"Pickled" Peppers

[Konadog]

Hey Bracc, I just did the same thing last week. I used 1 quart of water, 3 tablespoons of sea salt, and 1 cup of white wine vinegar. I cut the tops and bottoms off of the peppers and cut them in half. Dumped peppers in quart jar, filled with brine. Just be sure to use something to hold everything under the brine. Anything that floats to the top and is exposed to air has the possibility of going moldy.

 

[Melicious]

pickling salt then....

Pickling salt is commonly used because you can correctly volume measure it for many pickling/canning recipes. If you're weighing, you can probably use any NaCl based salt; however, table salt's anti-caking agents will not dissolve. I don't do fermenting, just refrigerator vinegar and/or salt-based pickling, so I don't know whether the flavor issue involved in using other types of salt than pickling salt might be a problem for fermenting. https://www.webstaurantstore.com/blog/3312/what-is-pickling-salt.html#:~:text=Pickling salt is the best,additives are not water soluble.

 

[bernardsmith]

Melicious, Depending where you may live you might be able to use any kind of salt BUT in the US most salt contains iodine because that mineral is viewed as a mineral absolutely essential for the health of the thyroid BUT many people, it is thought, would suffer from iodine deficiency if it was not made available and it is added to table salt. The problem for cheese makers and those who use lactic bacteria for pickling is that iodine KILLS these microbes, so you really have to use iodine free salt and iodine free salt is labelled as pickling salt, cheese making salt etc. That and you would weigh salt and not add it by volume in cheese making or pickling or even bread baking. Volume measures used by cooks are sorta kinda very approximate and are relatively easy for anyone to make. Liquids make better sense in terms of volume measurements. Solids are weighed: Larger crystals of salt simply take up more room than smaller crystals and if you want to use 10 grams the volumes can be enormously different, but 10 grams is 10 grams is 10 grams while 100 ml is for all intents and purposes always 100 ml

 

[Melicious]

Melicious, Depending where you may live you might be able to use any kind of salt BUT in the US most salt contains iodine because that mineral is viewed as a mineral abslutely essential for the health of the thyroid BUT many people it is thought would suffer from iodine deficiency if it was not made available and it is added to table salt. The problem for cheese makers and those who use lactic bacteria for pickling is that iodine KILLS these microbes, so you really have to use iodine free salt and iodine free salt is labelled as pickling salt, cheese making salt etc. That and you would weigh salt and not add it by volume in cheese making or pickling or even bread baking. Volume measures used by cooks are sorta kinda very approximate and are relatively easy for anyone to make. Liquids make better sense in terms of volume measurements. Solids are weighed: Larger crystals of salt simply take up more room than smaller crystals and if you want to use 10 grams the volumes can be enormously different, but 10 grams is 10 grams is 10 grams while 100 ml is for all intents and purposes always 100 ml

I am in the U.S...I use sea salt, but go out of my way to buy iodized just because of this! I don't use a lot of it, but just enough when cooking & occasionally finishing a dish, etc. that I'm not concerned about deficiency.

Thanks for providing the distinguishing info that the iodization DOES matter for those who ARE fermenting, though! I wouldn't use table salt for pickling anyway--would have gone with kosher if I didn't have pickling salt!

 

[bernardsmith]

Any salt that indicates that it is iodine free is fine. But again, recipes can be confusing. I would ignore any recipe that asks me to add a volume of any solid ingredient.

 

[bracconiere]

The problem for cheese makers and those who use lactic bacteria for pickling is that iodine KILLS these microbes, so you really have to use iodine free salt and iodine free salt is labelled as pickling salt,

hmmm, so the fact i add potassium iodide to my 50/50 lite salt would make it even worse...thanks for the heads up...

 

[passedpawn]

Yep, Every 2 weeks I pick new jaleps of my plants, slice and jar, then pour boiled vinegar and water over them. (2 cups water to 1 cup vinegar). I add some slices of cayennes to add heat and color. Eat these on nachos all the time. Yummers!

