the post. I bought them on Amazon.
Why do you say you would not can these pickles? I have made one like this with regular sugar and canned them they are really good and last a lot longer
Amazing! I swear I could smell them while reading this post, and I had to stop and look around. Then I realized it was flowers. I make no sense.
How funny! I just made these pickles yesterday! I’m excited to taste them later this evening to see how they turned out! I made about 5 1/2 quarts of pickles and a pint of banana peppers, so there’s plenty to share!
how did you do the banana peppers..I have tons of them…..thanks
It seems a lifetime ago but when my children were young and we lived in North Carolina we had some property and a huge garden. We grew everything imaginable including our own pickles for canning. I tried several varieties. I never made a kosher style dill pickle that was worth the trouble but I loved sweet baby gherkins and my most favorite of all were the bread and butter pickles. Your photo took me back to my friend Jan and I in the kitchen canning all day long with our four little girls running around giggling thinking they were helping.
Still love these pickles…love the memory even more.
Love the idea of making these from scratch – I love them on sandwiches. Have you tried making radish pickles? They’re my current fave.
Bread & butter pickles are my favorite kind. My aunt used to make many jars of them every year – she sliced the cucs with an electric meat slicer. I was excited to see a no-canning recipe, but as a household of one, I couldn’t finish off a whole recipe in two weeks. Guess they’d make nice gifts. Off to look for little cucs.
So fast and easy—I can’t believe it. And they really do look great. I also love the jars, and thanks for the link. I make granola a lot and want to send some to daughters at college, etc. These jars would be perfect.
I did the SAME thing in regards to canning. Boo. But I DO want to make pickles really, really badly. Yours look so beautiful!! And there’s always next year for more :)
These look amazing. I may have to go cucumber hunting this weekend!
I’ve purchased similar jars at World Market.
This is such a nice recipe. I looooove these pickles!
I am in love with that fancy pants crinkle cut too! They look so gourmet. The thing that surprises me most about this recipe is the tumeric! I never would have thought…
how long do these pickles last in the frig?
They last about a week in the fridge but you’ll eat them before then!
Ohhh, yummy. I have a very similar recipe I just call Refrigerator Pickles, and believe me they never last long. I love small batch canning and preserving and i really enjoyed your photos of this pickle session. Can’t wait to see what other recipes pique your interest.