Pickled Pepperoncinis

Yesterday I pickled something for the first time. Pretty exciting, eh? Okay, maybe it’s not that exciting. But it was fun and even challenging. If you grow your own vegetables, you should definitely give it a try.

I had a modest first harvest from my pepperoncini plants, so I selected smallish preserving jars (16 oz) that I found at Target for $4.49 for a four pack. I have no idea if that’s a good price or not? I also found a Ball Blue Canning Book, which was recommended by Shibaguyz, they seem to know what they’re doing, so I bought that too. The name of the book is rather unfortunate, but the directions in the book were better than anything I found on the internet, and it has TONS of different recipes for everything from pickling cucumbers, peppers and beets to making flavored vinegars and then some.

Here is the recipe I followed. The only change I made was to reduce the recipe because I had a smaller amount of peppers than the recipe called for. If you have never canned anything before, definitely track down a good book or website, because there are important sterilization procedures you need to do to avoid growing bacteria inside the jar (yuck!).

• 1 1/3 pounds of hot peppers
• 3 cups vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed

Combine vinegar, water and garlic is a medium sauce pot and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for five minutes. Discard garlic. Pack peppers into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in boiling water canner.

The end result was this:

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