Kitchen

[SmokieBear]

I haven't canned hot peppers in years, but a friend brought me a basket of them today.

In looking up recipes, I see that most say to process in a water bath or pressure canner.

I know I never did that, just put them up with oil and vinegar, and never had a problem.

Does anyone else not process them? I would be happy for your thoughts. TIA

Smokiebear

[RedTop]

I wouldn't waste my time canning any type of vegetable without doing some type of processing to make sure the food will keep any length of time, and be safe to eat.

[PamelaSue72]

Our old family recipes for Lime Pickles and for Bread and Butter Pickles do not call for water-bath processing. We simply put them into sterilized jars, put on a sterilized lid, the screw top and that's it. Both of these recipes call for cooking the pickles, so the pickles are hot when put into the jars. The pickles seal without any trouble and we've never gotten sick from eating them. I think it has something to do with all the vinegar and sugar used in those recipes.

Now, my recipe for Cinnamon Pickles and for my salsas do call for water-bath canning. When I make Old Farmhouse Chutney and my Honey Glazed Red Onions, I pressure-can those recipes.

To be on the safe side, I think I would water-bath process your hot peppers, according to the directions in your recipes.

[Carmie]

I boil empty quart canning jars/lids for 15 minutes to clean them and then stuff the jars with washed non-blemished hot peppers. I fill the jar with peppers to the top with half vinegar and half water and add either pickling spice or canning salt and close the lids. I don't do any sort of processing in a canner and never had a jar go bad. I have been doing them this way for over 40 years. When you put in a canner to process, the peppers get too soft and limp for my taste.

Once, I opened the jar about 2-3 days later because I was hungry and couldn't wait. It wasn't a good idea. The pressure in the jar exploded every pepper and all of the liquid all over me and my kichen. I won't make that mistake again.

[justathought]

I baked the peppers with oil then into clean jars, added enough oil to cover, sealed the jars. The heat from the peppers sealed the jars.

[Campion]

The problem with baking peppers in oil is that if you get a botulism spore, it will grow and produce a terribly dangerous poison. You got lucky.

Oil provides an anaerobic environment (no oxygen) and peppers are non-acidic. To properly preserve any non-acid vegetable,. you need to process them under pressure because pressure can burst open the spores. Heat alone doesn't do it--they are resistant.

Yes, it worked for you. But it is playing with dynamite.

Here are instructions for peppers.

Here is a book on how to process vegetables and fruits safely.

This is a pressure canner. If you go pick one up at a yard sale, you have to have the gauge checked because it MUST reach the particular pressure for your canning. (ie 10lbs, 15 lbs.) So cheaping out is not smart. Presto will check your gauge at no cost. I use weighted gauges (metal rings that put the right pressure on the pot) because they have no moving parts!

Yes, you don't get crisp vegetables. No, I won't TOUCH someone's homecanned foods unless I know they are knowledgeable about safe preserving. Just because there never was a problem doesn't make this a safe process. I used to teach microbiology to med techs and believe me, you DON'T want to mess with potentially dangerous food-borne toxins.

[PamelaSue72]

On 9/13/2014 Campion said:

The problem with baking peppers in oil is that if you get a botulism spore, it will grow and produce a terribly dangerous poison. You got lucky.

Oil provides an anaerobic environment (no oxygen) and peppers are non-acidic. To properly preserve any non-acid vegetable,. you need to process them under pressure because pressure can burst open the spores. Heat alone doesn't do it--they are resistant.

Yes, it worked for you. But it is playing with dynamite.

I agree. It's kind of the same thing with garlic-infused oil. I make it, but I keep it in the fridge, never at room temp. I'm pretty paranoid when it comes to canning and food safety.