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…
(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:
- Sweet and Spicy Zucchini Refrigerator Pickles
- Quick & Easy Refrigerator Dill Pickles
- Dill Sandwich Pickles
Three years ago: Peach Crumble Pie
Four years ago: Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bars
Watch How to Make Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles:
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Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles
Ingredients
- 5½ cups (731.5 g) about 1½ pounds thinly sliced (about ¼-inch) pickling cucumbers
- 1½ tablespoons (1.5 tablespoons) kosher salt
- 1 cup (160 g) thinly sliced sweet onion
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (255 ml) white vinegar
- ½ cup (119.5 ml) apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup (55 g) light brown sugar
- 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) celery seeds
- ⅛ teaspoon (0.13 teaspoon) ground turmeric
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
- I do not recommend using this recipe for canning or long-term storage.
- The jars pictured in the post are Bormioli jars - love them!
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.
Love this recipe, quick, easy and the pickles are delicious!! Thanks for sharing..
I LOVE homemade pickles and these bread and butter pickle slices were super easy to make! They’ll be made again soon!
My first time ever making pickles of any kind. I was so surprised at how easy they were to make. I’m not a big fan of pickles of any kind but these are delicious! I only wish I would have had smaller cucumbers. Will be making these again for sure!
Try using English cucumbers next Time.
How long do they last in the fridge?
Easily a month or more. I’ve had
Them for a couple months. They
Stayed really good.
Great results. Easy. Simple.
Might I sub honey and coconut sugar?
Best refrigerated bread and butter pickle recipe by far! Do you have a recipe for a canned version of these?
This was my first experience making pickles. Let me just say they were amazing! My son has been eating them like candy. Thanks so much for the recipe!
I first used this recipe last year to make B&B jalapeños. Did everything the same except replaced cukes with the peppers. So good and a great variation on cowboy candy! I sliced the peppers about 1/4”. Just finished another batch moments ago. The peppers are no where near as hot as you’d expect. Thanks!
I just made six jars last night with an abundance of cukes I had from my garden. They look so good! Can’t wait to try them this evening!
I just made them and OHHHHHH MYYYY!!!!
THEY ARE DELICIOUS! Not vinagry at all!
They are amazing!!!
I don’t think they will last in the fridge at all!!
Thank you!!
This is a super easy recipe and the pickles are delicious!! For a spicy kick I added a fresh jalapeno from my garden. I placed this beautiful concoction in mason jars and gifted them to friends and coworkers. GREAT RECIPE!!!
Love quick and easy
Amazing flavor!
Just made these with homegrown cucs and onion. We like sweet and spicy so I added one of our Hungarian hot wax peppers (seeds and all!) thinly sliced when I added the onion. I was out of celery seeds so subbed fennel seeds and out of sugar so subbed 3/4C honey (I REALLY need a pantry restock!). They turned out SO GREAT!! I’ll be making another batch just as soon as the cucs ripen enough. Yummers.
Love, love this recipe, will definitely make them again.
Just made my second batch. I mistakenly left the final mixture on the counter top over night – forgot to put in refrigerator. Is that a problem?
Perfect balance. The sweetness is there, but it’s not syrupy sweet. A very clean taste if that makes sense. I reversed the amounts on the vinegars because I like AC vinegar, and I emptied my bottle of white vinegar and there was only half a cup. I used way more onion than called for as I didn’t measure, I just used a mandolin to thinly slice a whole sweet onion. Which is fine because if I don’t eat them all before I make a burger, I’ll just put pickles and pickled onions on the burger. Just great, simple and easy. Just those three spices were perfect. Thank you.
Absolutely perfect as is. I have made them numerous times now and everyone LOVES them. Crispy, tart, sweet…YUM!
I love these pickles! 4th time making them! Thank you for sharing!
These are awesome, so easy and crispy and delish, made some last week and making more today, perfect recipe, will always have homemade bread and butter in the fridge thank you for sharing
My family and friends love the Bread and butter pickles. We grow our own cucumbers and I enjoy making them the receipe is so easy.
I made these but added 3 Tbsp of pickling spice . Sooooo delish!!! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!!
My pickling cucumbers have started coming on heavy in my garden and I looked for recipe for B&B pickles. I found yours, made a couple of jars using your recipe exactly. I waited two days and popped one open for a taste….”OMG!” I love these pickles. Thank you so much for posting this recipe.
I used this recipe to make Sweet Hoagie Peppers, swapping out red and green bell peppers for the cucumbers. Phenomenal!
I also did a batch of Bread and Butter Giardiniera, as I dislike the texture of olive oil-based giardinieras. We’ll find out how those went in a few days.
I have been making bread & butter pickles for maybe 40+ years and have never added brown sugar
Right I was wondering about the brown sugar. Would that alter the taste or liquid consistency? I’ve always used white sugar to.
