cooking the peppers softens them. just put into vinegar but no water added. They will last a very long time. I do it this way and it lasts for years. No salt needed but you can add a little for flavor only. the salt does not help it preserve. The vinegar preserves it. You can add sugar or substitute to sweeten. I avoid spices. they can cause problems if not fully covered with vinegar. You can slice the pepper to get vinegar inside. I slice them length wise from top to bottom into 2 halves.

this is done mostly with hot peppers or chiles. it works with sweet peppers but hot peppers have some flavor.

There is a hot pepper forum here on GW. Many people there use this method.

NCHFP (the recognized authority on home canning guidelines) offers several recipes:

Pickled Yellow Peppers

Pickled Jalapeno's

Pickled Hot Peppers

There are also recipes for bell peppers pickled and marinated hot peppers at the NCHFP link below.

All require 5-10 mins. in a BWB for safety purposes and to seal the jar. No pressure canning is required. Best to stick with tested and approved recipes when possible.

Enjoy your peppers. ;)

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation

If Sam keeps the jars in the fridge, he doesn't need to process them, right? Anybody know off the top of your head where to find info on how long they keep?

Melissa

This Colorado Extension document provides information about pickled peppers. If you scroll down the page, it does say any pickled recipe suitable for canning could be refrigerated instead. Longevity would be determined by strength of the brine, refrigerator temperature, type and condition of peppers. My guess is they'll keep as long as you want, but over time the peppers will soften.

The important thing is never to shelf-store unprocessed peppers and never to can peppers using untested recipes.

Spices shouldn't be a problem, except aesthetically, in that they cloud the pickling liquid or change flavor over time. They aren't a safety issue.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Making Pickled Peppers at Home (Revised 3/08)

Hey thanks for all the help, i will give it a try!

sam

No pressure cooking! They will become mush in no time!! For the crispest pickles, very fresh peppers are needed. You could also make them, as a fermented pickle either full or half sour. This type doesn't need vinegar as they ferment in water and salt brine instead. They can keep in the fridge for up to a year. I have a half gallon jar of half sour cukes still leftin my fridge. They are in a salt brine and allowed to 'work' for about 3 days at room temperature, then I add about a tablespoon or two of white vinegar and place them in the fridge. I like half sour cucumbers very garlicy and dill flavored, so I add a lot of fresh dill seed heads and weed, and also several cloves of cut up garlic. I like using a Mrs. Wages dill pickle mix as a base, which has the salt I need, as well as some good tasting dill favor by itself.

For pickling peppers, you can do the full stength 5% vinegar and add some salt, as with vinegar alone they tend to be a bit 'one sided' and just vinegar tasting. I can delicate mildly hot pepperoncini peppers that cannot hold up to any heat processes of any kind. These are made by a vacuum process that is based on some commercial processes for the same type peppers. With full strength vinegar as the brine, they can keep in the fridge for up to a year, if properly capped. Not much can survive in 5% vinegar. If the peppers are big bell types, cut into pieces and deseed first. To retain crispness longer, even in the fridge, you can add a little calcium chloride to the brine. This helps to buffer the breaking down of the peppers (or cukes) in the full strength vinegar so they retain the crispness a bit longer. The use of the calcium is also in some commercial whole tomatoes and in some store bought cucumber pickles. Ball used to offer that as Pickle Crisp.