12/2/2020 – With the hard freezes coming we harvested on Nov. 30 all the pepperoncini peppers from Mary’s garden. We were surprised there were about 3 gallons in a 5-gallon bucket from the four bushes. Made the bent ones as slices this date pickled in pint jars two ways. Then made 3 quarts as slices. All had slightly different spice levels as an experiment.
The 4:1 pickling solution we made and had boiling when poured into the pack jars for the pints was:
- 4 cups white vinegar (5%)
- 1 cup of water
- 4 scant teaspoons Ms. Wages’ pickling salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
We made four pints with peppers sliced into 3/4″ rings that were packed into the pint jars with:
- In the empty jar:
- ¼ tsp of cayenne pepper from our garden
- 3 halves of large garlic cloves
- packed the slices in the jars with the handle of the aluminum meat tenderizer mallet,
- on top of the peppers in the jar:
- added ¼ tsp of cayenne pepper and a heaping teaspoon of Ball Pickle Crisp
- topped it off with the boiling pickling solution added up to the shoulder of the jars.
We made one pint with smaller whole peppers that were stuffed into the jar as follows. As cited below, once the jar was full of pepper slices, garlic, and cayenne, Mary added 3 large garlic cove halves and another ¼ tsp of cayenne. So, this jar has twice the garlic as the other four.
We made, the next morning, 3 quarts of the larger peppers seeded and cut into spears. As we were about out of white vinegar we used apple cider vinegar with pickling salt and NO sugar. The vinegar to water ratio was the same 4:1 as above. The salt was at ½ tsp per quart.
- In each empty jar:
- ¼ tsp of cayenne pepper from our garden. As it is the same ¼ tsp as used in the pints above these will have half the heat.
- 5 halves of large garlic cloves. This is a few more than in the pints.
- packed the spears standing up in the jars,
- on top of the peppers in the jar:
- added ¼ tsp of cayenne pepper and a heaping ½ teaspoon of Ball Pickle Crisp.
- topped it off with the boiling pickling solution added up to the shoulder of the jars and 5-6 halves of large garlic cloves.
Processed all of them in a boiling water bath boiling for 10 minutes.
Comments
- 3/31/2021 – We enjoyed this side dish for the past month as the peppers were a little crunchy and had a good flavor. Try it again next year with the smaller greek pepperoncini to compare with these Italian large peppers and add more Pickle Crisp.
- 5/2/2021 – The larger peppers pickled as spears with ACV and no sugar were good. The spears had some crunch but not much spice from the cayenne. The garlic cloves were firm but not crunchy and that was ok. Next time use more Pickle Crisp.