When it comes to junk food or the snacks I flock to, I tend not to discriminate. Depending on my mood, I could eat tortilla chips with salsa, cupcakes, or even a bowl of Cocoa Krispies and have satisfied a general craving for a treat. I’m an equal opportunity player when it comes to indulgences of the sweet, savory, and even spicy variety. One particular item which covers each of those criteria is pickles. For most people, cucumber slices soaked in a salty, vinegar solution may not be the most obvious snack but I, for one, can’t leave a jar alone once it’s opened.

Growing up, my grandmom and pop-pop usually had a jar in the fridge and, more often than not, they were bread and butter slices. Perhaps my impression of them as a snack food stems from the fact that I always snuck a few from the jar each time I went into the kitchen, and more often than not I skipped grabbing them with a fork and used my own chubby fingers. My sneaky behavior continues into my adulthood, as I casually snag the accompanying pickle spears off plates when my friends order a burger or sandwich. During the winter holiday season, my mom knows to buy two jars of sweet gherkins for our parties: one for the display platter and one just for me.

Saveur magazine’s website has a library of pickle recipes that go beyond the cucumber. From cabbage and tomatoes to blueberries and watermelon, the list includes interesting recipes from almost every food group (there’s even one for pickled Dungeness crab). After I saw the link to an old favorite, though, I wasn’t interested in experimenting with the more obscure pickling practices.

Bread and Butter Pickles

Adapted from Saveur magazine

• 1 ½ large cucumbers, thickly sliced
• ½ small yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 3 shallots, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup kosher salt
• 1 ½ cups white wine vinegar
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. mustard seeds
• 2 tsp. celery seeds
• ½ tsp. ground turmeric

Put cucumbers, onions, shallots and salt into a large bowl and toss well. Add 3 cups ice cubes, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. Drain cucumbers and onions well, discarding the salty water; set aside. Put vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, and turmeric into a large pot. Stir well, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the cucumber mixture and stir well. Allow liquid to return just to a boil, and then remove pot from heat. Transfer pickles and their liquid to a large, clean plastic container. Set aside to let cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate overnight. Serve pickles the next day or store for up to 1 week.

My first long-anticipated pickle slice was like a time-travel tool that took me back to being a kid; these salty, sweet and sour bread and butter pickles surpass the taste a store-bought, jarred version offers. The first integral step of creating pickles, soaking them in the salt solution, infuses the actual cucumber slices with the briny flavor. White wine vinegar is a great choice for this type of pickle, as it is a little softer than white vinegar and its sweetness is amplified with the sugar when the mixture comes to the boil. While the celery and mustard seeds impart their flavors in an obvious manner on the sweet vinegar mixture, the turmeric (which is common in Indian cooking) simply tints the liquid with its yellow hue.

It is challenging to hold back from digging in at the very moment the pickles come together, but cooling them overnight in the refrigerator makes it worthwhile; it’s that much more time for the cucumbers to bathe in the solution and truly transform into bread and butter pickles. Once they were ready to be eaten, I paired them with a sandwich and couldn’t have been happier. Except for the many times I traveled to the kitchen and took two or three from the container with my fingers. That’s when I truly felt like a kid again.

Casey Ann is a local foodie and blogger. Check out her recipes and reviews at www.cleanpl8.com.