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Okay, not quite. A peck is 2.06 dry gallons (Imperial), and that's a lot of peppers.
Preserving them turns out to be very simple:
1. Get high-quality peppers, fresh and crisp. This is a garbage-in garbage-out process.
2. Sterilize jars and lids in boiling water. 10min for the glass, 5min for the lids. Use distilled water for this step to avoid mineral deposits.
3. Clean, de-seed, and de-skin peppers if desired. Pepper skin gets tough when canned, so if you're not going to dice them into small pieces, you probably want to remove it. The simplest way to do this is by roasting or barbecuing the pepper until the skin bubbles up and darkens. Once cool, it should come off easily.
4. Prepare pickling solution. This step is not optional! Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism, can survive boiling and will grow perfectly well in non-acidified anoxic conditions, like the inside of a canning jar. Pickling solution makes the contents of the jar acidic enough to inhibit spoilage. The salt and sugar are flavor stabilizers, not preservatives.
Scaled for 5c. of peppers:
* 1 2/3c vinegar or cider vinegar, 5% acidity
* 1/3c water
* 1 1/3tsp canning or pickling salt (doesn't have anti-caking agent, which can cloud the solution)
* 2tsp sugar
Heat to boiling and simmer 10min to sterilize.
5. Pack the jar with peppers, leaving a thumb's width of headspace at the top, and ladle in pickling solution. The peppers should be covered with liquid, and there should still be plenty of airspace at the top of the jar. Put the lids and rings on, tightening them down snugly (not as hard as you can, just firmly enough that the lid won't come off).
6. Place the jars in a large pot, fill it with (distilled) water to 1" over the top of the jars, and bring to a boil. Boiling time depends on elevation: 10min for 1,000' or less, 15min for 1,000' - 6,000', 20min at 6,000' and up. (Very large jars may take longer; you can find calibration charts on the internet.) This step causes the jar contents to expand, forcing out some of the air. If you've overfilled a jar, it may leak.
7. Remove the jars from the pot and let them cool undisturbed (this usually takes overnight). Once cool, the lid of a properly sealed jar will be sucked down. You can poke it gently in the middle to test - if it pops up and down, the jar did not seal. (Unsealed jars should be refridgerated and treated as 'opened'.) Sealed jars can be kept in a cool dark place for about a year.
Addendum: If you come back to your jar of peppers days or months later and the lid is loose, something inside the jar is producing gas. The jar is contaminated and should not be used.
Preserving them turns out to be very simple:
1. Get high-quality peppers, fresh and crisp. This is a garbage-in garbage-out process.
2. Sterilize jars and lids in boiling water. 10min for the glass, 5min for the lids. Use distilled water for this step to avoid mineral deposits.
3. Clean, de-seed, and de-skin peppers if desired. Pepper skin gets tough when canned, so if you're not going to dice them into small pieces, you probably want to remove it. The simplest way to do this is by roasting or barbecuing the pepper until the skin bubbles up and darkens. Once cool, it should come off easily.
4. Prepare pickling solution. This step is not optional! Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism, can survive boiling and will grow perfectly well in non-acidified anoxic conditions, like the inside of a canning jar. Pickling solution makes the contents of the jar acidic enough to inhibit spoilage. The salt and sugar are flavor stabilizers, not preservatives.
Scaled for 5c. of peppers:
* 1 2/3c vinegar or cider vinegar, 5% acidity
* 1/3c water
* 1 1/3tsp canning or pickling salt (doesn't have anti-caking agent, which can cloud the solution)
* 2tsp sugar
Heat to boiling and simmer 10min to sterilize.
5. Pack the jar with peppers, leaving a thumb's width of headspace at the top, and ladle in pickling solution. The peppers should be covered with liquid, and there should still be plenty of airspace at the top of the jar. Put the lids and rings on, tightening them down snugly (not as hard as you can, just firmly enough that the lid won't come off).
6. Place the jars in a large pot, fill it with (distilled) water to 1" over the top of the jars, and bring to a boil. Boiling time depends on elevation: 10min for 1,000' or less, 15min for 1,000' - 6,000', 20min at 6,000' and up. (Very large jars may take longer; you can find calibration charts on the internet.) This step causes the jar contents to expand, forcing out some of the air. If you've overfilled a jar, it may leak.
7. Remove the jars from the pot and let them cool undisturbed (this usually takes overnight). Once cool, the lid of a properly sealed jar will be sucked down. You can poke it gently in the middle to test - if it pops up and down, the jar did not seal. (Unsealed jars should be refridgerated and treated as 'opened'.) Sealed jars can be kept in a cool dark place for about a year.
Addendum: If you come back to your jar of peppers days or months later and the lid is loose, something inside the jar is producing gas. The jar is contaminated and should not be used.