What are you Pickling and what is your recipe?

[Gary350]

What are you pickling and what is your recipe?

I would like to pickle mixed vegetables, onions, banana peppers, carrots, beans, broccoli and more.

I use to be able to buy pickling spices at the grocery but no more. Even when it was available recipe was terrible it was always too sweet like pancake syrup mixed with vinegar and spices.

I have been saving the juice from Bread and Butter pickles and the juice from mild peppers and reusing it but i don't have enough juice to make more than 1 jars and that takes months before it is ready to eat. I would like to make 10 to 20 jars.

Some people make chow chow there seems to be several recipes because what I taste at the farmers market and craft fairs is all different.

I have seen pickled beans, beets, okra and many other things at the farmers market.

[rainbowgardener]

Only thing I have enough of in my garden right now is peppers. I have way more of the little jalapeno peppers in my garden than I know what to do with, so I am pickling a couple jars of them.

Recipe:
Ingredients
4 quarts long red, green or yellow peppers (Hungarian, Banana, etc.)
1-1/2 cups canning salt
4 quarts plus 2 cups water, divided
10 cups cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons celery seed
4 tablespoons mustard seed
1 onion, chopped

Directions
Cut 2 small slits in each pepper. Dissolve salt in 4 quarts water. Pour over peppers; let stand 12 to 18 hours in a cool place. Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly.

In a Dutch oven, combine the vinegar, sugar, garlic and remaining water; bring to a boil and simmer 15 minutes. Remove garlic. Pack peppers into hot pint jars, leaving 1/2-in. headspace. Carefully ladle hot liquid over peppers, leaving 1/2-in. headspace. Remove air bubbles with a non-metallic utensil. Adjust lids. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Yield: about 8 pints.

[gumbo2176]

I pickle several of my garden vegetables for later use. Every year I put up several jars of okra, green beans, pickling cucumbers, hot peppers, and some jars of a medley of onions, carrots, cauliflower, and celery. These are mostly put up as a vinegar/water/salt brine with some seasonings added in. I do put up some Bread & Butter pickles every year that a lot of folks want if I have enough.

My basic brine for sour pickling is to put some cloves of sliced garlic in the jars, along with some mustard seed and sometimes pepper flakes if I want to add a bit of zing to the brine and product, but if you don't like it hot, don't add much or any at all.

I'll add the sliced garlic, mustard seed and pepper flakes to the jar, pack the jars tightly with whatever I'm pickling, add vinegar to fill the jar just slightly above half way and finish topping it off with water. I'll sometimes do several jars at a time like this, and dump the liquid out of the jars into a large enough pot to hold the brine. To this I add salt and bring it all to a boil for a few minutes to blend it all together. The amount of salt you use is dependent on your taste, but I tend to like salt and use a good bit, but I never measure things and just pour until I like the taste when mixed.

I'll then ladle the brine into the jars and using a wooden spoon, tap the outside of the jars to get the little air pockets to come up, then cap the jars and put them into a hot water bath. I don't boil my water and have found if keeping the temperature about 185 degrees and letting the jars in that bath for 15 minutes allows the vegetables to remain very crisp when done. After 15 minutes, I take the jars out of the hot water bath and let them cool on the countertop with a thick towel under the jars to catch any water dripping off them. You'll hear the distinctive 'POP" when the jars form their vacuum and seal the lids.

Oh, and I have hard water so it is necessary for me to put a cup of vinegar into my hot water bath to keep the outside of the jars from clouding when they cool. I forgot this step once when in a hurry and had to clean the outside of the jars to remove the residue.

[Gary350]

Only thing I have enough of in my garden right now is peppers. I have way more of the little jalapeno peppers in my garden than I know what to do with, so I am pickling a couple jars of them.

