14-Day Sweet Pickles — NCHFP
A tested NCHFP fourteen-day home-canning recipe for whole, sliced, or strip-style sweet pickles.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 4 lb pickling cucumbers 2 to 5 inches
- 3/4 cup canning or pickling salt divided among days 1, 3, and 5
- 2 tsp celery seed
- 2 tbsp mixed pickling spices
- 5 1/2 cups sugar divided
- 4 cups vinegar 5% acidity
Equipment
- Boiling-water canner
- Canning jars About five to nine pints
Directions
Instructions
- Day 1: Wash cucumbers; remove 1/16 inch from blossom ends. Place in a sanitized 1-gallon container. Boil 1/4 cup salt with 2 quarts water, pour over cucumbers, weight them under the brine, cover with a clean towel, and hold near 70°F.
- Days 3 and 5: Drain and discard brine, rinse cucumbers, sanitize the cover and weight, and repeat with 1/4 cup salt in 2 quarts fresh boiling water.
- Day 7: Drain, rinse, and sanitize. Slice or strip if desired. Tie celery seed and spices in a bag. Boil 2 cups sugar with 4 cups 5% vinegar and the spice bag; pour over cucumbers and weight under syrup.
- Days 8 through 13: Each day drain and save syrup and spice bag, add 1/2 cup sugar, boil, sanitize the container and weights, and pour syrup back over cucumbers.
- Day 14: Pack into sterile pints or clean quarts with 1/2-inch headspace. Add final 1/2 cup sugar to syrup, boil, remove spice bag, and cover pickles. Process pints 5/10/15 minutes or quarts 10/15/20 minutes for 0–1,000/1,001–6,000/above 6,000 ft.
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Recipe Notes
Safety status: research-tested NCHFP recipe. Maintain sanitation, about 70°F curing temperature, full fourteen-day schedule, and 5% vinegar. USDA revised 2015. Source accessed September 12, 2026.
Exact source: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/pickle/cucumber-pickles/14-day-sweet-pickles/