Sweet-and-sour bread and butter pickles — thin rounds of cucumber and onion canned in a turmeric-yellow, sugar-spiced brine. The sweet pickle of the church potato salad and the holiday relish tray.
Bread and butter pickles are a fixture of the Southern relish tray and a defining ingredient in Black church and family potato salad — chopped fine to bring the sweet-tangy note that makes the salad sing.
Bread and butter pickles carry the same turmeric and mustard-seed spicing that gives them their yellow color, and the vinegar brings acetic acid — but the brine is loaded with sugar, which is the honest catch. These are a sweet pickle, closer to a treat than the sour fermented kind, and they carry no live probiotics because they are vinegar-brined and usually heat-processed. Enjoy them for flavor in modest amounts; for everyday gut and blood-sugar benefit, a lacto-fermented sour pickle is the better choice. Cutting the sugar in a homemade batch helps considerably.
Salt thin-sliced cucumbers and onions to draw out water, rinse, then simmer briefly in a brine of vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, and turmeric. Pack hot into jars and water-bath process. Reducing the sugar and adding more spice keeps the character with less sweetness.
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