There comes a time when the summer squash plants produce more than you can handle. From what I have read, and have experienced, summer squash is the most given away homegrown veggie. While trying to figure out what to do with the abundance, I came across a blogger who said it can be substituted for cucumber in almost all recipes. My first thought was "That's dumb, I just ate it raw last week and thought my mouth was gonna turn inside out!". Well, maybe I will try anything but raw. Cucumber substitute...hmmm...Pickles! So I looked up a refrigerator pickle recipe and made squash pickles. I went ahead and pickled some peppers with the same simple recipe. They are delicious after just 2 hours in the fridge. What a great way to use up all of that extra squash.
The reviews I read influenced me to cut the sugar by 75%. Here is the way I made it.
In a sauce pot, add:
1 cup distilled white vinegar 5% acidity
1 tablespoon of table salt
1/2 cup of sugar(altered from 2 cups)
Boil approx. 10 min. Until salt & sugar have dissolved.
Cut the veggies and put in a sealable container:
6 cups of squash
1 cup of onion
1 cup pepper(Hungarian Wax for me)
Pour liquid over veggies(I had to make more brine to cover veggies), put lid on and refrigerate. Eat within 2 weeks. Taste after 2 hrs.
I use my passed prime giant 18" Forty Niner zucchini which turned out great. I crammed as much as I could in the jar so that it would use less brine to cover it. I think I will cut the sugar to 1/4 cup on the next batch I make.
