An easy way to preserve jalapeños long past the harvest!
Last spring my mom called and asked if there was anything in particular I wanted her to grow in the garden, my immediate answer was jalapeños!
A couple weeks ago, I found myself with one of the best type of problems. My mom had grown way, way, way too many hot peppers. She gardens with awesome organic soil and the conditions were very favorable this summer, resulting in a huge harvest. Knowing there was no way we were going to be able to eat all of them, I grabbed some salt and jars and came up with a few different recipes for fermented jalapeños to test. This recipe for fermented jalapeños is super easy to whip together and they will be ready to eat in about two weeks!
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For this Fermented Jalapeños Recipe, you’ll need:
jalapeños (enough to fill a quart size glass jar)
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 cups filtered water
quart size glass jar
glass fermenting weight
First, add the 1 1/2 tsp salt to the 2 cups water and stir until completely dissolved. This is your brine, set it aside for later.
Next slice up all the jalapeños, discarding any stems.
Then fill up your jar with the sliced jalapeños until there is about 1 inch of space remaining at the top.
Pour the salt water brine over the jalapeños. Depending on how many peppers you have managed to pack in the jar, you may not need all of the water.
Be sure the jalapeños are covered in the salt water brine and then place a glass fermenting weight over them to make sure they will stay submerged under the brine throughout the fermenting process.
Place an airlock device or lid on the jar (I am using The Easy Fermenter). Leave the jar sitting at room temperature for about 14 days. You’ll start to see some bubbles somewhere between days 2-4. This means your peppers are fermenting, yay! If you have used a lid (and not an airlock device), be sure to “burp” by cracking open the lid to release any built up pressure every few days.
After approximately 14 days, your fermented jalapeños are ready to eat. You’ll want to move them to the refrigerator for storage at this point.
Fermented Jalapeños (Simple Reciple)
Ingredients
- jalapeños enough to fill a quart size jar
- 1 1/2 tsp non-iodized salt
- 2 cups filtered water
Instructions
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Add 1 1/2 tsp salt to 2 cups of filtered water and stir until dissolved, this is your brine
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Slice jalapeños into discs, discarding the stems
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Add the sliced jalapeños to a quart sized glass jar, leaving about 1" of room at the top
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Fill the jar with the salt water brine until all jalapeños are covered.
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Place a glass fermenting weight on top to keep all jalapeños covered in brine
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Seal jar with an airlock device or lid*
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Let sit at room temperature for approximately 14 days
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After 14 days, replace air lock with a lid and store in refrigerator
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*if using a lid, be sure to "burp" your jar every day for the first week
Thank you for the recipe! Looks great
I just wnt to know if I can use some cabbage on the top of the jalapeños instead of the glass weights that you used.
Thank you again!
Yes, absolutely! Just be sure to pack them down so all of the jalapeños stay submerged in the brine.
Great jalapeño recipe. I love jalapeños, whether it is fresh or pickled. Now I have another recipe for it. Thanks for sharing.
Yes! So happy to hear that – we LOVE jalapeños!
How long can you store in the fridge once they are fermented?
We ate all of ours within about 6 months, so at least that long but I’d suspect they would stay good even longer.
I have the same fermentation lids– they are awesome. Since it has the vacuum pump to pump out the oxygen, you can usually get away without weighting anything down anyway. If you don’t have the vacuum pump or special weights, you can put a plastic baggie on top of the jalapenos and then pour more brine in to the bag. As the bag fills, it pushes the peppers down and doesn’t leave any openings for anything to float up.
My first attempt and varied results. I used silicone lids and metal rings, 2 jars. Jar 1 has a water filled baggie and jar 2 a glass pickling weight. By day 3 both jars had produced enough head pressure to some the silicone, at which time I pierced the lid with an 18g needle,(allows off gassing under pressure). Jar 1 off gasses yet retains a slight dome however jar 2 has drawn a vacuum and sucked the silicone lid concave. Is this a bad batch? Should I discard it? It is currently day 5. The color appears to be right and no signs of spoilage but the vacuum concerns me.
Not sure how to proceed.