Amish Recipe Series... Amish Bread and Butter Pickles

What is the Ordnung that the Amish live by?

Donald B. Kraybill in his book, The Riddle of Amish Culture, writes: "The Amish blueprint for expected behavior, called the Ordnung, regulates private, public, and ceremonial life. Ordnung does not translate readily into English. Sometimes rendered as ordnance or discipline, the Ordnung is best thought of as an ordering of the whole way of life... a code of conduct which the church maintains by tradition rather than by systematic or explicit rules. A member noted: The order is not written down. The people just know it, that's all. Rather than a packet or rules to memorize, the Ordnung is the understood behavior by which the Amish are expected to live. In the same way that the rules of grammar are learned by children, so the Ordnung, the grammar of order, is learned by Amish youth. The Ordnung evolved gradually over the decades as the church sought to strike a delicate balance between tradition and change. Specific details of the Ordnung vary across church districts and settlements."

Today's recipe... Remember... Disclaimer: The Amish don't always follow updated USDA canning methods, they follow methods passed down from generation to generation. Use this recipe at your own discretion, or adapt it to your own method. I am sharing these recipes EXACTLY as they were sent to me and take no responsibility for them.

Amish Bread and Butter Pickles

Peggy Stolfus

1 gal. cucumbers
8 onions
2 green peppers 

2 red peppers

Slice cucumbers, peppers and onions. Pack in ice, and let it cool for 3 hours. Place a heavy weight on top the pickles (you can use a plate with a weight placed on top).

Drain well and combine with

5 cups sugar
2 tablespoons mustard seed
2 tablespoons celery seed
1½ teaspoons turmeric
½ teaspoon ground cloves
5 cups vinegar

Mix well. Pour this mixture over the pickles and then simmer for half ­an ­hour. Seal bread ­and ­butter pickles in hot jars.