Canning Banana Peppers

Im canning my banana peppers today.

I hadn't canned banana peppers before this year. So I was a little nervous as to if these things would actually get ate! Who wants to go through all the work and then let them go bad because no one wants them in the first place. 

So I made my family pinky swear that they would eat them if I bought the plants, grew, tended, harvested and canned banana peppers. 

Earlier this year, I canned one jar of them and they are already gone. So, I guess the pinky swear thing works!! (must file that method away for future use!!) 

That one can was a test of not only if my family would eat them, but if the recipe I used, kept the peppers crisp and tasty! Apparently since they didn't last long, I have found my recipe!

When asking the boys what they thought of the peppers: "They are very good!"  

Me: "Are they crispy?" 

The boys:  "Yes"

I would have like them to elaborate a little more, but I guess that's all I needed. 

Canned Banana Pepper Rings

This method uses open kettle method, which I'm ok with, and I think thats what led to my success with these peppers. If you boil them, even for a few mins they get mushy. We don't like mushy peppers. So we stick to the open kettle method. 

First, you have to have banana peppers of course.....

As you can see, there ain't very many there. But in pepper ring world, there is. You will need an average of 8 cut up peppers per pint jar.

Once you get them all washed, you can choose to leave them whole or cut them in rings of the width you want. 

Im doing both. 

Somehow, I got some small ones. Must have been cuz my son took it literally when I told him "Go and get all the banana peppers you can find off the plant." Which brought on the whole "You only pick whats ready to be picked" conversation when we saw his findings. 

So here's all the banana peppers my son could find, already cut up, including some small ones I've left whole and I'm gonna just stick them in there with the rings. I hate to waste stuff. We will see how this turns out. 

  

Enter another option here...you can choose to take out the seeds which, I'm told, will make the peppers very mild. Or you can choose to leave them in. 

Again, Im doing both.

Because Im lazy, I just wash, cut and rinse them and what doesn't fall out from all that moving around and rinsing, goes in the jar. It seemed to have worked well for the first jar. So I'm stickin with this method.  

Now you need to get a 1 to 1 vinegar/water mixture to boiling. You can pretty much plan on using 1cup of vinegar and 1cup of water per pint jar, with a very small amount of left over.

You also need to get a tall pot of water boiling and put your washed jars, flats, and rings in and keep them boiling till you are ready to put the peppers in. Its fairly important that everything is pretty hot when this all goes down. 

Gather all this stuff........

~Canning and pickling salt

~Alum

~1 clove of garlic per jar

~1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon.(how do you say that??) 

~funnel

~ladle 

~butter knife

~jar grabber(not pictured) 

And...it would be handy if you had a magnetic something or another to get the flats out of the boiling water. 

My jars, flats and rings are boiling and my vinegar/water mixture is boiling. 

Make sure you have all of the above stuff handy because all this next bit has do be done quickly:

~Take your jar grabber and grab you a jar and put a clove of garlic at the bottom and start cramming these rings in till you get to 1/2 inch headspace. Yes, I said cram. Don't be all gentle with them. Just start shoving! (I get a bunch of rings in and put some mixture in and that softens them up enough that they will cram easier and shove some more in there.) 

~Add 1/2tsp of alum

~Add 1/2tsp of salt

~fill jar with vinegar/water mixture till you get to 1/2 inch headspace 

~take butter knife and get the air bubbles out 

~wipe down the top of the jar, put a flat and ring on and set aside. 

When everything in the jar has cooled down, it will seal itself and your golden. Don't expect this to happen right away...but it will happen. 

I would wait at least a couple weeks before eating them so all the flavors can melt together. But I have heard of folks eating them the next day....up to you. 

Now your ready for some serious sandwich action.......AND/OR you could do what my boys are doing...when I serve supper or any meal, they grab some and put them on their plates and just eat them that way. 

How do you eat banana peppers? 

They do look good! If you try this, please let me know how it worked for you!! 

TTFN

Update: These things are amazing!! Very good, just the right "hotness", and crispy!!! I'd say, these could give subway a run for their money!