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Sliced Sweet Dills
Slice 1 can dill pickles, or about 8 dills from the grocery pickle barrel into 1/4-inch slices. Put into clean jars, dropping strips of pimiento between the layers of pickles. Boil together 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon mixed pickling spices. Pour it over the sliced dills and let stand a couple of days before using. If sealed while hot these pickles will keep a long time. Strain out the spices, if sealing hot.
This is a made-over pickle rather than a pickle made from scratch: it takes finished dills and re-steeps them in a hot sweet-sour syrup, which is why it sits on a shelf headed "The Company Shelf" alongside other things assembled from jars.
- How much pickleCanned dills came in a range of sizes; eight whole grocery dills give roughly 3 to 4 cups of quarter-inch slices, and you may need to pack them tightly, or make extra syrup, to get them covered. Buy the firmest whole dills you can find, since limp ones only get limper.
- PimientoCanned pimientos were a pantry staple in this period. Jarred roasted red peppers, drained and cut into narrow strips, are the same thing for this purpose; use two or three peppers' worth for color between the layers.
- Mixed pickling spiceStill sold under that name: mustard seed, coriander, allspice, dill seed, bay and a little chile in varying proportions. A teaspoon is enough for this quantity, and the recipe directs that the spices be strained out if you are sealing the jars hot.
- The syrupEqual cup-for-cup vinegar and sugar is deliberate, and it should reach a full boil so the sugar dissolves completely. Use a 5 percent cider or white vinegar; do not dilute it, since the acid is doing the preserving work.
- The hinge: pour it hotThe hot syrup is what drives sugar into the slices and pulls the dill brine out. Pack the jars first, then pour boiling syrup over so the slices are submerged, and press them down if they float.
- Standing timeThe recipe asks for a couple of days before using; the sweet-sour balance may go on evening out through the slices for somewhat longer than that.
- Storage, in place of the hot sealIgnore the promise about sealing while hot. Open-kettle sealing is no longer considered a sound method, and there is no need for it here: cover the jars, refrigerate, and eat within a month or so. Cold storage also keeps the slices crisper than a shelf would.
- Yield and servingEnough to fill roughly two to three pint jars, depending on how tightly the slices pack. They are meant as a relish tray or sandwich pickle rather than a side dish, so figure a small handful per person.
Sweetened dill slices go by many names in twentieth-century American cookery -- candied dills, sweet-hot pickles, sometimes "fourteen-day sweets" when made the long way from cucumbers -- and this version is the shortcut, built on pickles someone else already fermented or brined. That shortcut is the logic of a chapter called "The Company Shelf": a cook who wanted a bright relish tray on short notice could keep the components on hand and assemble rather than start with a crock of cucumbers in August. Canned pimientos were cheap, mild and reliably red, and recipes of the period often called for them as much for color as for flavor.