What is the Best Way to Pickle Spicy Peppers? Good Questions

Q: I grew a batch of red Spanish pepper plants out of the seeds from a supermarket pepper. Against all expectations it gave me about 60 peppers in total. I want to pickle them, but what is the best way to do it without loosing the punch they give?

Sent by Martijn

Editor: Here's one for the canning experts among us! How would you recommend canning these red peppers?

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Categories: Advice, Main, Discussion, Ingredient, Jams & Preserved Foods, Questions, Recipe Questions, Vegetables

Posted by Emma Christensen

Emma is the recipe editor for The Kitchn and the author of "True Brews: How to Craft Fermented Cider, Beer, Wine, Sake, Soda, Mead, Kefir, and Kombucha at Home," available in bookstores nationwide May 14, 2013.
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Comments (4)

I just put a whole bunch up in a quick-pickle - and boy did they keep plenty of spice. I'm sure water bath sealing would work with this recipe, though the peppers might lose a bit of crunch. My recipe: http://www.cookbookarchaeology.com/?p=2173#more-2173 based on this one from David Lebovitz: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/04/pickled-peppers/

Here's my recipe for pickled jalepeños I've done this with other kinds of chile peppers as well, and they definitely don't lose their punch! This recipe is for sliced peppers, but I also did a couple batches this year that I left whole. You can use the same brine and the same processing time, just make a couple of length-wise slits in the peppers to help the brine penetrate them.

Many of my seeds come from supermarket produce. Depends on the fruit itself and/or producers' processing but they are more often viable than not. Just saying...lots more options here than just peppers:)

I use pretty much the same recipe as picklemuseum minus the processing (canner). One jar makes it to the fridge, the rest go on the pantry shelf until needed. The shelf life of the jars that never see the inside of a fridge until opened, is wayyy longer than the measley 30 days noted for refrigerator pickles. That brine is powerful stuff and is peservative enough unless you're planning on storing them for years.I personally find the 'processing' unnecessary where pickling is concerned and the fridge clutter annoying. Do what makes you feel safe.

I pickle peppers with the same brine I use for cucumbers or other vegetables, you can leave the peppers whole if you prefer spicier peppers just make sure to cut some slits into the peppers so the brine has easy access. I have more instruction on pickling peppers/vegetables on my blog.

http://gentlemangourmand.blogspot.com/