Hot chili peppers are popular and great garnishes you can consume with many dishes. You can buy ready to use pickled hot chili peppers from Gourmet 212, but if you want too make your own pickles, you can read this guide. You don’t need fancy equipment to make pickled chili peppers but you can create fancy tables including by learning how to pickle cherry peppers.
Equipment You'll Need for Pickling
Equipment you’ll need for how to pickle chili peppers are given below. You can make pickled chili peppers with those.
- Ball jars or jars with wide mouth
- Tongs or something similar in order to handle hot jars with
- Funnel
- Large pot
- 6-8 ounce pot/saucepan
- Skillet if you want to remove pepper skins
- Large spoons and ladles
- Canner or an extremely large pot
Related:Fermented Pepper Recipe
How to Pickle Chili Peppers
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You will learn how to pickle chili peppers in this post. To make a delicious pickled chili peppers, you need to choose the freshest peppers for this process. Throw out the bruised or soft ones because how to pickle chili peppers should include fresh pickled chili peppers.
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Because your peppers to how to make pickle chili peppers are most probably hot, it is best to wear gloves while handling peppers. The traditional pickled chili pepper jar includes both hot and sweet peppers, but this is your process for how to pickle chili peppers, and you are free to pick the peck of pickles you prefer.
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Always wash and dry your chili peppers before making pickled chili peppers in order to make them pesticide-free. Also, it is better to wash your jars and lids before use. You should not boil your canning jar lids because boiling the lids can damage the sealing compound and it can cause that jars don’t seal, or the seals fail during storage.
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Prepare the lids. To do that, take a small saucepan of water and boil. Then, remove from the heat and add the lids into it. The lids should be hold in hot water until they get ready to use so the compound will be soft and conform to the top of the jar, which will create a tight seal. Rings mustn’t be boiled before use due to the fact that this can cause rust. The rings should be just washed and dried.
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Before continuing, you need some ingredients to assemble.
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28-32 ounces mixed chili pepper
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4 cups of white distilled vinegar (5% acidity)
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1 cup water
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2 tablespoons sugar
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2 tablespoons pickling salt
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1 tablespoon dried basil
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2 large bay leaves
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- Slicing the chili peppers into rings is more practical so that you can fit them into jars. However, if you want to make pickled chili peppers as whole, you can pierce them with a knife to let the pickling liquid seep through more easily.
- Add the other ingredients mentioned above to a large pot. Bring them to a boil.
- To simmer, add chili peppers, and then, remove the pot from heat. Put the pot somewhere to cool.
- As final step pour the mix into quart containers and seal. It is important to be sure that peppers are completely covered by the brine solution. After that, you can refrigerate it.
Best Vinegar for Pickling Peppers
To learn how to pickle chili peppers, you need to learn how to balance acidity in pickled chili peppers. Acidity is very important for pickling safety in order to prevent the growth of botulinum bacteria. You’d better use high grade white distilled vinegar or cider vinegar of 5% acidity. In order to retain the color of your peppers, white vinegar might be better. If the flavor is too acidic for your palate delight, you can soften it with adding some sugar or honey. Be careful that it won’t affect the pH in how to pickle chili peppers.
Best Salt for Pickling Peppers
For how to pickle chili peppers or other vegetables “nonionized canning or pickling salts” would be the best choice. Table salt that we use usually contains non-caking ingredients and it can make the pickled chili peppers brine cloudy and unpalatable. If you cannot find pickling salt, you can use pure sea salt without any additives in how to pickle chili peppers.
Best Water for Pickling Peppers
Most water can be used in pickled chili peppers, but the best choice would be the purified water. Because hard water might rob the peppers of their color, be careful not to use hard water in how to pickle chili peppers.
It's All About the Acidity - and Ratios
Acidity is the keynote for how to pickle chili peppers. You need a pH of 4.6 or less for household pickles that will be protected by the water bath method, because botulism can occur above 4.6. A common rule in how to pickle chili peppers is that you should use a ratio of at least half of at least 5% vinegar to water. In other words, you can use 50% of 5% acid vinegar and 50% water.
If you want, you can increase the amount of vinegar to get a lower acidity and also more of that puckery pickle flavor. However, it can be too acidic or it can result in a pH above 4.6 so botulism can occur. To prevent this to happen, you can get yourself a good pH meter to measure your pickled chili peppers brine.
A Note About Pickling Spices
You can add some other ingredients to flavor your pickled chili peppers. You can make Turkish type with adding garlic and black pepper or you can add some onion and mustard seeds, which is known as German type. You can also add bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, coriander seeds, red pepper flakes, cardamom, cloves, ginger dill seeds and other spices or herbs that you like.
Jarring or Canning Your Pickled Peppers
The instructions given above is for easy pickled chili peppers store in refrigerator. If you want to process pickled chili peppers in jars for longer storage, you should check out the following instructions in how to pickle chili peppers process.
- After cleaning and preparing your peppers, fill the large pot with water and wait until it gets to a rolling boil.
- Prepare your canning pot by installing the rack and filling it with approximately 4 inches of hot water from the tap. Unless the instructions for your particular canner are different, do this way.
- Put the pot on the stove top and arrange the heat to low. If you are using a regular large pot instead of a pot specifically designed for canning, there is no problem if there is no shelf for canning, but if there is, it will be easier just for use purposes. Then, you’re ready to can.
- Make more room on the stove for your smaller pot. Then, combine the vinegar, water, salt and sugar. Allow the mixture to simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Fill your jars with peppers but be sure to leave 1 inch between the top of the jar and the lid. This is called "head space " and allows the content to expand during processing. Be sure to pack the jar as full as possible without leaking into the head cavity.
- When your jar is filled with pepper, use a scoop and funnel to fill your jar with the vinegar solution you created earlier. Make sure there is a 1/2-inch gap between the vinegar solution and the top of the jar. The pickle solution should always come to the top of the peppers in the jar, just cover it.
- The standard for pickles is the 1/2-inch head space between the liquid and the top of the jar. If you leave too much head space, there will be too much air for a strong vacuum to form during the process, which will cause the jar to leak incorrectly or fail.
- When the jars are full, place the lids in the jars and screw them in, but not as tight as you can. Make sure that is comfortable, but you do not have to open the lids.
- Place the jars in your tin pot, make sure there is at least 1 inch of space between each jar and its neighbor. Once the jars are arranged, fill the can with a scoop until the water reaches 1 inch in the tops of the jars. Use the boiling water from your other pot to fill the tin pot but be careful not to pour boiling water over the tops of the jars. Then, pour the water between the jars until soaked in water.
- Once a rolling simmer is reached in the tin pot, set a timer for 10 minutes if your kitchen is 300 feet or less above sea level. For those at 1,000 to 6,000 feet, boil your peppers for 15 minutes and, if you're above 6,000 feet, boil them for 20 minutes.
- Remove the jars from the toner (remember to use tongs) and leave to dry on a towel or cutting board. Make sure they are not bothered by sudden drafts or anything that hits them.
- After cooling, you can check the validity of the seal by pressing on the top of the jar: if the top is absorbed, the jar is closed. If opened up and down, the jar is not sealed, and you need to start over. From the beginning, do not reprocess jars that are not sealed with the first can. Remember that safe is much better than sorry.
- Remove the rings and wash the jars thoroughly. Store jars in a cool, dry place without rings. You can label with table of contents and date.
After you apply those instructions, your pickle is ready.
How Long Do Pickled Peppers Last?
Pickled chili peppers will last several weeks or longer in the fridge. We suggest that you let them sit for a week or 2 weeks before eating so they can be properly pickled after applying how to pickle chili peppers. Also, you can process your chili pickle in sterilized jars to keep it for much longer. If stored in a cool, dry place in this way, they will last for many months.
Caution and Spoilage Prevention
The level of acidity in your pickled chili peppers is important not only for taste and texture but also for safety. You should not change the proportions of vinegar, food or water in the recipe, or use vinegar whose acidity is unknown.
Standard canned jars and self-sealing lids are highly recommended for how to pickle chili peppers. Store your pickled chili peppers in a cool and dry place.
What Can I Do with My Pickled Peppers?
After completing the all instructions of how to pickle chili peppers, use pickled chili peppers to add some zippers and zing to many foods. Also, you can use them as a topping for nachos and tacos, pizza, burgers and hot dogs, more dishes.
Bon appetite!
