Sweet Pickled Jalapeños

My family’s undisputed favorite condiment, these blazing rings of sweet heat bring all foods to life, from hummus wraps to hot dogs, charcuterie, salads, Mac n cheese, tacos, soup garnish, no limits. Once experienced you will want them on your pantry shelf forever.

These are not complicated to can up. And, BTW, they make splendid culinary hostess gifts in tiny 1/4 pint jam jars.

Best of all, good jalapeños are generally available year round so don’t be seasonably stressed to can exactly when the local harvest comes in. I do, nevertheless, recommend local peppers at harvest time. Freshly picked, unhauled, unhandled, unrefrigerated, ideally organic peppers will be plump, juicy, and noticeably best. So aim for your summer farmer’s market, but don’t fret if you have to can a batch and fill in from the supermarket peppers in the winter.

You will want a big batch, trust me. A lot of peppers (1/2 bushel, 15 lbs) only makes 12 pints. I repeat this process up to 3-5 times annually for my Clan. Nevertheless, I’ll include a smaller batch recipe at the end.

Wash them and lay them out to dry.

Start with classic canning tools. A big deep water bath canner and a big deep pot:

And at the risk of overstating the obvious, here are your other fundamental canning tools other than your jars:

Prepare by sterilizing the jars, lids, bands, and tools in the dishwasher.

You will want to wear your glasses (or goggles), possibly a face mask, and definitely food preparation gloves. Jalapeno is a painful fire in your nostrils and eyes, and also on sensitive skin. Don’t risk it. Other than that, your kitchen will smell lovely.

Gather the ingredients:

15 lbs (approximately 1/2 bushel) fresh jalapeno

11 cups apple cider vinegar

30 cups sugar (approximately 15 lbs)

2 1/2 teaspoons turmeric

2 1/2 teaspoons celery seed

7 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

5 teaspoons cayenne powder

Trim off the tops of the jalapeno. Using a sharp knife, slice the peppers into 1/4” rounds. Discard the tiny tip end as well.

Here is my friend Beth working with me in my kitchen. 🤩🫶🏻.

Get your water bath pot ready with water simmering and waiting, ready to can.

Lots of prepared peppers!! Ready to go?

Combine the sugar and spices in the cider vinegar in the other deep pot and bring to a full rolling boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Raise the heat to high, add the pepper slices, bring again to a full rolling boil. Once at a full boil, simmer for exactly 4 minutes.

Trust the process. Enjoy watching the slices turn from a bright green to olive green as they cook. All the white pith should also soften to fully cooked.

Then remove the peppers with a slotted spoon.

I prefer to bring the peppers from the syrup to a bowl before loading to the jars. This ensures proper cooking time for the peppers and a relaxing loading to the jars. This is sticky business! Use the handy loading funnel.

Load the peppers into the clean jars, leaving a 1/4” at the rim of the jar.

Turn the heat up to high under the syrup again, bring it to a rolling boil, and boil it hard for a full 6 minutes.

Use a ladle and the funnel to pour the boiling syrup over the jalapeno peppers into the jars. Dip a chopstick into the bottom of the jars to release any trapped air bubbles in the jars. Adjust the level of syrup if necessary.

Dip a cloth in your other pot of boiling water bath water and use it to wipe the rims and the rim surrounds so that none of the sticky syrup remains where the caps will be applied. Don’t risk all the work you’ve done on possible failed seals by not cleaning your rims now.

Apply the tops, screw the tops on to just “finger tension”, and set into the boiling water bath with at least two inches of water above the rims.

Boil 10 minutes for 1/2 pints, 15 minutes for pints.

Remove from hot water bath to cooling rack. Cool completely before checking seals and labeling. Let cure 4 weeks before eating, if possible.

By the way, the sweet, hot syrup that remains at the finish need not be wasted!! Can it up also and use it for your BBQ! I share it with my local friends who are meat eaters and who love it on pork, chicken and ribs!! There is too much good stuff in there to waste!! 🙏🏻🫶🏻🤷‍♀️

If you are making large batches at one time (like me), and all the peppers don’t fit in the pot in the first round, use the hot syrup again for repeated batches. The resulting batches get hotter as you go, so label them appropriately. This is another way to maximize your time and $$$ spent on the syrup.

Smaller recipe:

6 lbs jalapeno

12 cups sugar

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon celery seed

3 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

Same technique!