My favorite recipe is a single jar canning recipe with the brine, and I add 1/2 tsp. of mustard seeds and one clove garlic to each jar, as per the recipe. Also the recipe calls for 1/2 tsp. canning salt but I only use 1/4 tsp. The recipe is from "Summer in a Jar" small batch canning by Andrea Chesman. You can always add a small amount of dried whole spices to a pickling recipe according to your taste. I think it is something like 1/2 tsp. per pint? There are a lot of ways to spice the brine, some use a spice bag and then discard. Proportions may vary, but the advice in a pickle is to use whole spices because ground spices make the brine muddy. Also use pickling salt for the same reason.

I mostly dehydrate chilies, if I am not making a hot sauce, but when I do pickle peppers, I use vinegar and brine, but no spices, other than garlic.

Dehydrated chilies are much easier to store - I put them in jars and vacuum seal them. They are also very easy to use and keep for a year or two. I also add desiccant packets to the jars. I prefer the flavor of dehydrated chilies to pickled chilies.

I'm not a canner and only pickle a little, but while I like the pickled bell pepper strips that are mostly for decor in other pickles with standard kinds of pickling spices, I think hot pickles should be plain. Some, like cherry peppers and Peking, are traditionally pickled with sugar, but then they taste like candy. I've had pepperoncini, for example, which were part of an Italian style giardiniara (which isn't typical), which, I think, were there to add a small kick to the rest. The pickling herbs/spice didn't have a big impact on the peppers, but the celery did. Other than that, however, I'm more likely to use pickled hot peppers in other dishes rather than as pickles to be eaten straight, therefore the plain recipe sounds right to me.

If the flavoring agents don't affect the canning science, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't just suit yourself.

i buy a jar of dill pickles and then reuse the pickle juice to make dilly beans or pickled peppers.

That's exactly what I was going to say! I always save my pickle juice from store-bought pickles and stick sliced jalapeño peppers in. And sometimes cauliflower.

I just pickled 4 half pints of the red biquinhos, using a recipe from Joy of Pickling. It had a couple of peppercorns, an allspice berry, some garlic and bay leaf. The brine was a 50/50 ration of vinegar to water and it had a little salt, of course. I haven't tried them yet, because they'll have to sit for a couple of weeks to develop flavor.

I also canned 18 pints of pepperoncini and will make relish with the Sugar Rush Peach. Elery will dehydrate the super-hot Death Spiral and Dragon's Breath peppers.

It's been a hot summer here and the peppers have been loving it, they are all loaded with fruit.

Annie

Those of you who reuse the commercal pickle juice: Do you heat the 'juice" or just put the whatever into the room temp juice?

When I reuse pickle juice, I do bring it back to a simmer and add a bit of salt or vinegar to it, depending on how it tastes. Normally, I just use leftover pickle or olive juice in recipes - not for new pickles.

I do not reuse pickle juice from cut pickles - only from whole ones.

I keep my pickles in the fridge. When reusing, I do nothing but throw the peppers into the juice and stick it back in the fridge.

Lars, is there a reason you do not use juice from cut pickles?

Good luck 😃

I've only used vinegar and some salt, and don't recall whether or not I heated it first; I haven't grown chiles in such a long time.

Lizbeth, the cut pickles allow cucumber juice to get into the brine, and I might not want that flavor in what I am pickling. I also have a fear (which may not be valid) that the cucumber juice would cause the brine to go bad more quickly, or at least become milky in appearance.

Anyway, I prefer whole pickles and like slicing them myself. I have extremely sharp knives for this, but I have also used a mandoline and an electric meat slicer - both of which will make even slices, although I'm not all that concerned about that.

annie: are you going to save any extra red biquinho seeds?

Thanks, Lars.

Ok.... 23 days later I ate one of the now Pickled Peppers. Peter Piper would be proud.... they are a success! They are crisp, mid-hot, and very good tasting. This is now something to do with the ever ripening Cajun Spice Peppers. I could even make a whole quart jar and take them for T'Day.

bragu, I have about a zillion of those peppers out there, if you'd like some seeds, I'd be happy to send you some. I'm sorry I only saw this post now...

Kate, congratulations on those successful peppers. I have some problems keeping them crisp, so double congratulations to you for that!

Annie

I saw this on Bon Appétit yesterday: