O.K...........so I have searched the archives and got a lot of references to other sites but I am looking for anyone's tryed and true recipe for making a decent pickled pepper. We were sucessful several years ago and in my infinite wisdom did NOT mark the recipe that was a success, and for the past couple of years have had MUSH. Anyone out there that has one that pretty consistently works???

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), August 21, 2001

Answers

I make ours with standard pickle brine, as for sweet pickles, and just hot pack them, no processing, they stay better that way, not mushy. I add a shake of pickle spice to each quart jar as I fill 'em.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), August 21, 2001.

Annie.........recipe??? I have about 10 different recipes for pickle brine. What do you mean as for sweet pickles?? When you say hot pack does that mean you heat the peppers up or just the brine?? Do you chunk them or slice them? Pretend like I am a newbee pickle person.......I have had consistent failure here so my "standard brine" must be off.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), August 21, 2001.

Hi Diane! This is out of the Ball Blue Book for sweet icicle pickles, the recipe for sweet brine, you can use less sugar if you like, but keep the salt and vinegar ratio the same.

1 cup canning salt

2 quarts of water

5 cups sugar

5 cups vinegar (cider)

Bring brine ingredients to a boil and keep simmering.

Clean your peppers, take out seeds and slice long wise, pack into your kept hot ( keep in simmering water until you use them) sterilized jars and fill with the kept hot simmering brine as you pack each hot jar, do one jar at a time, and seal immediately. Set out of drafts and let set for 24 hours. Add a shake ot two if you like of pickling spice to each jar before you seal it.

I use Hungarian sweet yellow peppers for this.

These are not "crunchy", but are not mush either, I think you have to add alum to get crunchy, but I refuse to use aluminum products in our diets!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), August 21, 2001.

Thank you ....thank you!!! Will most definately try.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), August 22, 2001.

So, how about pickling little jalapeno peppers? I have tons of green ones, and I figure by the time the weather turns, there will still be lots of them still green. Can I pickle THEM (whole, I hope)? Should they be sweet? I suppose I ought to go look in a book . . .

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), August 22, 2001.

Joy, how were you hoping to use them after they were pickled?? You can buy them canned whole so I can't imagine that you couldn't. I chop mine up and freeze them, can them with vinegar or this year I have stuffed a bunch with cream cheese and frozen them on a cookie sheet to be used as "poppers". The Ball Blue Book (I looked it up Annie) says to slice a couple of holes in them and soak in the salt water for 12 to 18 hours. I am going to try that with some of my jalapenos.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), August 22, 2001.