Its Calcium Chloride and is not being offered by Ball anymore. Its used in some commercially canned whole tomatoes to help them retain firmness. Its a 'buffer' that 'tames' the acid in vineger. The vegetables that are pickled would need at least n 80:20 ratio of 5% vinegar to be safely canned. You didn't mention what 'vegetables' you plan to pickle, but if its peppers, onions, carrots, cauliflower, and cukes, they should hold a bit of firmess after a longer than 6 month storage. The Calcium Chloride is now offered by a Web Site- Bulk Foods. And is a bit larger granule size, so a teaspoon per quart is needed in each jar. Its added at packing time, or once the jars are being filled with boiling brine. Using FRESH vegetables is always important. I can never find whole small white onions in my local supermarkets, so I grow a mini purple type insead. Use Clear Jel for the thickener as opposed to any flour. Also, I like it sweetened with Splenda, but use a small amount. I also use yellow and brown mustard seeds as well as grind them with celery seeds in a small coffee grinder (blender type). I find that the veggies exude a lot of liquid and seem to get 'lost' in all that mustard sauce. Tumeric is used to give it yellow color and I like the Colemans dry mustard powder/flour too. I also add a few cut up pieces of sweet red peppers for added color. I may consider treating the veggies with lots of pickling salt prior to canning. This will draw out some of the water in the veggies. I had leftover mustard, and mixed with finely chopped pickling cukes and onions to be used on hotdogs as a relish.

Quite frankly I don't see any difference adding grape leaves. I tried it 3 years in a row and, the 3rd year year, the fist batch was as soft as ones without it. I used nice fresh Concord grape leaves. What PC does is to 'buffer' the effect of strong vinegar that tends to break down the cukes over time. The original treatment involved a 24 hour pickling lime soak that would 'harden' up the cukes outer surfaces. It seemed to work well if the cukes are small, fresh, and whole. Pickling lime is still being sold, but needs to be handled properly, rinsed off very well, and be as much removed from the cukes exposed surfaces as possible. Ball came up with PC about 3-4 years ago, and I have found it works a lot better. 3 year old dill pickles are still a little soft, but are not a mushy if its not used.

The peeling is optional with any recipe. The need for it depends on the type of pepper and how thick the skin is. Cutting slits in the whole peppers is recommended. The soaking in vinegar is optional. The slits will allow the brine access to the interior. Just takes time. So pre-soaking them could speed up the process. Personally I've never done it. As for the pickle crisp, the amount used depends on the brand used, there are several and some are more or less coarse ground so different amounts would be called for. So use the directions on whichever brand you have, To determine if it is enough or not try some of the ones you have already done and see if you may need a bit more. That will be the best indicator and with time and testing you can decide how much works best for you. But you need to know that using too much can affect the flavor badly and that "very crisp" may not be a realistic expectation with home-canned pickled products. Heat processing just doesn't allow for "crunchiness" so homemade will never be as crisp as store bought which are processed quite differently. JMO Dave

I agree it is the potato starch. You will see that sediment whether you use the Pickle Crisp or not. ;) How much you see will vary from potato variety to variety. And I agree that the PC does help. We use 1/2 tsp. per quart - a bit less than Linda Lou - and yes, we also drain and heat/cook in fresh water or broth depending on the way we plan to use them. If slicing for potato salad we rinse them. Dave