Since there were so many requests for this recipe, I decided to just add it here. I want to remind everyone to please do not forget to use gloves when cutting and handling the cut peppers. If you do not use gloves, you risk getting hot pepper juice in your eye and also on your skin.
I wanted to point out that some of these measurements are estimates. Since I didn’t expect to write up this recipe, and my mother-in-law just basically gave us her notes, I didn’t keep track of everything. These are my best estimates and you may need a little more or less of the vinegar and water mix.
We tried these last weekend and they were delicious! Since we left the seeds in, they’re a little spicy. You will want to experiment to see if you would rather have yours de-seeded or with the seeds left in.
***Added: It has been brought to my attention that some people do not feel comfortable with open kettle canning, which is what this method is, and feel it is unsafe. If you do not feel comfortable using this method and/or feel it’s unsafe, follow the recipe below but after putting on the lids and rings, process the jars of peppers in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. (Many thanks to the reader who pointed this out!)
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
- 8 pint jars, lids and seals
- 8 whole garlic cloves (optional)
- 2 1/2 to 3 lbs. of banana peppers (this is an estimate)
- 4 tsp. salt (you will use 1/2 tsp. per jar)
- 4 tsp. alum (optional – 1/2 tsp. per jar) *see my post about alum
- 7 cups white vinegar (estimate)
- 7 cups water (estimate)
Directions:
- Prepare jars. I chose to just wash my jars in hot soapy water. I turned my oven on to 175 to put the jars in to keep them warm after washing.
- Wash whole banana peppers to remove any dirt. Remove tops from peppers and cut peppers into rings. I cut my rings sort of thick, but you can cut them as thick or thin as you want. Also, de-seed if you choose to de-seed your banana peppers.
- In a large pot, combine 7 cups of water and 7 cups of white vinegar. Heat on high until boiling.
- At the same time, in a small pot, place jar lids and boil.
- Once the jars and lids are boiling, turn on low heat.
- Add 1 clove of garlic to empty jar, then pack banana pepper rings tightly into the jar. Add 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. alum to the peppers. Pour hot vinegar-water mixture over the peppers. Immediately put on lid and ring to seal.
- Repeat with remaining peppers and jars.
Once the jars start to cool, they will seal.
Made the recipe for the hot pepper rings and they look great. I have been cold packing for years so I did do mine in a hot water boiling bath in my canner for 15 minutes.
I did not add the Alum. When I looked up the definition of Alum is is it a metal substance added to canned foods to help keep their crispness. Think I will skip the FDA approved substance since I am canning to help keep my family from getting all this stuff the FDA approves and than we find out it is not so good for us after all.
Do you use this same recipe for canning jalapeno peppers? Or did you combine the jalapenos with the banana peppers in the same jar? I am looking for an easy recipe to can some extra jalapenos I have. Thanks!
Hi Amanda,
Actually, my husband has done both.
He has canned jalapenos separately and together with the banana peppers using this same recipe.
Hope this helps!
Hello JenniferM
I am rookie at pickling but decided to give a try. My wife and I belong to a veggie co-op and they offered fresh hot pepper this past week so I picked up a couple of pounds of jalapeños. I search the internet for ideals and ended up here. To add some addition zest I added a couple of thing to the brine, peppercorns and garlic gloves. I also added a couple garlic gloves to each jar of peppers. As the pepper cooled the garlic started to turn blue. I have seen this before in a friend’s dill pickles and have always wondered why to occur. Can you help? Oh buy the way your instructions above were great and easy to follow. I hope the peppers taste as good as they look, with the exception of the blue garlic.
Thanks
Paul
“Alum is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a food additive, but in large quantities — well, an ounce or more — it is toxic to humans. As a result, efforts have been made and are being made to wean us of our alum dependency. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that if good quality produce and modern canning methods are employed, there is no need to use alum to bolster the crispness of our pickles and cherries. In any event, the department says, even if alum is used to soak the pickles, it should not be used in the final pickling liquid.”
http://www.ochef.com/1080.htm
basically… stay away from alum… hope this helps!
Thank you, Ruffsta!
I love this recipe but I really would love a very low sodium recipe. Can some of the sodium simply be removed?
Hi Cassie,
Yep, you can reduce the salt or cut it out entirely. Since the recipe calls for 1/2 tsp. per jar, you could cut it down to 1/4 tsp. per jar OR not put in any at all; it’s up to you.