 

[passedpawn]

Note: if you just add more jalapeno slices to a jar (iow, you grab a few from the garden, slice, and toss in a jar with the others), they won't be the same. You can see in the image above, in the jar on the right, there are a few slices floating. I tossed them in there.

The hot vinegar/water solution instantly affects the slices. I don't know which I like better. The fresh floating ones are crunchier. The ones that were covered with hot solution are softer and have that pickled flavor.

 

[Oldskewl]

My MILs friend gave her a couple jars of Italian pickled pepper last year. She gave me a jar and they were wonderful. I asked for the recipe and the brine is a mixture of 2/3 c. salt, 4 c. vinegar, 4 c. water, 3 c. canola oil, lots of garlic and 1/3 c. oregano. You soak the banana peppers overnight in the brine and then put them in jars. BUT the jars are not heated and they are supposed to be shelf safe. I made a batch. I'm scared! Old school canning I guess!

 

[Immocles]

So how long is too long for something like this to sit out at room temperature? I generally only let my veggies ferment for a week or less, besides a few instances where I prefer longer (kraut, carrot slaw), but I was jarring up a batch of green beans today and went to grab a few items from the pantry and noticed a jar of peppers I remember making in our old house. We moved in April, I probably jarred it up in...late December? Looks like its a variety of peppers (sweet banana, jalapeño and Anaheim) with ginger in probably a 2% brine. Looks fantastic, nothing sketchy growing on or under the surface. But its been 8 months at room temperature under the brine. I'm mostly timid to try it because I think its going to be HOT.

 

[Oldskewl]

My MILs friend gave her a couple jars of Italian pickled pepper last year. She gave me a jar and they were wonderful. I asked for the recipe and the brine is a mixture of 2/3 c. salt, 4 c. vinegar, 4 c. water, 3 c. canola oil, lots of garlic and 1/3 c. oregano. You soak the banana peppers overnight in the brine and then put them in jars. BUT the jars are not heated and they are supposed to be shelf safe. I made a batch. I'm scared! Old school canning I guess!

Update: After 3 weeks I sampled a pint. They turned out great. And so far I am still alive! LOL! I guess the high amount of salt and vinegar solution keeps any bacteria at bay. I'm sure the oil helps keeps the oxygen away from the peppers as well.

 

[Evilgrin]

Get the Easy Fermenter kit off Amazon and dont look back. It has 3 large mouth lids, pump and a pack of glass weights. Ive let ferments go a year in those things without any yeast or mold showing up. I use 5% salt to pepper/veggie weight. You can go lower with stuff like cabbage. 2% is fine for cabbage. The water brine can also be a bit less.

Start with the lowest pH water you can get or use some lactic acid to adjust your water. Niagara bottled water is about the lowest i can find. Adding a culture starter like Caldwells or just a couple TBS of refesh kraut juice will greatly speed it up and help a ton with lower sodium ferments.

https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Fermenter-Wide-Mouth-Weights/dp/B0789QYV52

 

[passedpawn]

Note: if you just add more jalapeno slices to a jar (iow, you grab a few from the garden, slice, and toss in a jar with the others), they won't be the same. You can see in the image above, in the jar on the right, there are a few slices floating. I tossed them in there.

The hot vinegar/water solution instantly affects the slices. I don't know which I like better. The fresh floating ones are crunchier. The ones that were covered with hot solution are softer and have that pickled flavor.

I now know that I prefer to NOT pour boiling vinegar/water solution over jalepenos when pickling. They stay crisper and greener if I do it cold.

 

[pvtpublic]

I've used pickle pipes, but I don't care too much for them, the glass does seem to weigh it down enough for me. I stumbled across kraut source in a kitchen store and I now have multiples. It has a spring loaded foot that keeps everything down better IMO.

 

[passedpawn]

I've used pickle pipes, but I don't care too much for them, the glass does seem to weigh it down enough for me. I stumbled across kraut source in a kitchen store and I now have multiples. It has a spring loaded foot that keeps everything down better IMO.

I like it, but I'm surprised it's really a thing.