I make "iced green tomato pickles" ... very sweet and very crisp. I use the lime soak and three plain water soaks and thorough washing.
I do not believe you have enough vinegar in that recipe. You might want to look at this recipe from UGa (scroll down)
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/uga/uga_pickled_products.pdf
you might also check the recipe for green tomatoes just below the cuke recipe... if SPICE is what you want, this could be it... if it's heat you're after, tuck a couple of dried HOT peppers in each jar as you pack the chunks.

current guidelines definitely call for BWB.

After posting the above I realized I had not emphasized enough the need for THOROUGH WASHING.
If you don't wash all the lime off, you'll neutralize the vinegar.
In fact, LindaLou who teaches canning doesn't like using lime.
But, I can't get the crispness I want anyother way, particularly using a BWB. So I am very, very careful when I rinse.

If your husband is talking heat, he might like this recipe from NCHFP (it also uses lime soak)
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_06/pickled_jalapeno_rings.html

OK, first, as Kayskats said, it is extremely important to do three thorough washes of the lime solution so that all excess lime has been removed. Note the triple rinse and resoak instructions on this NCHFP recipe as well as the caution not to inhale the lime dust.

As I see it, assuming the lime is thoroughly rinsed and there's sufficient pickling liquid (which may entail making additional syrup), the recipe should be OK. You're draining off the original vinegar-water mixture and the final solution is 100% vinegar-sugar with no water at all.

I am assuming this originally was an old recipe, as the extremely high sugar level originally probably compensated for a higher-grain (i.e. 10-20% instead of 5%) vinegar.

I have a book Pickles to Relish by Beverly Ellen Schoonmaker Alfeld. She has been trained by the FDA in food processing and has sold foods commercially, so I trust her recommendations.

She offers a very similar recipe (though a larger batch) called Mrs. Cunningham's Red Cinnamon Pickles.

The presence of that recipe in her book indicates to me that it is trustworthy.

The one thing I don't understand about this recipe is why it calls for alum, which only works with fermented pickles and is redundant anyway, since the lime is already a crisping agent. I'd eliminate it.

If you want a spicier pickle you can use dried red pepper or dried red pepper flakes. The other option is to go for a cinnamon "heat" by supplementing the red hots and cinnamon sticks (or deleting the cinnamon sticks entirely as the dust clouds the syrup) and using oil of cinnamon or even some oil of cloves.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Quick Sweet Pickles with Lime

Carol--The final syrup says 1 cup water 1 cup vinegar. So it's a 50/50. I do rinse the lime well. I also rinse well after the alum.
Last year I did per recipe. This year I did the afore mentioned changes. Also in two jars I added extra cinnamon sticks. And in two jars, I added japones chiles. Just for some experimentation.
Thanks for the Mrs. Cunningham recipe.

I missed the one cup water. The Mrs. Cunningham recipe may or may not be online; I haven't looked. But the final syrup is 50:50 water as with the recipe you posted. All that sugar is a factor also, almost cucumber candy.

Carol

I think this basic recipe may have been what my grandma called her "Cinnamon Pickles" but the spices are different, so I need your opinion. The NCHFP recipe calls for celery seed, mustard seed, and whole allspice berries, but the "crisp" sounds like her recipe - more of a brittle crunch, thanks to the lime. There were cinnamon sticks and whole cloves in each jar, along with vinegar and sugar for the sweet-tart taste, but the color was muddy gray-tan, not pretty but yummy, she disliked artificial colors so it is possible that she left them out - as I would. The fruits/vegetables she used were 1/2" thick round slices with the center cut out so they could have been cucumbers, apples, or even pears for the "pickle" since she grew just about everything! I vaguely remember that there were some other things in the jars - maybe onions or berries? Something not as brittle but spiced and definitely not spicy-hot from chili peppers.

I do know she used lime for the crunch because as a young girl she cautioned me to "stop breathing" when she mixed the "solution" and to turn my head and "peek out the side of my shoulder". I have been thinking of this unique and extra crunchy textured "pickle" off and on for 50 years. But a "pickle" then was just something preserved with vinegar. One of those mysterious things grandma did way back when.

Recently, I've been looking at Spiced Apple Ring recipes for the spices and method used to replicate that memory, but those recipes must end up with a soft texture and are usually made from crab apples, though the spices are right. Not what I remember for the crunch. What do you think? Is this recipe the basis for her "Cinnamon Pickles"?

Nancy

This came from a church cookbook. The cookbook was first published in 1988, but it was an OLD recipe. I have seen some cinnamon pickle recipes with other spices. You might try looking up Christmas Pickles. I have seen pickled cinnamon apples before. But this original recipe called for slicing the cucumbers and then taking out the seeds, making "rings," so this could be what you are looking for. Ball has a pear pickle recipe too. This does have a good crunchy texture.
I have started another batch of these last night. I am switching up the original recipe by rinsing off the lime after 24 hours (probably more like 20 due to time issues), then soaking 3 hours in cool water, then rinsing again. I make twice the syrup b/c it seems like there isn't enough to cover the cukes if I don't. That works best for me.
I would love to find a pickle using hot tamales. They seem to have a better cinnamon flavor to me. Anyone know of one?