O man. All the colorful tasty staff I see here. I am also making something with yellow zuke. There are many ways, stir fry, grill, deep fry, etc. But this time I am making a "stuffed" one. I cut a lid lengthwise, scoop most of the inner contents out, fry it with onions, garlic, paprika, pepper, salt, sausage ... until volume is reduced.I usually make with chicken breast but this time I had sausage handy. Then stuff it back into the zuke, put the lid in, secure by twin and bake it at 350F. ..How long ? Untill it is done. lol. Maybe an hour or so. This is differen kind of stuffing, not the traditional wit lots of rice.. and what not

John I am not sure but Boil the mash for 10 min at least to kill any botulism that might be present. If the botulism is present I would not eat the food even if vinegar was added and it was boiled. if the botulism gets going I think you have to throw it out. It might also contaminate any ground where you dump it. so do not throw it out in the yard. for my personal safety I will not eat anything that might have gone bad. I know you have also thrown out a lot of batches that did not get low enough on ph. I say better to be safe than sorry. does anyone know how bad it is to get botulism. Can the doctor fix you up easy or it is really bad. Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases Home > Home > Disease Listing > Botulism Botulism For comprehensive CDC information about bioterrorism and related issues, please visit http://www.bt.cdc.gov. Disease Listing : General Information : Technical Information : Additional Information Frequently Asked Questions What is botulism? What kind of germ is Clostridium botulinum? How common is botulism? What are the symptoms of botulism? How is botulism diagnosed? How can botulism be treated? Are there complications from botulism? How can botulism be prevented? What are public health agencies doing to prevent or control botulism? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is botulism? Botulism is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. There are three main kinds of botulism. Foodborne botulism is caused by eating foods that contain the botulism toxin. Wound botulism is caused by toxin produced from a wound infected with Clostridium botulinum. Infant botulism is caused by consuming the spores of the botulinum bacteria, which then grow in the intestines and release toxin. All forms of botulism can be fatal and are considered medical emergencies. Foodborne botulism can be especially dangerous because many people can be poisoned by eating a contaminated food. Return to Top What kind of germ is Clostridium botulinum? Clostridium botulinum is the name of a group of bacteria commonly found in soil. These rod-shaped organisms grow best in low oxygen conditions. The bacteria form spores which allow them to survive in a dormant state until exposed to conditions that can support their growth. There are seven types of botulism toxin designated by the letters A through G; only types A, B, E and F cause illness in humans. Return to Top How common is botulism? In the United States an average of 110 cases of botulism are reported each year. Of these, approximately 25% are foodborne, 72% are infant botulism, and the rest are wound botulism. Outbreaks of foodborne botulism involving two or more persons occur most years and usually caused by eating contaminated home-canned foods. The number of cases of foodborne and infant botulism has changed little in recent years, but wound botulism has increased because of the use of black-tar heroin, especially in California. Return to Top What are the symptoms of botulism? The classic symptoms of botulism include double vision, blurred vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, and muscle weakness. Infants with botulism appear lethargic, feed poorly, are constipated, and have a weak cry and poor muscle tone. These are all symptoms of the muscle paralysis caused by the bacterial toxin. If untreated, these symptoms may progress to cause paralysis of the arms, legs, trunk and respiratory muscles. In foodborne botulism, symptoms generally begin 18 to 36 hours after eating a contaminated food, but they can occur as early as 6 hours or as late as 10 days. Return to Top How is botulism diagnosed? Physicians may consider the diagnosis if the patient's history and physical examination suggest botulism. However, these clues are usually not enough to allow a diagnosis of botulism. Other diseases such as Guillain-Barrsyndrome, stroke, and myasthenia gravis can appear similar to botulism, and special tests may be needed to exclude these other conditions. These tests may include a brain scan, spinal fluid examination, nerve conduction test (electromyography, or EMG), and a tensilon test for myasthenia gravis. The most direct way to confirm the diagnosis is to demonstrate the botulinum toxin in the patient's serum or stool by injecting serum or stool into mice and looking for signs of botulism. The bacteria can also be isolated from the stool of persons with foodborne and infant botulism. These tests can be performed at some state health department laboratories and at CDC. Return to Top How can botulism be treated? The respiratory failure and paralysis that occur with severe botulism may require a patient to be on a breathing machine (ventilator) for weeks, plus intensive medical and nursing care. After several weeks, the paralysis slowly improves. If diagnosed early, foodborne and wound botulism can be treated with an antitoxin which blocks the action of toxin circulating in the blood. This can prevent patients from worsening, but recovery still takes many weeks. Physicians may try to remove contaminated food still in the gut by inducing vomiting or by using enemas. Wounds should be treated, usually surgically, to remove the source of the toxin-producing bacteria. Good supportive care in a hospital is the mainstay of therapy for all forms of botulism. Currently, antitoxin is not routinely given for treatment of infant botulism. Return to Top Are there complications from botulism? Botulism can result in death due to respiratory failure. However, in the past 50 years the proportion of patients with botulism who die has fallen from about 50% to 8%. A patient with severe botulism may require a breathing machine as well as intensive medical and nursing care for several months. Patients who survive an episode of botulism poisoning may have fatigue and shortness of breath for years and long-term therapy may be needed to aid recovery.

legbig thanks for the reply. I wanted to see if there was any more information on googling from the last time and there wasn't. So if you don't mind i would like to get a thorough understanding of your technique. So far i know that you process the chilies in a food processor. Do you add any water or just chilies? When you say you boiled the jars was this before or after you put the chilies in? I don't know if you were doing this to sterilize the jars or the pepper mash. I'm assuming you were using canning jars and that you did not seal the jars like in canning. I assume if you seen any mold you would remove the affected area before you shook up the jar and added more salt. What kind of salt did you use? Pickling Salt? Do you periodically stir the mixture or not? Are the Jars lightly covered with lids? I would think you would want to allow the gases to escape from ferminting. Do you periodically check the ph or no? So pretty much it would be VERY apppreciated if you would post in detail step by step how you produced your mash. I have been looking for this information for a long time and pretty much just gave up. Last thing...did you notice a big difference in taste with the mash? thanks, ncage

I should have pointed out something here. the trick is to make something that will not spoil. and that means the onions, peppers etc. this recipe will accept a good amount of peppers and stay good. the recipe calls for a good amount of normal green peppers. now you can increase the jalapenos and decrease the green peppers and still be safe. or you can substitute other peppers like habs and still be safe. for me when I process hot peppers I always use 100% vinegar and if it is too strong then I add a little sugar to cut the vinegar taste. but I like to play it safe on the part of increasing the vinegar. remember the preservatives are vinegar salt alcohol. I hope to make a couple of big batches of salsa but I need the tomatoes and peppers to get ready. the tomatoes have started to ripen slowly. I will probably mix both habs and jalapenos in the salsa. both flavors are good. but I want both the Jalapenos and the habs to be ripe and not green. so that will still take some time.