What to do with all those peppers?

It happens every season, you overplant peppers. After day after day of salsa, you just can't shove another tortilla chip down your mouth. OK, so maybe just a bit of hyperbole, but it is currently a real issue in our garden that we are VERY happy to have to deal with. So last weekend we picked all of the jalapeños and a few banana peppers and got busy with some canning and preserving. We had done this last year with our leftovers and the family units really dug it. So this year we're making it a main attraction by doing a lot of pepper pickling (now don't start in with the Peter Piper crap, K). So yeah, if you haven't already got the hint of what we're giving as gifts this year, then there is no hope for you, young paduan (Did I just make a StarWars reference? SH*T! There went my cool points).

If you have not tried pickled jalapeños, you are in for a treat. Click the link below to see how it's done.

You start the whole shindig by preparing the peppers and sundry veggies. We sliced and julienned carrots, diced some garlic and left some whole for looks. To each jar we also added a whole banana pepper that was sliced open to let the pickling juices in. It is important that you slice open anything you are putting in whole just to be safe. The jalapeños were sliced and deseeded. You don't have to remove the seeds, but we prefer it that way and don't mind the extra work.


Let me take this opportunity to insist that you wear gloves, maybe even two pair and a face mask may be of some import as well. My wife pilfered a surgical face mask during her OB-GYN rotation for this very purpose, ah, med student ingenuity. It has this plastic shield to protect you from projectile child birth, but it will help with food prep too. Ours hangs in the kitchen with the basting brushes, often eliciting strange looks from visitors. We're sane, I swear.

Once you have the vegge all ready, fill the jars and make them look pretty, ya know, mix it all around. To each jar add 1 tablespoon of pickling spices (sold by the jar at your local grocer) and a couple of bay leaves. I suppose you could add some other dried herbs, but it probably won't change the flavor all that much since really, it's hell in a jar and no amount of coriander is gonna help that.

Now you fill the jars with your pickling fluid. The ratios are 1 cup distilled white vinegar, 1/2 cup water, and 1 teaspoon canning salt. This needs to be brought to a boil and then ladled into your jars, filling over the peppers but leaving about 1 inch of space up top. Once you have this done you place you lids and screwtops on the jars and tighten. Place into a boiling water bath (just a pot of water with a towel on the bottom to keep the jars from jitterin' about) for 10 min. After ten minutes you can remove the jars, tighten them again and then let them cool for a bit.


Once cool, check to make sure your seals caught (the lid should be concave and not pop up when pressed). If all seals are good, tighten again and store away for a spell, then enjoy. You can store these for several months, just make sure you still have negative pressure in the jar before you eat from it.

A note about canning: Use only approved and tested recipes and don't go changing stuff up. Canning is both art and science and can kill you in short order if you goof off and don't follow directions to a "T". I can't remember where we found the recipe we use but there are a myriad of tried and true recipes for pickled jalapeños available out there on the world wide series of tubes. A good place to start would be the University of Georgia's food preservation website.

Hope you enjoy!!!

Ciao