Cook’s Notebook: No-cook pickles hot, sweet and full of flavor

A few weeks back, we explored the glorious world of Kool-Aid pickles. That column prompted a request from Kathleen Riley of Spokane.

Seems she’s developed a taste for a sweet-hot pickle. She says they’re great on tuna and meat sandwiches, and, she wrote, even on peanut butter. I’ll take her word on that one.

Used to be, she could find them at several locations. Now, she finds them at only one store, Fred Meyer, sold under a house brand. Someday, she figures, they might discontinue these particular pickles, and she’d like to be prepared. Did I, she asked, know of such a recipe?

I didn’t. Thanks to the Internet, I do now.

First off, I sampled some of the sweet-hot pickles I found at my local Fred Meyer, sold as Snackers under the Private Selection label. They’re pretty sweet, not all that spicy, and drenched in high-fructose corn syrup. So I set off to make my own version of Riley’s favorite snack.

If only I could get over my fear of canning.

See, I once read a newspaper account about a young athlete who’d contracted botulism from a jar of her grandmother’s home-canned chicken soup. There’s nothing pleasant about an illness that can result in paralysis. It was enough to turn me off of home canning. I’m sure pickling is perfectly safe and all, but still. Why risk it when you don’t have to?

With that in mind, I searched for a no-cook sweet-hot pickle recipe.

Should Riley ever want to get into pickling, she’ll be pleased to know there are plenty of sweet-hot recipes out there. I was pleased to easily find a no-cook pickle. I found it at MyRecipes.com, from a story published in the August 2004 issue of Southern Living magazine. Take already pickled pickles, dump out the brine, add sugar and spice. That easy.

The recipe calls for hamburger dill chips. I accidentally grabbed a jar of Farman’s Cucumber Chips, which are already sweetened with sugar. When I discovered my mistake, I worried that the resulting pickles would be too sweet. They weren’t. In fact, they’re probably closer to the sweetness level of Riley’s favorite Snackers, only with no high-fructose sweetener – just plain old sugar – and way more heat.

Way more. The recipe author indicated that she’d used Tabasco hot sauce for testing purposes. I followed suit. Two tablespoons of Tabasco amounts to half of one of those little bottles. Half. These pickles pack a wallop. If you like your pickles not too sweet, not too hot, I’d cut the amount of hot sauce by half, if not more. You can always add more Tabasco later. If you like the heat, however, this is the recipe for you.

Finally, this was one of those maddeningly vague recipes that fill the Internet. I was left wondering, for example, how long it would take the pickles to pick up the new flavors. It didn’t take long at all. I tested them after a couple hours in the jar, and they were hot, sweet and tasty.

No-Cook Sweet-and-Spicy Pickles

1 (46-ounce) jar hamburger dill chips or sweetened cucumber chips

1/2 cup sugar

2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons hot sauce

Drain liquid from jar; remove pickles from jar. Rinse pickles with water and drain.

Layer half each of pickles, sugar, garlic, and hot sauce in jar. Press down gently. Repeat layers, reserving some of the pickles for the top layer. Twist on lid to seal; invert jar, and shake 2 to 3 times to combine ingredients. Chill.

Keep refrigerated for up to four weeks.

Yield: About 4 cups

Approximate nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate due to recipe variables.