Jeff - have you tried a search of "allrecipes dot com"? I've had great luck finding old tried-and-true recipes there. Found my grandfather's recipe for bread & butter pickles there....long after he was gone and I missed the taste. Thank goodness I'd helped him several times or I might not have recognized the ingredients!

Sorry for the loss of your mom. You missing this okra is just a sign that she left another bit of herself with you. My MIL pickles okra similar to what you described and if I can get her to share, I'll email you. Good luck with your search!

Paula

Jeff, I don't know of a recipe, but if you will post your question on the GardenWeb's Harvest Forum, they will know if there is a safe recipe.

Although you don't say pickled okra, I think that is what you are describing. The okra pickles from the Ball Blue Book have okra, salt, water, vinegar, garlic and hot red peppers, but they also have dill seed. If you don't like dill I think you could leave that out, but personally I think that adds to the flavor.

The Ball Blue Book is avaiable at Walmart where canning supplies are sold and is 6 or 7 dollars. It is actually a guide to preserving and has a lot of info on canning, freezing, pickling, etc. If you would like for me to send you the recipe, just email me and I will type it up for you.

Also, if it is a safe pickling recipe, with enough vinegar, you can process it in a boiling water bath canner, which is really just a deep pot with a lid and a rack to set the jars on. Okra, without a lot of vinegar, is a low acid food and would have to be canned in a pressure cooker. Do you happen to remember which she used?

I don't know if you are a canner, but in case you are not, I need to tell you a couple of things. To be safe, canning recipes must be followed exactly and a safe place to start would be the Ball Blue Book or at National Center for Home Food Preservation which I've linked below.

Unsafe recipes are all over the web and in lots of cookbooks and have been handed down in lots of families. Vinegar we use today needs to be 5 percent and that is what you will mostly find today in the supermarket. Our grandmother's vinegar may have been twice that strength. I guess what I am saying is this, just because no one died, doesn't make the recipe safe.

I hope you find a recipe for your mother's okra, but I hope you find one that is approved as being safe.

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP

Thank you for the suggestions. I have been looking and found a lot of different recipes. Now I'm curious about the safety of some of the handed down recipes. I'll make a trip to walmart and pick up a blue book.

Thank You,

Jeff

I agree with everything Carol said, Jeff, and I would not use any recipe found at any website other than approved canning websites like the NCHFP website, a state extension service website or the website of a canning supply company like freshpreserving.com or mrswages.com. The risk of death from toxins in unapproved recipes or improper canning procedures is too great of a risk.

I have seen so-called canning recipes on cooking/recipe websites that are not safe in any shape, form or fashion and I would not use any of them unless a Master Canner or canning instructor said they had looked at the recipe and it was safe.

Dawn

What Carol and Dawn said cannot be taken lightly. Be safe, especially with low acid food like okra.