I can not speak for everyone but this was a great help my peppers came out great thank you.
Great to hear, Rusty! Enjoy your peppers.
If I use the peppers whole I assume I would need to slit them open at least in order to allow the liquid to get inside?
Hi Mark,
No, you don’t have to slit them…at least my husband didn’t when he canned whole jalapeno peppers. The liquid gets inside. HTH!
Thanks for the recipe, Jennifer. My banana peppers are coming in like crazy! Trying to stay ahead of them as the tomatoes don’t look far behind
Awesome on the peppers, Kelly! I hope you enjoy the recipe.
Going to try this recipe. Instead of using alum or a crispness additive in my pickles I just soaked my cucumbers in ice water for about an hour before hand. They turned out really crispy and tasted great! Will let you know if peppers do the same!
Oh, KimT, that’s a great idea! I never thought of that. Yes, definitely come back and let us know if the same happens with the peppers. Enjoy!
thank you so much you have been a life saver i was over whelmed with b. Peppers this year thamk u
do these need to stay refrigerated after they cool?
Hi Kevin,
No, not unless you open the jar. We store ours in the cupboard until we’ve opened a jar and then put the open jar in the fridge. HTH!
I just have one quick question, how long do we need to wait before eating them? I didn’t know if they could be eaten in a week or two? Thanks so much for the recipe!
Hi Libby,
Oh, sure, you can eat them whenever. If I remember correctly when we first made ours years ago, my husband couldn’t wait and opened some the very next day! I make him wait now, though, and use up what we have left over before opening new ones…lol
Do I risk getting mushy peppers if I put them in the water bath for 10 minutes? I just tried a recipe with a pressure canner and they after processing them, they basically turned to mush in your mouth.
Any suggestions for crispy banana pepper rings?
I’m sorry to hear that, Kelli! Are the peppers even edible when they’re like that? What a waste of good peppers and hard work.
Since I don’t water bath mine, I don’t really know if these will come out mushy or not if you use a pressure canner. The only thing I can think to try is a regular water bath canner (I got one a couple years ago for about $20). I will ask around to some family members who do heavy canning to see if they can offer some tips and if not, then I’ll scour my old canning recipe books to see if I can find anything.
Sorry I can’t be of further help right now.
I have lots of cucumbers coming in also. You can cut them up and add them also. Cauliflower is another one. Oh ya and green beans also. LOL
I love pickled cauliflower, especially with hot peppers.
I’ve never tried the cucumbers or green beans in with banana peppers, tho!
Would this work with okra?
Thanks for the recipe, my peppers were delicious! One question, some of the peppers near the top are starting to look discolored, they are completely submerged, they are about a month old… are they still safe?
Hi Donna,
We had that happen to a couple of jars once. It could be due to a number of issues. Did you leave enough head space? Were the rings too tight on the jars, prohibiting the jars from breathing? Did you do a water bath in a regular canner or pressure canner and for how long? It could be because the peppers were cold packed because sometimes discoloration may happen that way too within a relatively short timeframe (within a month or two). Also, there is something that happens called oxidation and that can cause discoloration to the food that’s on the top in home canned goods.
I can tell you what I did with ours; I removed those discolored ones from the top and kept the rest and of course refrigerated them after opening. They were fine. Of course you have to be the judge about yours. My suggestion would be to find someone local to you who is knowledgeable about home canning and ask their opinion because discoloration happens for a lot of reasons besides spoilage, even when hot packing and processing procedures are used.
Oh, and the reason I say local to you is because they can actually see the peppers for themselves. It’s hard for me to say since I can’t see it for myself.
Just wanted to share a cucumber reciPe for CRISPY cucumbers that u freeze.
6-8 cucumbers (sliced)
1-2 onions (sliced)
2 cups sugar & 1 cup vinegar (heat over med heat)
Remove & add 1 table spoon of celery seed
1 teaspoon salt
Mix well & refrigerate for 48 hours stirring or shaking daily..
Pour in freezer containers & freeze.
They are just as crispy when u pull them out a year from now.
I will never can cucumbers again..
Try it u will love it
I’m ready to try your recipe for banana peppers. I’ve always ended up with soft peppers so I’m looking forward to crispy peppers. Will these have the same shelf life as ones done in a ‘water bath’?
Thanks, Danielle!
