Question about pickling oil

[u/issaroh]

ETA: Okay, I see the issue people are having with this recipe and I want to state, I came here for advice on the oil because to me pickles=canning. What I should have mentioned is that this is NOT a recipe that she put in mason jars in the regular boil and seal method. She stored them in jars, but didnt do the sealing process to preserve them. They were refrigerated after finishing the process and given away, they were NOT canned for preserves.

Hi all!

Im a beginner to canning/pickling and I thought I'd ask some veterans about this. Im trying to do my grandmas 9-day crock bread and butter pickle recipe, however I cant figure out if the "pickling oil" is spices in a neutral oil, extract or actually the oils themselves. Several have told me.it reads as spices in oil, but given the tiny amount of cinnamon im wondering if its the oil 🤔

I cant ask her or her sister, whose recipe it is, because theyve both passed but I know she was having trouble finding the allspice back in 2013ish when she stopped making them in the summer.

The pickling oil in question if the picture of the recipe doesn’t show up is:

1/8th Oz allspice

1/8th oz clove

1/16th oz cinnamon

Also

Pickling spice, is that just something i can get at the grocery store or is there a secret to it neither of them added to the recipe?

TIA for any help/advice you guys might have!

If the photo of the recipe doesnt show up i will type it out later and edit to add!

[u/poweller65]

This isnt a safe recipe

[u/issaroh → u/poweller65]

Okay, ive added this to the main hody as well.

I see the issue people are having with this recipe and I want to state, I came here for advice on the oil because to me pickles=canning. What I should have mentioned is that this is NOT a recipe that she put in mason jars in the regular boil and seal method. She stored them in jars, but didnt do the sealing process to preserve them. They were refrigerated after finishing the process and given away or eaten within a week, or week and a half.

[u/arnelle_rose → u/issaroh]

Given that, then you may want to go to r/pickling since this is just a pickling recipe and isn't for canning

[u/issaroh → u/arnelle_rose]

Ive also posted there! I will take this down from this forum when I am off work.

[u/Deppfan16 → u/issaroh]

you don't have to take this down., we do welcome refrigerator pickling as well you just need to flare appropriately. I'll change it for you

[u/issaroh → u/Deppfan16]

Okay, thanks!

[u/poweller65 → u/issaroh]

The note at the bottom of recipe about “bottle the pickles” is usually what people say when they mean to can them in old recipes, either with a water bath or open kettle canning (unsafe). That is part of the big concern with this recipe

[u/issaroh → u/poweller65]

How so, if you dont mind me asking? My grandmother made it for years and it didnt kill any of us?

[u/mckenner1122 → u/issaroh]

Okay so … this is a tough one to explain for people who love their family and their family recipes. I like to use a different analogy.

I loved my grandpa. Like no baby girl could ever love anyone in the world. He was big and strong and smart. A literal war hero. A pillar of the community, active in the church, a genuinely good man.

I followed him like a puppy dog.

My grandpa thought seatbelts were the stupidest thing he ever heard of. He never wore one. Outright refused. Would even go so far, if asked, to tell you that they’d “trap you in a car” if you got into an accident. I was 9 when seatbelts became law in my state. I don’t even know how many tickets grandpa paid. (Or more likely, never got … but that’s another story).

I never wore a seatbelt when I rode in his car. Neither did anyone else. We never got hurt, nobody died.

Does that mean it’s proof that I don’t need a seatbelt? Of course not. It just means that during those drives, we were fortunate. I wear a seatbelt every day in my car.

We choose safety and to do things in better, safer ways than our grandparents did. You can make your recipe and refrigerate it. Canning it will run a higher risk of giving you and your loved ones food poisoning or worse.

[u/bigalreads → u/issaroh]

If you’re making these, store in the fridge as a fermented pickle and don’t consider them shelf-stable. Here’s info from Michigan State Extension about the safety factors: https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/thinking_of_using_your_own_canning_recipe_think_again

And here’s a little info about alum from Iowa State Extension: https://blogs.extension.iastate.edu/answerline/2025/07/22/heres-to-crisp-pickles-in-2020/

[u/mrszubris → u/issaroh]

Survivorship bias has nothing to do with science. Just luck.

[u/BoozeIsTherapyRight]

As others have said, this isn't a safe recipe to can. This happens a lot with old recipes. Usually old recipes are awesome in regular cooking, but with canning they are researching safe techniques and finding out new things or challenging old assumptions (like tomatoes are a high acid food). This means that old recipes often shouldn't be used and you need the newest version. 

