He's been able to do it this way for years without problems because he's lucky and because the experience of one person is statistically meaningless. It has to do with probability.

You can keep looking for articles but you won't find one from any reliable source. Only refigerated peppers are approved for the method you describe.

You could use your friend's method and take your chances. It's up to you.

Alternatively, you could do what commercial processors do and add food-grade calcium chloride (the generic of Pickle Crisp) to your peppers before processing.

Carol

Is it possible for something to be spoiled or go bad and have the jar stay pressurized?

Hi Cammo Tim,

I am on both sides of the fence; I have a friend who has canned via your friend's method and lived to can another season, but I am also on the side of caution in that botulism does not play well with others. I am preparing to do some Hot Wax this weekend and will let you know how they turn out. Oh, hot water baths for all! It might be a week as I let the flavors meld but I won't forget about you!

As far as something spoiling, as far as I know as long as that jar lid is sealed, you're ok. If you have one pop, pitch it.

Are you growing any other peppers? My jals are coming in soooo slowly I had to cheat and buy a couple to throw in with my Hot Wax.

Take care and happy canning!

Erin

A seal on a jar doesn't mean safety at all ! If you don't process you have done nothing to preserve that food. All the bacteria is sealed up in there. No molds, yeast, enzymes in the foods, possible botulism, nothing killed at all ! So, do yourself a favor and do it correctly. Plus, unless you process you only have a weak surface seal, not a true vacuum.
Get yourself some calcium chloride aka Pickle Crisp and use it. Same thing the commercial industry uses in theirs.

Most of these are considered 'sport' type peppers. What you get as to texture is just plain mush. Pickle Crisp, which is now called Calcium Chloride is used to help prolong the damages caused by vinegar brines. Sport type peppers are usually quite thin skinned and ANY heat processing would mostly soften them quite a bit.
This subject was just covered here a few days ago, and about the ONLY way to make them remain firm is to use waht commercial picklers use, which is usually full strength vinegar and a special vacuum process, that uses absolutely no heat. This is how I make my Pepperoncini peppers, and even after a year, they are still as crisp as if they were made last week.

I am growing hungarian wax, Jalapenos, habaneros and some mild ones. The jals were huge at the very beginning of the season, they were so big they didn't look normal, but now they are coming in very small.

I'll have to go with the calcium chloride and see how that works. I don't want to risk anything with safety. I hope they end up as good as the ones that were improperly.

Just for additional clarification, although some forms of spoilage are detectable by sight or smell, botulism is not. The seal could be fine, everything looks and smells perfectly normal. That's the greatest risk.

Carol

So does anyone think the peppers I canned with the boiling water method without pickle crisp should have been firm, and I just screwed something up, or are canned peppers using the boiling water method generally mushy when pickle crisp isn't used?

I used veggies that were only off the vine for an hour or so, and they were very crunchy and crisp when put into the jar.

Again, as I stated above, they are thin skinned 'sport' type peppers and when heat is used in the canning and/or processing, no amount of calcium chloride will help to undo the soft mushy end product. If full strength 5% vinegar and pickling salt was used as the brine, and NO HEAT has been applied, they may keep in the fridge a few weeks. There, the calcium chloride may help prolong thhe crispness a little. ALL of the mushy texture comes from the heating of the brine and peppers during processing. One of my original attempts was to try and heat can pepproncini which were picked, trimmed, and cleaned immediately after picking. Packed in quart jars and poured boilng brine over them. Once capped, I could see a noticable color and texture change. That origial batch has no BWB, and I had hoped it would stay crisp. They cooled and were refrigerated a week. The next week they were total mush, even without a BWB heating. Thats the main reason I went with a commercial process using vacuum and no heat.

I agree, canned peppers are generally mushy, even Pickle Crisp hasn't helped mine. They're soft. They have a nice flavor but they are definitely mushy, so I use them in cooked dishes, like enchiladas.

Annie

I wouldn't call the ones I've canned "mushy" but soft is unavoidable. I've never tried Pickle Crisp, though, because mainly the canned ones are going into white chili or some other recipe where texture isn't an issue.

The sturdier thicker-skinned peppers hold up better to canning. I've had good luck with Bulgarian Carrot and Jalapenos. The Habs I dry or freeze. Same with the Cayenne, the Kung Pao, etc.

It's just a real challenge to find a safe reliable way to bottle up peppers and retain the crunch. Commercial canners have access to methods home canners would find it difficult if not impossible to duplicate.

Refrigeration is the best option but one only has so much fridge space to allocate for such things. Though I do know confirmed pepper fanatics who keep an extra fridge for just such uses.

Carol

Use your regular pickling process (vinegar/water/salt/spices). ADD 1 cleaned unblemished fresh grape leaf. Seal, water bath according to instructions. They'll retain some of their crispness. This comes from an Italian woman. I tried it and it worked!

twila, I'm glad that worked for you. Grandma swore by that method, but it never seemed to help mine. Neither did pickling lime or alum. It never matters whether the peppers are cold or whether I leave them whole or anything else.

They're still soft if I water bath can them.

And that's why I seldom make pickles. Well, that and I don't really like them, LOL.

Annie

Tried the grape leaves to, and didn't see any improvement. It may also depend on what kind or grape leaves used. Mine were Concord. I had also done lime soaks and these are just too much extra work to remove the coating of the cukes, and then scour out the stained bowls afterwards.

My pepper canning process uses full strength 5% vinegar and a vacuum pump that is applied to a large container of pierced pepproncini, and the brine. This helps to pull out all the air from each pepper and its displaced by the brine. Once its stoops bubbling, the jars get filled with the peppers, and I half fill them with fresh brine and pull another high vacuum again. This causes lots or swelling and bubbles, only becuase the they are getting a little more of the brine inside. After a minute, the anning jar vacuum adapter (Food Saver) is removed, more brine is added and the vacuum is repeated. This is usually done 3 times and then a lid is placed on the jars, and the adaptor is placed over the top. The vacuum is pulled this final time, and once I remove the vacuum hose off the adaptor, a small slug of air will force the lid onto the jar, as well as having a stronger vacuum (stronger than a regular procssing can do). This is a commercial type procedure and needs specialized equipment as mentioned before.

The crispest pickles are the refrigerator ones, which see no heat of any kind during canning.

before chemical additives, people used fresh grape leaves to make pickles crisp.( wash and put one in each jar) Also, I've found that soaking the peppers in cold water in the refrigerator for a few days makes them crisp even after the hot water bath.

He's been able to do it because of science. The acidity prevents botulism from growing and the sugar prevents bacteria from growing and the two combined prevent mold from growing.