Alum is aluminium based, and was primarily used for some sour pickles to give them more 'pucker'. Today, its not used very much. There are a few pickling cucumber types that actually have a flavor of a pickle right off the plants. I forget where I saw this description, but it was interesting that they had a mild pickle taste even without adding any vinegar. As mentioned, none of the recipes could be used for home canning, and the refrigetion may be the only way to store them for a short term. I didn't find much of an effect when using grape leaves. They were usually added to canning jars to help keep the cukes a little crisper. Today, Pickle Crisp does the job very well. Pickle Crisp is food grade calcium chloride. What I have done is pickled Jicima in rice wine vinegar, and its used in sushi (California rolls). The rice wine vinegar is slightly sweet, with a slight amount of salt. I juilienne the jicima. Its texture is almost like a raw potato, only sweeter and mild. I also do the same with carrots. Both remain quite crunchy for a while in the fridge.

Hi Dave, I did search this forum and the internet before posting, but I found the vinegar/water ratios all over the board, from 1:1 up to 100% vinegar. There were many comments about 1:1 being the minimum safe level for peppers, which is why I used 2:1 just to be above the minimum. Even the recipe for pickled bell peppers on page 10 in Guide 6 of the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning uses a 1:1 ratio: (http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/usda/utah_can_guide_06.pdf) I was hoping I could lower the vinegar ratio to 1:1 or lower by adding some citric acid or lemon juice as a supplement. I'll definitely try more sugar this year! TomNJ

Mhargraves, A 50% vinegar and water ratio is far too low!! for any kid of pickle. Yes, it MUST e kep under refrigeration at all times. Very dangerous to can! I use full strength white, distilled vinegar and pickling salt in most of minr as its far safer in the long run. Jonbyler, For the final vacuum, its done with the Food Saver canning jar adapter device I linked to. This device has the vacuum hose fitting on top, a big soft rubber O ring that seals the adapter against the jars' glass bead (just below threads) on the outside of canning jars. There is an a open space inside, to accomodate the canning lid. FS makes two sizes, of these canning jar adapters, regular mouth and wide wouth. Because any air pumped out inside pushes up on the 'trapped' canning lid, it will allow any residual air to be pumped out. If I pull the vacuum hose fitting thats attached to the top of the adapter, it will suddenly pull in air. That initial 'slug' of air will immediatly push down on the lid forcing a seal. They are so tightly sealed, I have to use a blunt ended 'church key' to pop off the lid which is really stuck on the jars. ABSOLUTELY NO HEAT IS USED IN ANY PART OF MY VACUUM PROCESS. I use a dual rubber diaphram pump, and a moisture trap to prevent ny brine from getting into the pump. The FOod saver containers I prefer to use are the large round, smoked plastic containers that have a knob on shut off the vacuum. I keep my dried dill weed in a quart jar as well as sage, basil, and any other herb I want to keep longer. In the fridge, I also have grated parm cheese and its never molded yet. Here is a link that might be useful: Food Saver Jar dapter

seysonn - I wasn't talking about pickling meat (though it can and is done), was just discussing buffering capacity. And yes, vegetables have some degree of buffering capacity whereas water doesn't which is where the simple formula breaks down. The denser the vegetable and/or harder the rind the more resistant to change in pH it is. So carrots and beets require more acid (and longer processing times and/or precooking before jarring) than peppers, and whole thick-skinned peppers require more than pepper rings or blanched peeled peppers. Heating the vegetables in the acid bath helps to acidify them, whereas cukes for example are mostly water and don't have as much buffering capacity so just heating the acid solution and pouring it over them is enough (heat processing after closing the jars helps too but in cucumber pickles is mainly done to kill other microbes and extend shelf life by killing mold spores and creating a strong vacuum). I'm sure there must be tables online that have the buffering capacity of various vegetables but I didn't find any the other night and I'm not paying $150 for a food science book to look it up. But just b/c I can't produce such a table doesn't mean I'm making this stuff up. Read paragraph 2, top of 2nd page in the attached PDF where it mentions buffering capacity if you don't believe me that this applies to vegetables. "...some barriers exist in the preparation of acidified foods, including inadequate acid in the cover brine to overcome buffering capacity of the food, the presence of alkaline compounds from peeling or other processing aids, and the peels, waxing, piece size or oil in the product which can cause a barrier to penetration of the acid." You're free to do anything you want in your kitchen, but following "approved" USDA recipes for home canning is smart if you don't want to put family and friends at risk. And following FDA regulations regarding review, testing, and approval of recipes is required for interstate commerce. Within state - that depends on the state's cottage food laws, but it's prudent to at least follow the USDA recommendations even if the laws are pretty lax just to CYA. salsalady sells her stuff refrigerated (and not a strong vacuum b/c it's not BWB'd) - but she's right that you need enough acid. Wrong that BWBing will make up for it if not - in fact, the opposite. As I said on other thread(s), botulism toxin can form in the anaerobic environment if pH is over 4.6, so it's actually safer NOT to seal the jars (either by BWBing or open-kettle - what she calls modified hot pack - and just refrigerate them if you don't know that the pH is below that. madferret - wow, that's strong stuff! Be careful handling it, it's very caustic. In the U.S. I guess we used to be able to buy 20% vinegar and so the recipes called for less water than they do now. You will have to dilute that to use - are you sure it's food-grade? Even if it is, I don't know that I'd want to handle it in the kitchen - or anywhere. Wear gloves and googles! Did you buy it for weed killer? My apologies to Jay for getting sort of OT - I'm sure your sauce is fine if you used straight vinegar. Judo had posted a while ago on Harvest - if you have any questions about the safety of your recipe you can post over there and get some more experienced eyes to look at it - or call your local extension office. I'm not an MFP, have just been pickling a few years and took the FDA's acidified food course last year. Edited to add: there is no such thing as an "acidic" vegetable - though peppers are a fruit (and so are tomatoes), tomatoes are borderline acidic which is why USDA recommends adding acid to jars when canning (though FDA gives an exemption to tomato products under 4.7 - ? - and doesn't consider them "acidified foods"). Anything under 4.6 requires acidification for safe BWBing - that includes peppers, onions, cucumbers, etc. that we consider vegetables as well as borderline or low-acid fruits such as tomatoes, figs, melons and Asian pears. If you don't want to acidify (pickle) them, you have to pressure can, though USDA also recommends acidifying tomatoes before PCing - probably because of the very short processing time. Here is a link that might be useful: Food Safety Considerations - in plain English This post was edited by ajsmama on Fri, Jul 25, 14 at 18:37