Preserving the Heat

Ted Calver

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Yorktown, Virginia
All this wet weather didn't do my garden any favors, but we are having a bumper crop of jalapenos. I usually grow the small/mild 'Tam' variety and there are several volunteers of Tam doing well, but this batch came from another part of the garden and some sets labeled 'Giant Jalapeno' which have lived up to their name.

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I decided to try pickling the surplus and found a recipe that looked good. After washing and sorting about half were nice, shiny prime looking peppers and half were corked, with some striations which many consider a blemish. When they are going to be sliced for pickles the cosmetic corking is just fine and I think they taste a bit hotter.

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I ended up with 5.5 lbs of slices and kept the red ones off to the side to mix into each jar along with some carrot slices for color. Jars were washed in the dishwasher then heated/staged in a 250°F oven to sterilize them. Heated up the brine, packed the jars, poured in the brine, put on the lids and loaded the jars into my old (1969) Presto 21QT. pressure cooker which did double duty as a water bath canner. Ten minutes after they came to a boil I pulled them out and set them on a rack to cool. More than enough to last us through the winter:thumb:. I was surprised to find that parts for the pressure cooker were still available from Presto, True Value and Ace Hardware. The lady at Presto customer service told me they were faced with the choice of shifting their manufacturing to China or closing the doors. I had to sample one of the jars with tonight's burger and they came out great...nice and hot.:D
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Those will be tasty later this year :thumb:

If you get a bunch of red ones smoke them - some to dry but others just most of the way then can those in a mix of mostly tomato sauce with just a bit of paste mixed in to make some of the best Chipotle sauce you'll find. For a jam jar sized one I'd put in two smoked pepper and enough sauce mix to cover then can (more than one jar obviously heh). Takes a while for the flavor to really develop bit in 3-4 months the pepper has infused everything and the sauce has softened the pepper so you can really enjoy them on pretty much everything.
 
Those will be tasty later this year :thumb:
If you get a bunch of red ones smoke them - some to dry but others just most of the way then can those in a mix of mostly tomato sauce with just a bit of paste mixed in to make some of the best Chipotle sauce you'll find. For a jam jar sized one I'd put in two smoked pepper and enough sauce mix to cover then can (more than one jar obviously heh). Takes a while for the flavor to really develop bit in 3-4 months the pepper has infused everything and the sauce has softened the pepper so you can really enjoy them on pretty much everything.

This really sounds good, Ryan. I'll let these big guys sit on the plants for a while and see if more of them turn red. I remember the Tam's turning red last year and there were a bunch. Love Chipotle sauce!
 
Hmmm, I have a smoker, unfortunately, our peppers aren't doing all that well this year.

Still, I bet I could hit up a farmers market and make something happen.

We (meaning me) kind of slacked off on the garden this year. Sharons been doing a great job on the tomatoes, but I just haven't gotten out there..
 
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