Sweet Mustard Pickles
These Sweet Mustard Pickles are an incredibly accurate replica of a retail-available East Coast Canadian Favourite... "Obsession", even!
Today’s post is a bit different from... well, everything I’ve ever posted on this blog.
It’s a recipe that I find SO violently offensive, I gag at the photos we took of it. I’m not even exaggerating.
Now, I am not a picky eater, and my tastebuds don’t offend easily.
I love haggis!
I routinely cook with chicken livers or hearts!
I make amazing chicken stock with chicken feet (I don’t let hubby see them, as HE gets grossed out!).
But sweet pickles? Just sweet pickles in general?
Instant gag reflex.
I have to ask “sweet or not?” whenever I order a burger, a sneak-sweet-pickling will end badly. Just an instant reject, before I even have a chance to realize what happened!
... and that goes at LEAST double for sweet mustard pickles... which are in a thick, starchy sauce.
Sweet Mustard Pickles
When I was living in Newfoundland, sweet mustard pickles were a BIG DEAL.
They were everywhere, and seemed to be served with everything. Jigg’s dinner, moose, rabbit, burgers, etc.
Newfoundlanders are SERIOUS about their mustard pickles.
In 2016, the main brand available on the island was discontinued, and people lost their minds. It was referred to as "the great pickle crisis" - people rushed to grocers and bought up all they had.
Social media was flooded with photos of empty store shelves, there were mustard pickle scalpers - no, I’m not making this up! - and more.
They are SUCH a cultural standard out there, that they HAD to be included in More Than Poutine.
As you may know, More Than Poutine: Favourite Foods from my Home and Native Land was written while I was living in the US, and was partially intended as a love letter not only to my country, but specifically to expats.
I knew how hard it was to access some Canadian favourites, and I knew how soul-lifting that access to those comfort foods could be, when living away.
... and I knew how much East Coasters loved these pickles.
The Recipe Development Adventure
My ability to replicate by taste came in handy when writing More Than Poutine, and the development of most of the book was an absolute pleasure.
... MOST.
Let me tell you... cloning something that you can't even keep in your mouth due to reflexes is an *adventure*! There were tears, LOL.
It was the first and only time I’ve ever had to reproduce a food that I can’t stand. I remember sitting at my desk with a bottle of the source material, messaging a friend for the fortitude to just OPEN the jar.
I’d been stalling on working on that recipe, but had one of my problem-solving dreams (nightmare?) the night before, wherein I figured out how I would replicate the texture (*hurk*) and all.
... I woke up thinking I had the taste in my mouth. UGH. It was obviously time to just do it.
There were tears involved - Autistic food aversion is a big deal! - but in the end, I nailed it... and made some local Newfoundlander friends VERY happy.
I was so happy to have friends willing to snap these up, I couldn't even look at them!
One ALSO cried when she tried them, though for an entirely different reason, LOL. She declared herself willing to take any and all future jars of sweet mustard pickles off my hands, right on the spot!
No matter my own personal feelings on these pickles, I always love helping people access foods they love, like this.
I hope this hasn’t come off like “Yucking someone else’s yum”, I just find the whole experience to have been hilarious!
Homemade Sweet Mustard Pickles
I designed this recipe to be very similar to that original mustard pickle, the one that was involved in the Great Pickle Crisis.
Homemade mustard pickles generally use flour, whereas the store-bought source material uses corn starch.
Neither is actually recommended for home canning, for various reasons - both safety and performance.
So, I used a product called "Clear Jel", as I don't want anyone getting botulism! It’s a type of specially refined corn starch, specifically designed for this purpose.
I’ve been informed that the onions - or cauliflower - are “THE BEST” part of these pickles... though the opinion obviously varies based on who’s giving it!
If you really love your onions or cauliflower in this, feel free to tinker with the ratios of the veggies - just aim for approximately the same final volume!
For the MOST authentic sweet mustard pickles, you'll want to use a wavy cutter for slicing the cucumbers.
Mine was part of a ~15 year old food garnishing set, but there are a lot of options out there.
This recipe is one of many fantastic Canadian recipes in my cookbook, "More Than Poutine: Favourite Foods from my Home and Native Land”. "More than Poutine" is a Canadian cookbook like no other - written by a Canadian living away, it includes both traditional home cooking recipes, as well as accurate homemade versions of many of the snacks, sauces, convenience foods, and other food items that are hard to come by outside of Canada! Order your copy here on this site, through Amazon, or through any major bookseller!
Share the Love!
Before you chow down, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you Instagram it, be sure to tag me - @CelebrationGenerationCA - or post it to My Facebook Page - so I can cheer you on!
Also, be sure to subscribe to my free monthly email newsletter, so you never miss out on any of my nonsense.
Well, the published nonsense, anyway!
Anyway, after that *glowing* review of mine... let’s get to that Sweet Mustard Pickles recipe, eh?
Just, you know, fair warning: If you're not into sweet pickles, steer clear of this recipe!