Regarding Alum
http://www.ochef.com/1080.htm
Iwas looking for a pickled banana recipe as I had never done them and after looking at many sites found your recipe and liked the way you wrote it.
I am definitely going to try yours and forget the rest.
Thank you so much for sharing your recipe.
yummm!!! made this last year and we are making them again…great recipe. : )
That’s awesome, Johnston! Thanks for stopping by to let us know how happy you are with the recipe.
I have canned Jalapeno peppers for several years. The recipe I had for them did not include the garlic clove or salt and they were very good. Even several of my freinds enjoyed them along with a brother-in-law who is of Mexican heritage. I grew the banana peppers in my garden this year for a change and because my bride of 45 years will eat them, but not the Jalapeno peppers. Looking forward to trying the recipe for the rings. Thanks.
I used this receipe last year and I found the peppers to be too vinegary and had to through them all out. Is there a way to cut down on the vinegar?
I canned jalapena peppers last month and tried them this week. The vinegar taste is strong. Is this normal or did I do something wrong?
Thanks for stopping by, Lyta and Mike.
For safety reasons, you don’t want to change the vinegar/water mix. One thing you can try is adding a bit of sugar to each jar. That’s the only thing I know that will kind of offset the “vinegary” flavor.
HTH!
Jennifer, thanks for the quick reply.
I included the recipe I used below and noticed the ratio of vinegar to water is not the same as yours. I think I will try your recipe and maybe I won’t be overwhelmed with vinegar this time. What do you think?
Mike
from website: http://www.jalapenomadness.com/preserve_jalapenos_canning.html
3 pounds jalapeño peppers
7½ cups cider vinegar (5%)
1¾ cups water
2½ tablespoons canning salt
3 tablespoons celery seed
6 tablespoons mustard seed
Oh, wow! That is a LOT of vinegar and not much water in comparison, so I would bet they were really “vinegary.” LOL! Yeah, our recipe is a 1:1 ratio, so definitely try adding more water. I can tell you that my husband used this same recipe for his jalapenos and they turned out great and weren’t too vinegary, IMO. Good luck and be sure to come back and let us know how the next batch turns out.
thanks again. Just to to make sure I understand, the recipe is the same for jalapeno and banana peppers? Also, how much sugar should I add per jar and should I add the sugar to the jar or to the water/vinegar before boiling? Also, should I put the jars in the bath to seal/sterilize?
Do you have to wait a certain amount of time after calling before eating them?
Mike
Yep, my husband uses this exact recipe for his jalapenos. You could keep your same recipe that you already used and just add more water, maybe a 1:1 to ratio of water to vinegar if you don’t want to use our recipe posted here. If you use our recipe, I don’t think you’ll need sugar, but if you want to put some in, I’d say probably 1/2 to 1 tsp. or so per jar. To err on the side of safety, do the water bath for 10 minutes. As far as waiting, I know my husband has opened jars the next day. I prefer to wait, but there’s nothing stopping you from trying them out the next day.
Can I half the ingredients and still expect the same results. I have a small garden and the banana peppers are coming in sporatically.
Hi Maria, I wouldn’t see why not. Happy canning and let us know how your peppers turn out!
I am so glad that I found this site. I have well over 100 plants that I did for my brother and he didn’t think about what to do with all of them after they were ready to be harvested.
I do have one question though. I know you say this works with banana as well as jalapenos but how about habaneros, or cayenne or chili peppers? my brother has 4 different styles of peppers out here and I am sure that they will be canned together. Will that work?
Thanks for the information though!!!!
Hi Georgette,
I’ve been looking into this for you by asking some of the expert canners in my family. The habaneros shouldn’t be an issue because my father-in-law has canned his habaneros using the same recipe. With the cayenne or chili peppers, I have no experience canning those and no one I have spoken with has ever canned them either. I found a link I wanted to share with you that uses something similar to my recipe and then after canning, you keep them refrigerated for a few weeks.
There are two recipes on the Colorado State Extension Office’s website for canning hot peppers. One involves marinating them in oil (and you can use olive oil) or using a recipe similar to mine posted here, but you’ll need to read it and follow that recipe instead. You can find those recipes here: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09314.html Scroll down about halfway down the page.
Hope this helps and good luck! 100 plants? Whew! Makes me tired just thinking about it, but YUM!
Once you put the peppers in a jar, how long you have to wait to be ready to eat ?
Thanks