Pickles - 8-Day Pickles

1st Day - Select one peck of small cucumbers.  Wash well and cover with cold water.  Let stand 24 hours.  
2nd Day - Boil enough water to cover.  Add one cup of salt and stir well.  Let stand for 24 hours. 
3rd Day - Reheat the salt water from the pickles.  Pour boiling solution over the pickles and let stand 24 hours.  
4th Day - Drain salt water off.  Wash pickles in cold water.  Boil enough water to cover.  Add about 1/4 lb of Alum.  Leave this on pickles for 12 hours. 
5th Day - Drain solution from pickles.  Boil enough water to cover.  Add vinegar for a weak solution (about 1 gallon) and 3 Tbsp pickling spice (place in cheese cloth).  Let stand for 24 hours.  Reheat the weak vinegar solution for the next three mornings.  Pour boiling mixture over the pickles and let stand for 24 hours.
8th Day -   Drain cucumbers out of the solution.  Pack in jars.  Put the jars upside down to drain water out of pickles.  Add pickling solution.


Pickling Solution
2 1/2 lbs of sugar, vinegar  (enough to cover your pickles and Pickling Spice to suit your taste.  


The pickles will be better if the sugar solution is drained and then boiled and poured over the pickles in the jars for three succeeding days.  


These do not have to be canned.  You don't have the problems that you do with tomatoes and string beans which have to be processed in a hot water bat in order for the jars to seal.  These jars are not sealed, although some lids may stick to the top of the jar.