Recipe:
Ingredients
4 quarts long red, green or yellow peppers (Hungarian, Banana, etc.)
1-1/2 cups canning salt
4 quarts plus 2 cups water, divided
10 cups cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons celery seed
4 tablespoons mustard seed
1 onion, chopped

Directions
Cut 2 small slits in each pepper. Dissolve salt in 4 quarts water. Pour over peppers; let stand 12 to 18 hours in a cool place. Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly.

In a Dutch oven, combine the vinegar, sugar, garlic and remaining water; bring to a boil and simmer 15 minutes. Remove garlic. Pack peppers into hot pint jars, leaving 1/2-in. headspace. Carefully ladle hot liquid over peppers, leaving 1/2-in. headspace. Remove air bubbles with a non-metallic utensil. Adjust lids. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Yield: about 8 pints.

What does the salt water soak do to the peppers?

I have a dozen small jalapeno peppers I am thinking I will put 1 pepper in each jar then fill it with vegetables.

[pepperhead212]

Here is my favorite recipe for pickling peppers:

Jalapeños en Escabeche

1 1/2 lbs jalapeno peppers
1 lb carrots; scraped
1 lb onons; cut into 1 in. pieces
3 tb salt
1/3 cup(s) water
14 large cloves garlic
10 peppercorns
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 whole cloves
16 bay leaves
3/4 tsp thyme
1 1/2 tsp mexican oregano
1/2 cup(s) vegetable oil
1 cup(s) cider vinegar
2 cup(s) white vinegar
1 cup(s) water
1 tsp dark brown sugar

A. Rinse and dry peppers; de-stem and cut into 3/8" slices. Slice the carrots on the diagonal into 1/8" slices. Place in a large bowl, and toss with the salt. Let sit 1 hour, while preparing remaining ing.

B. Place in a blender 5 garlic cloves, 1/4 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp oregano, peppercorns, cumin, cloves, 10 of the bay leaves, and 1/3 c water. Blend on high speed until totally ground up. Measure out the vinegars and water and add the 8 cloves whole garlic, 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp thyme, sugar, and 6 bay leaves. Drain the chiles and carrots and add the drained juice to the vinegar mix.

C. Heat oil in a large, deep pan (I use a 14" NS wok) over med-high heat, and add the mix from the blender and the onions. Fry the mix, tossing frequently, until all the liquid is evaporated and the onions are translucent, but not browned, about 10 min. Add the vegetables and cook, tossing frequently, about 10 min. Add vinegar mix, and cook, over med-high heat still, 8 min. Transfer to sterilized jars (not totally necessary, unless storing @ room temp for a while), and seal. Store in refrigerator.

Note: Other peppers may also be used, with caution, as just a few of the hotter ones in this will make it almost inedible for most.

If these will be stored at room temp. for long before opening, process in a water bath: pint jars for 15 min, and quart jars for 25 min.

[Gary350]

I did several experiments with several different recipes. This one turned out best.

I tested factory Bread & Butter pickles in jars, vinegar is 2%. Sugar is 11%..

I found pickling spice at Walmart and Kroger in a blue color can in the spice isle.

PICKLING RECIPE
1 cup white 5% vinegar
1 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons pickle spice
1/4 teaspoon Tumeric
5 cloves of garlic sliced & diced
3/4 teaspoon salt


VEGETABLES
Green beans
Carrot slices
Broccoli pieces
Onions slices
Cucumbers slices
Jalapeno sliced

My garden jalapeno peppers are small and not very hot. 1 pint jar with 1 pepper was not spicy hot. 1 pint jar with 5 peppers was a little spicy. 1 pint jar with 8 peppers was the best. 1 grocery store jalapeno pepper is perfect for 1 pint jar.

Slice and dice your vegetables until you have 1 quart jar full. Bring everything to a boil, vegetables, pickling recipe, spicy peppers, then simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. This recipe will make 1 quart mason jar or 2 pints mason jars, loosely fill mason jars, put on the seal and ring, stand jars upside down until they cool.

In 30 days they are ready to eat.

You can use any vegetables you like.