Sweet Mustard Pickles
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 Fresh cauliflower head
- 3 Lbs Pickling cucumbers
- 1 lb Pearl onions
- 6 cups White vinegar
- 3 cups Water
- 3 ⅔ cups Granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoon Pickling salt
- 6 tablespoon Mustard powder
- 1 tablespoon Turmeric powder
- 2 tablespoon Pickling spice
- ⅔ cup Clear Jel
Instructions
- Wash all vegetables. Cut cauliflower into bite sized florets, peel the cocktail onions, and slice cucumbers into ¾-1" thick slices. If you have a wavy slicer, feel free to use that for authenticity!
- Fill your LARGE pot with at least 6" of water, put on medium or high heat to bring it to a boil as you prepare your brine.
- In another pot (NOT the canning pot!), combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt, mustard powder, and turmeric. Bring to a boil, stirring well to dissolve the salt.
- As brine is coming to a boil, cut two large squares from the cheesecloth, stack on top of each other. Measure the pickling spice into the center of the cheesecloth, draw edges of cloth in to enclose the spices, tie into a tight little package with the twine.
- Once brine comes to a boil, add spice package and boil for 10-15 minutes, to taste.
- Once it tastes right to you, remove the spice packet. Add vegetables, stir well, and boil for 10 minutes.
- Remove a little of the brine, mix Clear Jel into it until smooth. Add a little more brine if necessary to get it to a pourable consistency, add it all back into the pot and stir well. Boil for 5 more minutes.
- After 5 minutes, turn the heat off.
- Use a sterilized canning funnel and sterilized ladle to scoop pickles and sauce into sterilized canning jars, leaving about ½" head space.
- Wipe off the top edges of the jar with a clean, wet towel, top each with a new, sterilized lid, and carefully screw on a clean lid ring. I like to use a kitchen towel for this, the jars are HOT!
- Carefully place your jars of pickles into the boiling water pot, allow to process for 15 minutes. CAREFULLY remove them, allow to cool overnight.
- The next morning, check to make sure that all of the jars achieved a proper seal – try to push down in the middle of each lid. If it “pops”, it did not seal.
- Any jars that didn’t seal should be put in the fridge and used in the next few weeks. Store in a cool, dark area (ideally) for up to 1 year, chill well before eating.
Never had a mustard pickle. Never seen a mustard pickle. I respect your honesty but even my love for all pickled veggies can't get me past your pics and distaste for them. I'll pass. Thanks
Well, it's not for everyone - obviously.
For your recipe for sweet mustard pickles, do you soak them over night? I wasn't sure what the 2 TBS of canning salt was all about. Also can you use a little pectin to thicken the sauce?
I'm not sure what you mean by soaking them over night? Soaking what?
As for the pectin, it doesn't need pectin, the clear gel thickens it - or are you asking about pectin instead?
Hi Marie. I made the pickles according to your recipe except I didn’t boil them the second time in the canning pot and I’m wondering if that’s why the liquid stayed really liquid. it didn’t thicken at all. By the way. They taste really really good. Thanks
I'm not sure, I've never not done the second boil.
Could be that, could be not boiling it long enough on the first one, or possibly an issue with the starch used?
I am from the east coast of Canada and these are pretty much a staple here. They are delicious!!!
People have different tastes and pallets.
I grew up eating mustard pickles, as did a lot of other folk and this is a great recipe.
If it didn't sound good to you, you could have just moved on instead of leaving a negative comment on someone's page.
🙄
My husband is a townie and they were his favourite so I will let you know what he thinks of them.
Marie,
These look delish. Mustard pickles are a staple in my home, we all love them. There was always a rush to get to the cauliflower in each jar, which always seemed to few. I have a question, would it be possible to make with with only the cauliflower? Would you have an idea of what the altered ratios might be or if it would even be worthwhile to using only cauliflower? I'd appreciate your insight.
You can definitely make it with all cauliflower! If that's what you guys prefer, it's definitely going to be worthwhile - though I'd suggest adding at least a few of the onions in, for the flavour. (The cucumber doesn't add a ton of flavour to the mustard mix).
I'd just chop up another couple heads of cauliflower and weigh it out to 3 lbs, to replace the cucumber.
Made these today, great tasting but the jars look like there are tiny little particles perhaps from the dry mustard looks like it doesn’t dissolve fully. Anyone experience this and know how to correct? Doesn’t affect taste, just the look in the jars. Thanks!
I haven't heard of that happening for anyone yet. Any chance the dry mustard was older / clumpy at all? Otherwise, it definitely should dissolve easily!
I have never heard of there being a problem with making mustard pickles using flour to thicken and have never used something called clear gel. Perhaps this is what caused "particles " in the pickles one of your other commentors had.
There are so many lovely people here in Nl making these mustard pickles, everyone has their own spin on them, and the farmers markets and stores carry them.
So I really wanted tp know what is the issue with flour since I see that is still listed as ingredient in pickles I have bought and I also use flour every time I ever make these.Thanks!