Pickled pepper facts for kids
A pickled pepper is a type of pepper that has been preserved using a method called pickling. This usually involves soaking the peppers in a salty liquid, or brine, made with vinegar and water. People often add herbs and spices like peppercorns, coriander, dill, and bay leaf to give them extra flavor.
Many different kinds of peppers can be pickled. Some common ones you might see are banana peppers, Cubanelles, bell peppers, sweet or hot cherry peppers, Hungarian wax peppers, Greek peppers, serrano peppers, and jalapeños. You can often find them in supermarkets right next to pickled cucumbers.
Pickled jalapeño slices are very popular on nachos and other Mexican dishes. These peppers are also a common ingredient at sandwich shops like Quiznos, Subway, and Wawa. Pickled peppers are enjoyed all over the world. For example, in Italy, they have peperoncini sott'aceto, and in Indonesia, they pickle bird's eye chilies.
In the Southern United States, the flavorful liquid from hot yellow pickled peppers is often used as a condiment.
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How to Pickle Peppers Safely
To pickle peppers well and keep them safe to eat, it's best to use fresh peppers that don't have any blemishes. The vinegar used should have at least 5% acidity. If the taste is too sour, you can add some sugar to make it sweeter.
Larger peppers are usually sliced before pickling, but smaller peppers can be put into the pickling liquid whole. Even whole peppers need small cuts so the vinegar can get inside. To prevent harmful bacteria from growing, it's important to process pickled peppers in boiling water if you plan to store them outside the refrigerator. Always follow recipes carefully to ensure safety.
Different Ways to Pickle Peppers
Just like with pickled cucumbers, there are several ways to pickle peppers:
- Acidic Brine Pickling: This is the most common method. Peppers are soaked in an acidic brine and then sealed in jars, often using a canning process.
- Quick-Pickling (Refrigerator Pickling): This method skips the canning step. The peppers are stored in the refrigerator and need to stay cold.
- Lacto-Fermented Pickling: For this method, vinegar is not used. Instead, special bacteria called Lactobacilli turn the sugars in the peppers into lactic acid. These fermented peppers are often used to make hot sauce. If they are not canned, they need to be refrigerated because they have less acid.
- Sweet Pickling: This involves adding a lot of sugar along with the acid. This creates "candied" peppers, like the sweet jalapeños sometimes called "cowboy candy."
Pickled peppers are also often made into relishes, which are chopped and seasoned condiments. In Mexico, most peppers sold are pickled.
What is Pepper Mash?
Pepper mash is a thick mixture made from pickled peppers. It's very important in the food industry for making things like salsas, hot sauces, dips, and marinades. This mash can be stored for up to three years. This aging process helps to create stronger, sharper flavors before it's used in other products.
How Pepper Mash is Used
- Tabasco Sauce: To make Tabasco sauce, peppers and salt are mixed to create a mash. This mash then ferments for up to three years. After that, more vinegar is added, and the pulp and skins are strained out.
- Sriracha Sauce: For Huy Fong Sriracha sauce, garlic and sugar are added to the pepper mash before it ferments.
Many hot peppers grown in the Caribbean are first turned into pickled mash before being used in other products. For example, in 2014, a company called GraceKennedy produced a large amount of hot pickled pepper mash in Jamaica using local peppers. This was part of an effort to grow more peppers in Jamaica and rely less on imported ones.
The Aztec people in ancient Mesoamerica were already making hot sauces from pickled peppers long before the Spanish arrived.
