Dill pickles and bread and butter pickles. It is easy to confuse these two, especially without a label on the bottle, and without tasting it. Both of these very popular versions of pickled cucumber use almost the same set of ingredients: vinegar, salt, cucumber. The only difference is that bread and butter pickles are sweet because it has sugar, while dill pickles have dill and other herbs and spices to make it taste savory.
Bread and Butter Pickles Trivia
- While it might make sense to assume that this kind of pickled cucumber got its name from the idiomatic expression “bread and butter” which was in use as early as the 1700s to refer to basic needs, the truth is it supposedly got its name because the pickled cucumbers were used to barter for bread and butter – two essential food items at that time.
- The idiomatic expression “bread and butter” means a lot of different things: (1) basic necessity; (2) means of livelihood; and (3) superstitious incantation uttered when two people walking side by side have to separate to avoid an obstacle on their path.
- Americans consume an estimated 20 billion pickles each year.