I was wondering if anyone has experience canning whole jalapeños. I've been canning jalapeño rings for a few years now. I pack the rings in jars with a few garlic slivers, fill then with a simple brine (4 cups H[sub]2[/sub]O:1 cup white vinegar:[sup]1[/sup]/[sub]4[/sub] cup canning salt), and process for 15-20 minutes in a boiling water bath (15 min is recommended at my altitude). I've never had peppers go bad and they always come out tasting good.
I want to try canning whole jalapeños. I've bought them before and I really liked them. I tried making one batch already, and I was wondering if I did it right. I completely removed the stems, cut 3-5 deep slits in each pepper, and tightly packed them into jars. I used garlic and carrot sticks to take up more space and pack the peppers in more tightly. After that, I possessed them the same way I described above. As an aside note, I didn't use a knife to remove the stems; I just pulled them off so that the peppers weren't opened up but instead just had soft spots where the stems were. This is how all of the whole jalapeños I've bought in the past have come.
So... Did I do it right? I was a little concerned with the increase in headspace as air diffused out of the whole peppers, but I showed a jar to my grandmother, who has been canning things her whole life, and she said it wasn't anything to worry about. After the fact, I looked at some recipes on the web. Most of them recommended packing and processing the whole peppers the same way I did, but what they did to the peppers before packing was quite different. Some recipes called for brinning or salting the peppers for at least 12 hours and then packing. Other recipes called for roasting or boiling the peppers, skinning, flattening, and then canning them. I've never skinned jalapeños for making pickled rings, and I'm almost certain all of the whole pickled, canned jalapeños I've bought in the past had their skin. I have pickled a few whole peppers with batches of dill pickles before and never had a problem, but now after looking at the few available sets of directions for putting up whole jalapeños, I'm getting a bit paranoid that I didn't do it right.
If someone out there has canned whole jalapeños, I'd love to compare methods. Thanks and good harvest!
I want to try canning whole jalapeños. I've bought them before and I really liked them. I tried making one batch already, and I was wondering if I did it right. I completely removed the stems, cut 3-5 deep slits in each pepper, and tightly packed them into jars. I used garlic and carrot sticks to take up more space and pack the peppers in more tightly. After that, I possessed them the same way I described above. As an aside note, I didn't use a knife to remove the stems; I just pulled them off so that the peppers weren't opened up but instead just had soft spots where the stems were. This is how all of the whole jalapeños I've bought in the past have come.
So... Did I do it right? I was a little concerned with the increase in headspace as air diffused out of the whole peppers, but I showed a jar to my grandmother, who has been canning things her whole life, and she said it wasn't anything to worry about. After the fact, I looked at some recipes on the web. Most of them recommended packing and processing the whole peppers the same way I did, but what they did to the peppers before packing was quite different. Some recipes called for brinning or salting the peppers for at least 12 hours and then packing. Other recipes called for roasting or boiling the peppers, skinning, flattening, and then canning them. I've never skinned jalapeños for making pickled rings, and I'm almost certain all of the whole pickled, canned jalapeños I've bought in the past had their skin. I have pickled a few whole peppers with batches of dill pickles before and never had a problem, but now after looking at the few available sets of directions for putting up whole jalapeños, I'm getting a bit paranoid that I didn't do it right.
If someone out there has canned whole jalapeños, I'd love to compare methods. Thanks and good harvest!
