Pickled Jalepeños

Last summer I ended up with a glut of jalepeños, and not knowing what to do with them, I decided to pickle them. I’ve never been a big  jalepeño eater, and I didn’t really have high expectations for them. I thought they might very well end up as forgotten pickles, but in the end they were quite a hit. When I visited my brother  Dave a few months ago, I found him jealously hoarding the brine in the jar long after the last pickle slice had been consumed. My sister Meg has placed a special order for 4 pints this year. We like to put these on tacos, quesadillas, or eggs and grits, or to chop them up and add them to salsas and tomato salads. Continue reading

More Pickles

Well if my WordPress stats are any indication, an awful lot of people are looking for recipes for full sour and half sour pickles. I am very happy to oblige. Last week I checked on my full sours daily, and once they started to take on that pickley olive green color, I started slicing off a little slivers from the end of one of the cucumbers to sample a taste. By Sunday they tasted just about right to me, so I decided it was time to transfer them to jars. Continue reading

Full Sours

When I started canning, one of the first things I put up were dill pickles. I love making pickles, and I’ve always loved eating them, but for some reason I was never really very interested in eating the ones I made. It took a few years and a little bit of reading up on pickling to realize that I was doing it all wrong. The half-sour and full-sour (or kosher dill) pickles I grew up eating in New York did not come from a jar full of vinegar. Though there are countless recipes for “kosher dill” vinegar pickles out there, the only way to make a real kosher dill pickle is by fermentation. Continue reading