Bread and Butter Pickles

 Today I decided to make my bread and butter pickles.  I cut up 4 onions, 2 cucumbers and 3 mixed peppers, red, yellow and green.

I covered them in salt and left them to settle for a couple of hours with a weighted plate on top.

In a pan I put white pickling vinegar (I used a mixture of red wine and pickling vinegar because I had loads of red wine vinegar to use up).

To the vinegar I added mixed pepper corns, a few cloves, mustard seeds and coriander seeds.  Rather than trying to find the pickling spices in a box, I bought each of the ingredients in bottles at less than a pound each and I get quite a lot out of them.  I let the vinegar and spices warm a little and then I added the sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolved.  At this point I added the veggies and brought them to the boil slowly and gently cooked them for a few minutes.  When ready I bottled them into sterilised jars and fastened the lids tightly.  They now need to go away for a week or so when they can be eaten.  I can assure you that they will not last very long.  I have been having complaints about the smell of vinegar throughout the house.