Pepperoncini Pickling Ptrials
Oh, the things one learns from experimentation!
First, we had the early spring decision to grow Pepperoncini Peppers. Yum! Then, we have the excitement of a nice, hot summer, which peppers love! Finally, we have the harvest. As a wise man once said "First you sow the seed. Then you grow the seed. Then you eat the seed."
Time to eat the seed!
Plenty more of these babies coming too, so I can afford a little mess up. Who doesn't love those nice, crisp, little salad adornments? I mildly hot pepper, which when bitten in to gives a throat-gagging shot of spicy vinegar into the esophagus!
After searching many internet sites and such, I decided to go with a recipe from ehow.com.
After hand harvesting (yep, no farm machinery here!), I washed the peppers, gave two little slits in each to allow the juices to flow in, and soaked in a brine solution for....oh, I think I gave it 16 hours or so. One didn't look quite right, so he was a raw taste test specimen. Rating...6? Good, not bad. Not hot. Basically, a tough little pepper. The cute little fella is here:
Whoa, I have a nice thumb!
Since peppers float, they needed a little help in staying down. I think that's where my Italian heritage comes in.
After brining these shiny little jewels of the clay pot, (at which point, they already looked and smelled better), it was time to bring them to their final resting place. A tiny little jar. They love it there. Really. No vegetable activists please.
So, according to the recipe, I mixed the vinegar, garlic, horseradish, sugar, and some water. Cooked that a bit, and prepped my jars for canning. I crammed the peppers into the jars (note, next time cram some more in), and added the pickling liquid stuff.
In to the pressure cooker to hopefully not blow up my house! No fears, all was well. I processed for 35 minutes, as per my pressure cooker instructions. After, the came out looking fab!
As you can see...1) I didn't add enough peppers, and 2) I don't think I hand-tightened the bands enough. I just know that I had more liquid in there than I ended up with!
After waiting one whole day (hey, I need to try them in order to improve for the next batch), it was time to crack open a jar.
They (again) look fantastic!
Problem is...they are MUSHY! They taste ok, but they are MUSH. The stems fall right off, and the peppers (still in there skins) are MUSH inside!
Time for some more research to figure out how to get that "authentic" texture. Overall, a fun experiment, which hopefully provides better results next time!
First, we had the early spring decision to grow Pepperoncini Peppers. Yum! Then, we have the excitement of a nice, hot summer, which peppers love! Finally, we have the harvest. As a wise man once said "First you sow the seed. Then you grow the seed. Then you eat the seed."
Time to eat the seed!
Plenty more of these babies coming too, so I can afford a little mess up. Who doesn't love those nice, crisp, little salad adornments? I mildly hot pepper, which when bitten in to gives a throat-gagging shot of spicy vinegar into the esophagus!
After searching many internet sites and such, I decided to go with a recipe from ehow.com.
After hand harvesting (yep, no farm machinery here!), I washed the peppers, gave two little slits in each to allow the juices to flow in, and soaked in a brine solution for....oh, I think I gave it 16 hours or so. One didn't look quite right, so he was a raw taste test specimen. Rating...6? Good, not bad. Not hot. Basically, a tough little pepper. The cute little fella is here:
Whoa, I have a nice thumb!
Since peppers float, they needed a little help in staying down. I think that's where my Italian heritage comes in.
After brining these shiny little jewels of the clay pot, (at which point, they already looked and smelled better), it was time to bring them to their final resting place. A tiny little jar. They love it there. Really. No vegetable activists please.
So, according to the recipe, I mixed the vinegar, garlic, horseradish, sugar, and some water. Cooked that a bit, and prepped my jars for canning. I crammed the peppers into the jars (note, next time cram some more in), and added the pickling liquid stuff.
In to the pressure cooker to hopefully not blow up my house! No fears, all was well. I processed for 35 minutes, as per my pressure cooker instructions. After, the came out looking fab!
As you can see...1) I didn't add enough peppers, and 2) I don't think I hand-tightened the bands enough. I just know that I had more liquid in there than I ended up with!
After waiting one whole day (hey, I need to try them in order to improve for the next batch), it was time to crack open a jar.
They (again) look fantastic!
Problem is...they are MUSHY! They taste ok, but they are MUSH. The stems fall right off, and the peppers (still in there skins) are MUSH inside!
Time for some more research to figure out how to get that "authentic" texture. Overall, a fun experiment, which hopefully provides better results next time!
Comments