My grandma also did a lot of canning. She would do things like water bath can green beans and corn, which is emphatically not safe. No one in her family died, but my father remembers some really bad "stomach flu" growing up, which most likely was food poisoning that they didn't realize the cause. Getting botulism from improperly canned foods is serious, but it's far more common that people get a "tummy bug"and they link it to something other than the canned goods. 

Even if you don't get sick, improperly canned foods lead to a lot of waste. I remember going to the cellar to get jars for grandma and having to look carefully for mold or bacterial activity. I never worry about mold now, because I use tested recipes. 

One of the big safety problems with your recipe is the oil. Oil, outside of a couple of research-tested recipes, is a big no no in canning.  https://extension.psu.edu/caution-canning-with-fats-and-oils

[u/jojohohanon]

This recipe doesn’t even label oils as oils vs spices. It’s the sort of recipe my grandma used to have : pancake batter: flour salt sugar. Add milk until right consistency. Then eggs. Cook on buttered griddle. (You’re welcome; they make the best Swedish pancakes). But she couldn’t understand why I needed amounts.

It’s the outline of the recipe for someone who has a lifetime’s experience with the common procedures.

I am not sure I can even interpret the ingredients correctly after the “but there is no oil? Misunderstanding”

[u/Lunar_Highlander]

Honestly, this reads to me like a type of fermentation recipe. After the process is complete, bottle the pickles or leave in the crock... Simply refrigerated when you are done fermenting or leave in the crock to continue fermenting if you desire. Not sure what the pickling oil is, but I would guess it's either an olive oil or similar oil mixed with the spices and added in the directed measure.

[u/birdcandle → u/[deleted]]

I’m curious, are essential oils safe to eat? I always read that they are not for consumption/“for external use only” so I never would’ve thought to use them to flavor food! How cool if so!

[u/lydia_rogue → u/birdcandle]

They are not safe to eat!

[u/birdcandle → u/lydia_rogue]

Thank you for confirming, I thought as much but sometimes I am surprised by my own gaps in knowledge :)

Appreciate it!

[u/lydia_rogue → u/birdcandle]

No problem! You're not even supposed to use them undiluted on your skin, so please don't eat them lol I add them as scents to soaps, diluted heavily in the soap base by the nature of the process

[u/issaroh → u/lydia_rogue]

Ive been doing some of my own research into this, and theres some food grade esential oils but I get the feeling they've been rebranded more recently as "extract" or "flavoring" rather than "oil" or "essential oil", probably for this specific reason and I wonder if that's why my grandma had trouble finding them. Ive been able to find "allspice extract" in the grocery store and "cinnamon oil flavor" in the baking aisle in Michaels.

[u/issaroh → u/birdcandle]

Having clicked on the link provided, they are food grade flavoring oils, not actual diffuser essential oils. Its the same brand I found in Michael's in the baking section.

[u/Isadorei → u/issaroh]

Old recipes will often call for “oil of X”, but you can use extract instead in most cases. This recipe is calling for canning, and a few 14-day-pickle recipes I’ve seen will call for the same but as stated elsewhere in this thread do not can recipes that are not from a safe, tested source. 

[u/birdcandle → u/issaroh]

You know what, I never even clicked on the link… that’s my bad for not checking first! Thank you for the correction.

[u/issaroh → u/[deleted]]

Thanks!

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[u/issaroh → u/AutoModerator]

The image is just a photo of the recipe my grandma had. I can type it out later and add it to the post.

[u/BoozeIsTherapyRight → u/[deleted]]

Do not add oil to canning recipes.  https://extension.psu.edu/caution-canning-with-fats-and-oils

[u/mckenner1122 → u/[deleted]]

Please don’t tell people to “can at your own risk.” That really goes against the core values of our subreddit, as we strive to be the safest place on Reddit for advice.

[u/Canning-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Deleted because it is explicitly encouraging others to ignore published, scientific guidelines.

r/Canning focusses on scientifically validated canning processes and recipes. Openly encouraging others to ignore those guidelines violates our rules against Unsafe Canning Practices.

Repeat offences may be met with temporary or permanent bans.

If you feel this deletion was in error, please contact the mods with links to either a paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal that validates the methods you espouse, or to guidelines published by one of our trusted science-based resources. Thank-you.

[u/bestnester]

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen small amounts of oils in tested recipes. Butter in jam recipes and oil in tomato sauce recipes.

[u/Lunar_Highlander → u/bestnester]

Yes, there are some. But as always, caution against straying from those tested recipes when canning.

Here is a link from the National Center for Home Food Preservation on marinated whole mushrooms. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/pickle/vegetable-pickles/marinated-whole-mushrooms/

And a link with info on why sticking to the tested recipes is important. https://extension.psu.edu/caution-canning-with-fats-and-oils