Hi, the brine is coming to a boil on my stove now. I’m just curious as to why there is no water in the brine solution. I’ve never made refrigerator bread and butter pickles before, however I’ve made refrigerator dill pickles often, and there is water in the brine along with the vinegar.
These pickles are perfect as is. I don’t know why people have to start mucking about with the recipe. It’s easy, quick to make and tastes amazing. Yeah, you can substitute ingredients if you want, but WHY? And if you do, why tell us about it?
I Love it when people share if their alterations worked well or not. sometimes i’m out of an item or need to reduce sugar for health reasons or whatever and it helps to see if someone has tried it and how it work.
what i don’t like is when people alter a recipe and give it a bad rating cause its not the actual recipe they’re rating.
How long can you keep in fridge?
Just made these….WOW!! We love them. When I went to add the apple cider vinegar…it was bad. So I added white balsamic in its place!! Tastes great!!
Hi
I am looking to try these can I omit the brown sugar.
Love these pickles. Made them twice and both times my pickles shriveled. Does any one know why this happens? Followed recipe as written
I was wondering why you suggest not to can this recipe? We so love these that we would like to preserve them to last us thru the winter. Such an awesome recipe! We just love them & so does everyone I give them out to!
I wonder if the measurements of ingredients in this recipe are not safe for canning. That could be why she states it in the recipe. I would love to can these for winter and wonder if anyone knows what it needs in order to be safe.
I added 3 taps of ground cloves. It turned out delicious. Great recipe!!
I made these yesterday afternoon and couldn’t even wait the 24 hours to try them. They are delicious! More tangy than most sweet bread and butter pickles and very crisp!! They’ll be amazing on hamburgers. The onions are delicious too!
I wish we could access pickling cucumbers year-round so I could always have a jar of these on hand. I’ll have to can some as well but they won’t be the same! (I used 10% vinegar which may have added some tang).
PS. I used 10% acetic acid vinegar so that may be why mine are a little tart – but I love it!
Can these be stored in Tupperware or other plastic containers instead of glass jars
I have just discovered this recipe and I was wondering how long would these last in the fridge before you have to throw them out, provided there are any left.
Thank you
The recipe states 1 month in the fridge.
The recipe looks great, and I intend to try it this week, however, I wanted to write a review to address a recurring problem, Nutritional counts are not of any real value unless a serving size is indicated. Is the recipe 300 calories for the whole batch or for an undisclosed number of grams or ounces of pickles?
Right above the nutritional value box it states that the value is based on 1 cup in juice
I was given 6lbs of cucumbers, what to do, so I went to your website, the best pickles ever, maybe the bread an butter, Next I want to make garlic and dill, yummmm.
I really LOVE this recipe. I come back here to get it every summer when the cucumbers are ready to harvest. Good job girl!!
Actually, these are quite good! (I was prepared to be disappointed, as I’ve always done the traditional type canning.) For some reason, yellow mustard seeds were sold out in both my local grocery stores, so I substituted brown mustard seeds. I also used half light & half dark brown sugar. Very tasty!
I used to buy a particular brand of B&B pickles that I thought were crisper than most, they don’t hold a candle to these. I love the flavor and crunch!! (I confess that I typically use splenda rather than sugar to minimize the carbs, and they are delicious!)
I’m trying to see reviews about long term storage of these outstanding b&b pickles.
Thank you so much MICHELLE for provide a Refrigerator bread idea. It’s very healthy for us and looks delicious. I love your blogs, Now I make this refrigerator bread at home. It’s all credit goes to you. Again, thank you for share your beautiful ideas. I hope you will soon provide some more ideas.
These are wonderful! We no longer buy bread and butter pickles!
Thank you for sharing the recipe!
These are amazing. This is my third batch! ❤️
How long do they last in the refrigerator ?
Hi Jeff, About 1 month.
We love this recipe! I did change it a little; I do not salt or soak the cucumbers and onions. The results I get are still fantastic, (and no salt.) I’ve also used your recipe to pickle dried pineapple, mango, papaya, and even avocado. I think we eat these pickled creations every day; so good! Thank you.
Made a bunch of these last year,put them in small tupper ware containers and into freezer,had pickles all winter
Just like fresh, will be making a lot more this yr. thanks
You can also use canning jars to freeze in. I don’t fill to the top for expansion, have not used them to freeze pickles but freeze baked beans in them
I will say the pickles don’t taste anything like the bread & butter pickles you buy in the store.
That’s a good thing! Many store-bought foods are full of chemical additives, fillers, and dyes. These are natural and delicious.
Good and full description, thanks for such extensive material. It will definitely come in handy and I will share it with my friends, thanks
Perfect! I have made these many times. Too many to count. Reliably good, even if I mistakenly alter white/apple cider vinegar ratio. Used different cucumber varieties, they all turn out great. I usually use onion, but shallots are excellent also. I also add whole coriander, just a preference in our house. They are amazing! Not for canning! (But they won’t last long, gobbled up so fast!)