Easy to make Piccallilli Sauce --- Great piccalilli recipe!

Christmas Giving On My Mind!

The Piccalilli sauce is the tenth item that is ready for the Christmas gift baskets. (Check out this hub for more details about the Bakers dozen gift baskets. I've also added the links to the other gift items at the bottom of the hub, above the comment capsule)

http://hubpages.com/hub/Christmas-giving-on-my-mind

When I was a kid and growing up in Belgium my Dad was the only one eating this piccalilli sauce (also known as mustard pickles). He would take it in a small jar and eat it with his sandwiches for lunch. Mom and I never ever wanted anything to do with it. Once we came to Canada Dad couldn't find the piccalilli sauce that he was used to so one day he had this brainstorm, he was going to perfect his own and that way we would like it too. (in those days nothing would make me even try let alone like it). Now-a-days just give me a full jar and a fork and I'll do a magic trick...I'll make it disappear at the snap of a finger).

In the summer when the garden was producing all the ingredients Dad would make it from scratch with every kind of vegetable that he grew in the garden in it. He would blanch, brine all the veggies and then let it sit for exactly 30 hours... then jar it and make a hallelujah mess for Mom to clean up. That recipe is really good but too much hassle even for me. Late in the fall he would make my favorite one. In this one he would combine all the different types of pickles that Mom had made during the summer and fall add prepared French's mustard and a pinch of this and that. The best part that within a few hours it was ready to hand Zsuzsy the jar with the fork.

If you use pickled veggies that have been ready for a while either homemade or store bought it only takes a short time to make. You can make it in the morning and serve it at night with dinner however for the perfect melded tastes to come through do not do like me and start taste testing a jar each day wait about 6-7 days for the piccalilli to mature. Serve it with cold meats and cheese at Christmas. I line up the veggies from the sauce on my hot dog. Or try it with a German Octoberfest sausage or a Dutch bock wurst and just add a bit of sauerkraut if you like it that is.

As I'm planning on adding piccalilli jars to my Christmas giving baskets I'm combining full 1 liter/quart sized jars of pickles but if you want to just make a few jars for yourself (you can't just make one jar because it will not be worth it... it will be gone before you get to check out the taste in the 5-6 day maturing time) use equal amounts of pickles as I mentioned before use either home made or store bought.

• 1 quart/liter bread and butter cucumber pickles
• 1 quart/liter dill cucumber pickles
• 2 quart/liter pickled cauliflower and carrots
  
• 1 quart/liter cocktail onions baby onions or shallots (either one will do great)
  
• 1 quart/liter pickled button mushrooms (hard to find in stores, to keep the recipe balanced replace with an extra jar of the bread and butter pickles)
  
• 1 quart/liter pickled green cherry tomatoes (cut in half before adding to the piccalilli sauce)
• 1 quart/liter pickled hot pepper rings (if you do not like hot stuff use the sweet peppers instead)
  

Sauce mixture:

• 10 cups of prepared mustard (I like to use French's mustard)
• 1 cup brown sugar (you can use splenda too)
  
• 1/2 cup of vinegar
• 2 cups reserved pickle juice
  
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  
• 2 teaspoons rough ground mustard seed (or mustard powder)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon celery salt
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional...less if you prefer less umph or why not make both kinds mild and spicy)

• let all pickles drain until dry ( Leave to drain while you make the pickling mixture 1hour at least) RESERVE the pickles juice (the pickles should dry-drain so the piccalilli sauce won't be diluted and runny)
  
• mix the pickle juices and strain and keep 2 cups
  
• slice dill pickles into thick slices
• cut cauliflower into bite size pieces
• combine all pickles in a large mixing bowl
• in large saucepan combine sugar, vinegar, pickle juice, flour and spices
  
• wisk (so as not to get lumps) until the vinegar mixture is thick and bubbly about the same
  
• in large stainless steel or enamel stockpot combine mustard and vinegar mix and pickles, bring to a boil, carefully stirring because at this point the bottom could burn quite easily
• bottle into hot sterilised jars with plastic lined metal lids and process it for about 5 minutes just enough time to get the jars to seal. You can skip this step if you're only making a couple of jars to eat immediately. This stuff will last forever in the fridge mustard being a preservative etc.
  
• leave for 5-6 days to mature in a dry, dark place check occasionally to make sure the jars sealed properly.
  

Serve with cold-cuts, cheeses, sub-sandwiches (hoagies) or hot dogs, absolutely super with a pork roast or even pork chops.