Refrigerator Pickled Hot Peppers

This started out as more of an experiment than anything because of the shear number of hot peppers my plants are producing. I was afraid they would go to waste if I didn't find something to do with them. I like pickled hot pepper rings, so I thought I would try to make my own. Note: This process is not suitable for storing the jars outside of a refrigerator.

Refrigerator Pickled Hot Peppers

2 medium cucumbers sliced lengthwise and halved to fit in the jars

5 pints mixed hot peppers

8 c distilled vinegar

8 c water

1 c pickling salt

16 whole cloves garlic peeled

8 tsp whole peppercorns

8 tsp dried onion

4 tsp dried dill

8 pint canning jars with lids

ice

The trick to crunchy pickles is an ice bath before jarring. The cucumbers were cut into spears and sized to fit in the pint jars. The peppers were cut into rings where appropriate and long skinny peppers were cut to fit in the pint jars longwise. We used Cowhorn, Jalepeno, Cayenne and Hungarian Wax peppers. Once the peppers and cucumbers were cut and sized, they all went in to a pot slightly bigger than the volume of the vegetables and were covered with ice. Add enough water so that icy water covers all the vegetables. Leave in the ice bath for 2 hours. Add more ice if needed.

All jars and lids should be cleaned and sanitized. Boiling water can be used to sanitize. At about the 1.5 hour mark line the jars up and in each one add 2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp peppercorns, 1 tsp dried onion and 1/2 tsp dried dill. Combine the vinegar, water and pickling salt in a sauce pot and bring it to a boil. Drain ice and water off the peppers and cucumbers and begin to pack them into the jars leaving 3/4 of an inch space at the top. Put a wide mouthed canning funnel in the first jar and ladel enough of the boiling brine into the jar to cover the vegetables but leaving 1/2 inch of space at the top. Immediatly put a lid on the jar. Follow this process for each jar. After a few hours of cooling, the lids should all have 'popped' in. Check each one to make sure they have formed a vacuum seal. After about 8 hours they should be cool enough to store in your refrigerator.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the flavor and crunchy texture of the pickled goodies. I only waited 2 days before sampling the first jar and I thought they were pretty good. I will be trying this technique on some other vegetables as well. If I had it to do over I would use bigger jars because the pint jars were a little too fiddly trying to pack enough stuff in to each one. From the information available on the internet it looks like these sealed jars should keep in the refrigerator for 6 months.

TTFN

B