Hi -

Someone in the Cooking forum suggested I also post this question here...

This is my first year attempting canning with the hot water bath method. So far things have gone procedurally very well.

My question is for the pickled foods -- mainly banana peppers and cucumber dills. My experience in the past with refrigerator dills and also so far this year with 'real' canning tells me that I really don't like the taste when the vinegar content exceeds about 60% (specifically, I mean a recipe of 40% water and 60% store-bought 5% vinegar; ie., I am not referring to the 5% content of the vinegar itself).

Most recipes I've seen use anywhere from 60% to 100% of the mixture as distilled vinegar. The Ball Blue Book's 'Pickled Pepper Mix', for example, uses 75% vinegar in its mixture. I have seen recipes that go as low as 50%, but they seem to be few and far between, and I have no way to assess if that's safe for longer-term storage.

I understand that a certain level of acidification must be achieved for safety, and my question is: what is the minimum safe concentration of vinegar for shelf storage of pickled items using the water bath canning method?

Thanks in advance for any input!