After tasting pickled garlic from the olive bar of my supermarket, I asked for a recipe on this forum. Linda Lou came through with one which looked like it would duplicate what I had tasted. I haven't tried the recipe yet. As I recall, it is close, or identical, to the one you posted. You could do a forum search if you wanted. Anyway, this is very good stuff. The garlic is mild and crunchy, without excessive acidity and with a bit of hotness from the chiles. The appearance is nice too for canning -- white garlic contrasted with red chiles.

Jim

MIne is simple- Vinegar, a dash of tumeric, salt, and whole garlic cloves peeled. They are processed for about 10 minutes. For a spicy one, I add some red pepper flakes, italian, add oregano, and a true pickled, add some dill weed.

Melly, I made this recipe on Sunday, so I can tell you in 6 weeks. :-) One didn't seal so I can sample a bite this weekend, but it smelled great. The garlic that was in last year's dilly beans was delicious, but you'd have to increase the vinegar to make it safe for a whole jar of garlic. I've made pickled garlic with a recipe similar to Ken's and that was good too.

Melissa

"I can tell you in 6 weeks."

By some coincindence which I just now discovered, I will be in your neighborhood at that very time. Is alright if I stop by?
I could help with the sampling. Just to take the burden off you and your family. I can be altruistic at times.

Jim

Yup, that was the same one, looking sheepishly around.

I wonder how white balsamic vinegar would be (as long as was at least 5%) or white wine vinegar? When I made some pickled red onions (refrigerator version) subbed red wine vinegar and liked it. They went with a white bean salad but we polished the leftovers off without any problem.

Melly, that's exactly why I get so irked that patrons in the U.S. can only get the Ball Book and Canadians can only get the Bernardin. The recipes are totally different. Some of us "southerners" favorite recipes, like the Habanero Gold Jelly and Peach Salsa, come from Bernardin.

However, I just picked up the new "Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving", which is nearly 450 pages. I went through the tomato recipes in the index checking against both Ball and Bernardin. It looks like the book is largely a compilation of both those books. I also saw some of Ellie Topp's recipes from "Small-Batch Preserving" in the index.

I haven't looked at it too thoroughly yet, but I was very surprised to see a selection of mustard recipes with instructions for canning. It took me forever to research how to do that.

I haven't tried that recipe you posted for pickled garlic, but it's sure tempting. I like the idea of preserved garlic. This year the garlic did not hold well and there was a lot of waste. For us it was also a terrible year for onions and tomatoes.

Carol

Never saw a 5% balsamic. It would really be interesting, but you might want to add a 5% champiegn or wine vinegar too. I even pickled the garlic scapes last year. They are in tall jars and look like green rods. Very tender and flavorful in a salad of any kind. 'Putting Foods By' is a nice book my folks used years ago. If you can't find the Ball book in Canada or elsewhere, I am sure someone here can send off a copy if it was necessary.

Jim, thanks for your kind offer! I was going to mail you a jar but all the bubble wrap in the world wouldn't make it worth the risk of breakage after I spent 90 minutes peeling the garlic! I could have waited to go to Costco for a bucket of pre-peeled but I wanted something else to can that night since I was boiling up the canner to process Linda Lou's sweet pickles. Anyone else neurotic about wasting the heat like that? I also did pickled carrots from Small Batch Preserving. Pickles are so easy once your mise en place is done.

Melissa

Ken, My dark balsamic is 6%, I'm going to look at the white balsamic next time I go to the store.

Just checked a bottle. The white is also 6%.

Good to know.. Maybe it was regular wine vinegar that I saw that was just 4%. I recall that rice wine vinegar is usually 4%. My red balsamic usually has little solid clumps inside, indicating it was taken from the near dregs of the casks. Trader Joes had a nice water clear balsamic, perfectly suitable for adding an herb sprig to the bottles.

Everyone seems to be following up on old threads now that canning has slowed down (except you lucky ones who are eat up with pears!).

I was eating some of this garlic tonight & I just can't get over how good it is. I made the recipe exactly as above & the wine makes it sublime, really complex flavor. It's not extra-tart like dilly beans or garlic pickled in straight vinegar. I did use fresh oregano, gasp, but I don't think I was able to come up with a whole tablespoon (thanks for that, grasshoppers). Even in hash browns, the different elements of the garlic flavor were noticeable.

Melissa

By Italian law, true Modena "aceto balsamico" is supposed to be 6%.

The European-style red and white wine vinegars I've seen have been 6-8%, making them very suitable for preserving.

Carol

Melissa,

Thanks so much for reviving!! I will be doing this one come the weekend.

In fact you have totally made my day. Always looking for something new (hot) to send to my fellow pod-heads. The flavor/heat variations using different hot peppers are endless. Not a huge oregano fan here, but subbing Mexican oregano surely can't hurt.

5 dried whole chili peppers... hmmm... do I go with the several to make a gram bird peppers or the up to 150 gram ea (fresh) rocoto/manzano types? Just kidding!

Thanks again!

jt

I don't know from wine. And nobody at Sam's this morning knew the answer either. I ended up buying White Zinfandel (Sutter Home brand) No idea if dry or not. Will it be OK?

Also bought 2 3lb containers of Spice World already peeled garlic. $6 ea & only have to nip off one end to use.

Can't wait to get started. Indian Summer here and am going to get in all the deck time I can. Lots of cooking, canning & fermenting projects lined up.

White Zinfandel is a light pink color, and is medium dry wine. My brother chose that for my parents 50th wedding anniversary a few years ago, and it went well with a Chinese food dinner for 60 guests.

What do you plan to do with the white Zinfandel??

> What do you plan to do with the white Zinfandel??

Ken,

It's for Melly's recipe at start of thread. Really don't know much abt wine. Drank my share while stationed in Germany and made balloon wine in my freshman dorm room closet, but that's about it. Maybe 30 years since last tasted except for in cooking.

Another question: I have lots of dried pepper pods, but not what I want to use in the pickled garlic recipe. Is it OK to sub fresh? I'm thinking not because remember that had to pressure process fresh pods for I think 35 min to follow guidelines. Been a couple years since canned hot peppers and wasn't that impressed due to flavor and heat loss.

No problem if I can't sub fresh as have lots of dried powder of many varieties. I just like the visual of a pod in the jar.

jt

John, if you can stoop to buying dried hot peppers, you could get 5 from the bulk section at a natural foods store for the look without much flavor, then use your own powder for the flavor & heat. I used crushed red pepper flakes.

For the wine, I used whatever I had. I think in this case it was part of a bottle we hadn't gotten around to finishing, but I also keep one of those four-packs of small bottles in the basement for cooking wine. Normally they say don't cook with it if you wouldn't drink it, but here you're using it for acid, so it's even ok if it's starting to turn. I believe chardonnay would be considered dry for the purposes of this recipe, and I know that is available in the four-packs here. I'm sure white zinfandel will be good too.

That's a good price on peeled garlic, not much more than fresh. Next time I'll do that too.

Melissa

Melissa,

I don't hesitate to purchase 'fresh' or dried peppers at local stores even though can get free from more sources than most anyone in the world.

The ones from New Mexico are the most notable. The dried chipotle are better than I've ever done myself or received from other pod-heads.

Some store-bought NuMex on hand:

Thanks for your reply! Tomorrow is the day I think.

jt