Pickled Peppers
This is my standard pickled peppers recipe. Make it more or less sweet by varying the amount of sugar or omitting it entirely. If you’re pickling whole small peppers, such biquinho (sweetie bells), pepperoncini, guindilla, or piquin peppers, add the peppers, stemmed or pricked with a knife, to the hot brine then cook and stir 1 minute to remove excess air inside the peppers, then transfer the peppers and brine into jars. This will help prevent “floaters” in the jars. Calcium chloride, aka PickleCrisp, is not essential but will help keep the peppers crisp during processing.
Ingredients
- 3 cups vinegar
- 3 cups water
- ¼ to 1 cup sugar (optional)
- 1 Tbsp. kosher salt
- 6 cloves garlic, smashed
- 3 lb. sweet peppers or chile peppers, stemmed and cut as desired
- Calcium chloride granules (optional)
Instructions
- In a large saucepan combine vinegar, water, sugar (if using),and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar and salt are dissolved.
- Add 1 clove garlic to each of 6 pint hot, clean pint jars.Add 1/8 tsp. calcium chloride to each jar, if using. Pack peppers into jars, leaving ½ inch headspace. Pour brine over peppers in jars. Remove air bubbles from jars and adjust brine to maintain the ½-inch headspace. Add lids and screw bands. Process in a boiling water canner 10 minutes (or cool and transfer to the refrigerator and consume within 3 months).