Pickled Jalapeno Peppers, Birdeye

Water baths are needed for high-acid foods, it kills active
bacteria and microorganisms so food can be consumed later

If there could be a scratch and sniff...the fumes from cutting
all those peppers made our eyes water and hands burn baby

One of 5 strainers full of peppers....holy moly that's alotta heat...

I went ahead and boiled the lids even though you don't have
to when doing a water bath.....

Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012

Well I found two sources of local jalapeno growers and they aren't far from us at all.  Friday I went to Bobby Scott's HUGE garden not a mile from my house and picked 10 lbs. of peppers with a little eggplant and pablanos too.  Mr. Scott was so generous, he told me if I come pick, I can have anything in his garden.  That's amazing because I wanted to pay his fee: $1/pound.  That's right one dollar per pound.  I'm coming up with a way to thank him...

So my second source of peppers is Grandad's neighbor, Murray Mathews who lives just down the road from the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church.  Jackie and Chloe kindly picked up 8 lbs. of peppers Friday night that we canned that night.  We canned Mr. Scott's peppers yesterday.  One thing we thought we learned was to chop the peppers with gloves on since late Friday and early Saturday morning, we couldn't touch our face or eyes at all.  So on the second canning day, we used gloves during the chopping and we both agreed our hands burned worse on Saturday with gloves on than on Friday.  Or could have been that Mr. Scott's peppers were just hotter than Mr. Mathews? We'll see in a few months.

Why can japs?  Well if you read this blog you know I'm a fan of the heat.  I recently bought a GINORMOUS jar of japs at Sam's and the things don't have ANY heat on them, I mean no heat and what a bore that is.  So I had some of my own peppers to can, add the two farms around me and we ended up canning 10 pints and 6 quarts of peppers.  For two jars, I diced the peppers for convenience.  Sometimes I'm in such a hurry I don't wanna take the time to chop slices into diced japs.  We'll see...I hope we added enough garlic and salt.  I'll have to report on this in 6 months or so.  I'm taking Ken's advice here.

One note to self, I forgot the pickling salt in batch number two yesterday.  We quickly opened the jars up and added it and put the lids back on those hot jars even after their water bath of 10 minutes.  I panicked and called Ken to find out if you have to re-water bath the peppers.  He sent me straight on to Myrtle Bradshaw who gave Joy and me the Pickle recipe.  She said not to sweat it and it wouldn't need to be re-bathed.  And she was right, once the jars were cooled, every jar was sealed.  THANKS Mrytle!

So here's how the recipe rolls:

Pickled Jalapeno Peppers from food.com

2 quarts peppers (we had 18 lbs of peppers and made 10 pints and 6 quarts which equals 22 pints)
2 C. White wine vinegar (for 18 lbs. you'll need 6-16 oz. bottles of white wine vinegar, and for the record, there are a TON of pickling recipes that use apple cider and white plain vinegar)
2 C. water
1/2 t. pickle salt (use 2 T. for quarts and 1 T. for pints, I say this because I only used 1 t. and all other recipes triple the salt in this recipe, I guess we will see in a few months...)
4 cloves garlic (we used 2 cloves for all size jars which is 32 cloves and 2 large heads of garlic)

Slice peppers or leave them whole (we sliced all but two jars that we diced for convenience down the road, I cannot imagine getting a WHOLE pepper out in a few months and having to chop it, so we got the convenience thing outta the way...it was a painfully, hot experience that I hope will be worth it.
If you do whole peppers, cut two slits in the peppers to prevent bursting)
Pack peppers tightly into clean hot jars (mine were clean but not hot because of all our chopping)
Combine vinegar with water and heat to simmer but DO NOT BOIL
Pour hot vinegar over peppers, leaving 1/2 inch head space and add pickling salt and a clove of garlic to each jar and seal (I did 2 cloves per jar and other recipes say you can add peppercorns, thyme and oregano, I wish I had seen this as I have a yard full of oregano)
Process jars in a 10 minute water bath then cool.

Biscuit has the begging down for sure.....:)

Well I cannot wait to report on my canning adventure.  I first canned peach preserves when we first moved back to Wynne in 1997 while living with Memaw and Grandad.  That was an adventure and I haven't made peach preserves since then because of the process.  Thanks to Joy for introducing me to canning pickles and thanks to Jackie for helping with my first canning, and maybe my last canning jalapenos.  I've found that doing any canning project really needs two people unless you don't work, have no children or a house to keep...:) I'd love to hear your comments.