Pickled pepper advice needed

[freemotion]

I have jalapenos and ....um....oh, what did I plant???? Gotta got check the tag, I'll be back. Hot Portugal. My question is, when do I pick them for pickling? Aren't they picked green? Or do I wait for some red? I am not much of a hot pepper eater, so I don't really know. I've only grown cayennes for the hot peppers, I just wait until they are nice and red, or uproot the plants and hang them in the garage before the frost gets 'em.

What do you do?

 

[big brown horse]

I have jalapenos and ....um....oh, what did I plant???? Gotta got check the tag, I'll be back. Hot Portugal. My question is, when do I pick them for pickling? Aren't they picked green? Or do I wait for some red? I am not much of a hot pepper eater, so I don't really know. I've only grown cayennes for the hot peppers, I just wait until they are nice and red, or uproot the plants and hang them in the garage before the frost gets 'em.

What do you do?

I'm going to ferment my jalapenos to make pickled peppers like the kind that go on top of nachos.

 

[freemotion]

OK......so how do you know when they are ready to pick? So I can pick a peck and pickle them?

 

[big brown horse]

Depends what ya got. With jalapenos you can pick them when they are green or even redish green.

Not sure what your other peppers are really, sorry cant help ya.

I grew mostly jalapenos in TX. (The hotter the summer got, the hotter those peppers got.) They were about the length of your thumb to the length of your fore finger.

Dont get them in your eye-o!

 

[freemotion]

So any stage of green, meaning, I can really pick them pretty much whenever I want? Do I pickle (ferment) them whole, seeded, chopped, what? Do I add flavorings? Clueless, here! I will be gifting most of them, a few for dh, and I will try to make some mild salsa with some and see if I like it.

 

[big brown horse]

So any stage of green, meaning, I can really pick them pretty much whenever I want? Do I pickle (ferment) them whole, seeded, chopped, what? Do I add flavorings? Clueless, here! I will be gifting most of them, a few for dh, and I will try to make some mild salsa with some and see if I like it.

I was just going to slice them and ferment them in a brine. (Keeping it simple.)

Do you like pico de gallo? (SP?) OMG I love it and make it quite often. Salsa is usually cooked, pico is raw, the peppers are marinated for a while in lemon juice with the rest of the ingrediants. And if you like to have a corn chip or two every now and again, then you should try it. Play with the ingrediants:

fresh jalapeno chopped
red onion chopped
juice from lemon
cilantro (not parsley )
avacado (optional)
sea salt
crushed garlic

Let it marinate for 30 min or so before serving, or eat it fresh too...I usually can't wait.

I just add and taste as I go depending on who is coming over to eat it with me. Taste it on your (salted) corn chip, or you might add too much sea salt. (Great on white fish or with scrambled eggs too.)

I think you can freeze the peppers too to add to cooked dishes too like chili etc.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I often mix red and green. It looks pretty in the jar. The green ones are hotter.
Here is what I do with hot peppers, besides growing an assortment

I pickle them
I add them to other pickles to spice them up
I freeze them
I make salsa
I dry them
I make hot pepper jelly (yum, great with cream cheese and bagel)

the heat is mostly in the seeds and the membrane, so if you remove that you will have milder peppers.

Caution! wear plastic gloves or use a plastic bag, when cutting them. Do not get your fingers near your eyes. The oils will cause nasty burns even hours later!

I have cut two slits in them when pickling so the liquid can get inside the cavity and the air out. This was per the instructions of one recipe book and I thought it worked very well. But the level of liquid in the jar dropped to below the peppers, so you might want to make sure you push the peppers down to release the air, before sealing the jar.

 

[freemotion]

Thanks for all the tips! Sounds like I can do pretty much whatever I feel like doing, whatever is convenient for me, until I figure out what I like best. Pick 'em green, pick 'em red, chop 'em, slice 'em, leave 'em whole!

I will be fermenting them in whey/brine. I think I'll do them green, whole, with slits cut into them. There should still be some coming in when/if I get ripe tomatoes.

I will make fermented salsa and pico de gallo, thanks for the recipe, BBH, and all the options, FD!