Red Hot Cinnamon Cucumber Pickles

Step 1

Peel and seed cucumbers if using overripe or large cukes.  If using small pickling cucumbers, peel and cut into 1/4" slices.

Step 2

Mix the pickling lime with a 3 or 4 cups of water in a very large bowl and stir. Add the cucumbers and add more water to cover them. This should be done in a glass or ceramic bowl as the lime can pit or etch some surfaces. Let stand for 24 hours. It's not necessary to refrigerate or stir the cucumbers during this process, even though some of the lime will settle to the bottom of the pan.

Step 3

Drain the cucumbers and thoroughly rinse them to remove as much of the lime solution as possible.

Step 4

Cover the cucumbers again with cold water, adding some ice to it. Let stand for about 3 hours.

Step 5

Drain the cucumbers and rinse well again. All of the lime needs to be removed from the cucumbers. Alternatively, you can drain, rinse, and cover your cucumbers with fresh water every hour for a total of 3 hours of soaking time.  OR, you can eliminate the ice and do this overnight in the refrigerator.

Step 6

In a large pot, mix 1 tsp. red food coloring (optional, you will get a beautiful red color from the candies alone if you don't want to use food coloring), 1 cup white vinegar, and 3 or 4 cups of water and stir. Add the cucumbers and add more water to cover them.

Step 7

Bring the water to a simmer (not a boil) and simmer for 2 hours.  Watch to make sure the water does not evaporate so much that you risk burning the cucumbers.

Step 8

1 hour before the end of the simmer time, make the Red Hot Cinnamon syrup by mixing 2 cups white vinegar, 2 cups water, 7 cups white sugar, 1 T salt and the 2 packages of Red Hot cinnamon candies.

Step 9

Drain the cucumbers, pour the Red Hot Cinnamon syrup over them, and let them stand overnight.

Step 10

The following morning, heat the cucumbers and syrup to a simmer. The pickles will be a beautiful red color and will have a translucent quality to them, characteristic of pickles made with pickling lime.

Step 11

Pack them into hot pint size canning jars that have been sterilized leaving 1/4 inch of head space in each jar.  Include a stick of whole cinnamon in each jar if desired.

Step 12

Cap with sterilized canning lids and rings. Process the jars of cucumber rings for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.