No problem, Dave! If it would make you feel more comfortable, just add a cup more vingar. The USDA has never made a recommendation atbout a 1:1 vinegar to water ratio for pickling, but you could do that if that is what you prefer. The taste won't be affected much. The other poster correctly showed the USDA's recommendation - the NCHFP recipe uses 1.5qts vinegar to 2 qts water, so ratio is 3/4=0.75. My recipe 5C to 6C = 5/6=0.8333 so actually is HIGHER in vinegar. So that is the USDA's recommendation and mine is more acidic so it's perfectly fine to use. It also doesn't matter what low acid things you are pickling - it can be just cukes, or a combination of cukes and garlic and grape leaves. You could even put carrots in the jar. It's not like a salsa or sauce, where you changing the ratio of tomatoes and onions would be bad. This is a pickle. Hope this helps!

Here's my recipe which is pretty well a standard soup recipe and nothing original other than that I like to roast the bones, the garlic and onion when making the stock. Here packaged in twos in the supermarket, after they've removed most of the meat for their trays of wings, breasts etc. But there's still enough meat on the bones for a great and flavourful soup. Soup Ingredients: Homemade chicken stock - about 2 quarts 2 carrots - diced 2 stalks celery - diced 1 leek - diced 1 cup diced rutabaga or orange squash 1/2 cup fine soup noodles salt & pepper oil or chicken fat Ratio of solids to stock should be about 2 cups stock to 1 lb chopped vegetables. Add any more chopped veg if you don't have enough. Stock ingredients: 1 meaty chicken carcass or piece of whole chicken 2 heads of garlic 1 onion - cut in half celery stick - sliced 1 carrot sliced fresh thyme - large sprig 1 bayleaf black pepper & salt MAKING STOCK: 1. Early in day or day before: Preheat oven to 350F. Cut top off heads of garlic. Place on roasting pan together with chicken carcass and sliced onion and drizzle a bit of oil over top of all. (I had two carcasss to roast as they are sold this way in pairs at our supermarket. I also added a couple of beef bones.) Roast in oven about 40 minutes or until all is toasted. and juices from pan. 2. Put bones into a very large pot. Squeeze one head of the buttery garlic cloves into the stock pot, saving the other head of garlic for adding to the soup. Add the rest of the stock ingredients and fill pot with water to cover. Grind in fresh pepper. Bring to boil, turn down heat, put on lid and simmer for a couple of hours. Skim off any grey residue that rises to the top. 3. Afterwards, strain the solid debris from the stock ---(REMEMBER you're saving the stock so don't pour it down the sink - as has been done LOL !). I look through the solids and pick out the meaty chicken pieces to save for the soup. Throw away all the rest of the solid material. Here I let it cool and refrigerate until next day when it's easy to remove solid fat from top. Otherwise continue to make soup. MAKING THE SOUP: 1. Sauté the chopped ingredients in a frypan in a TBS of chicken fat or oil until lightly golden. Squeeze out the buttery cloves from the 2nd head of garlic and add to pan. 2. Put soup ingredients including small bits of chicken into large saucepan and add an appropriate amount of stock - about double the amount of liquid to vegetables. Put on lid and simmer with lid on for about an hour. Add soup noodles during last 5 minutes. 3. Check seasoning, add salt. Also good for the end of the Christmas turkey. SharonCb

This is probably not the recipe you're looking for, but it's oh-so-good!! From Bon Appetit, circa 1986. One recipe serves 4-6. 1 head cauliflower, cut up, steamed 1/4 cup unsalted butter 2 medium yellow onions, chopped 4 garlic cloves, pressed One 14 oz. can chicken broth 1/2 cup cream sherry 2 cups whipping cream 1/2 tsp nutmeg Puree steamed cauliflower in food processor until smooth, about 30 seconds. Melt butter in large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions and garlic, and stir until onions are translucent ~ 5 minutes. Add cauliflower puree, broth, sherry and nutmeg, and simmer 10 minutes. Add cream. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer 10 minutes more to blend flavor. Sprinkle with nutmeg and serve hot. Not exactly low cal but definitely worth it for a treat!

When I used to make hot (spicy) chicken wings for a yearly get together, I found that adding butter (called for in the recipe) removed all the heat, so I cut way back on butter--to taste. Seems it would work opposite here. I just searched "too spicy" on the Cooking Forum and the answers often suggest sour cream or dairy. Think you'd have to use a lot less butter than sour cream, leaving your original recipe more intact.