Looking over the final product, the Aji turned out much more like a flake from using the normal Cuisinart blade and pulsing the motor. Compared to the Jalapeno flakes in which I used the shredding disc on the Cuisinart. Since the Jalapenos seemed to have clumped up badly during the drying process.

But seeing how I had absolutely no information to start with in executing this cooking experiment. I kind of had to make it up as a went along.

I haven’t tasted any of the flakes to see how they turned out, since I was too busy choking on the capsaicin fumes from the basement. So I’ll leave the taste testing for another time.

I guess I could go into detail of how I dried these peppers, but its really nothing more then de-stemming the peppers, cutting them into a very fine mince, and then drying them on a screen frame placed over a box fan until completely dry. But for the lack of details in the general process of getting the project done, there are a lot of side notes and lessons learned in getting this done in the most efficient way possible. So onto the side notes.

Side Notes:
1) Remember to wear gloves when working with hot peppers. I was still wearing nitrile gloves when I washed my hands with soap and water. And when I touched my gloved hand to my lips, I got a big flash of heat from the Aji. So this is a fair warming before you start the processing.
2) Without my Cuisinart to finely mince the peppers, I wouldn’t have been able to get it all done in under 3 hours. Also don’t bother using the shredding disc, instead of the normal chopping blade. Since it took longer and produced a larger and uneven mince with the shredding disc, compared to just using the normal blade and pulsing the motor a couple of dozen times. On a funny side note, it wasn’t until after I was done cleaning the machine, that I noticed a low speed button on the Cuisinart. But seeing how I had never used this setting before, it never crossed my mind to enable it when processing the peppers. I guess this is something for me to remember next time I use the Cuisinart, since it might have given me a little more control in mincing the peppers.
3) Also in comparing the dry times of the Aji that were processed using the blade and pulsing the Cuisinart, verse the jalapeno that were processed with the shredding disc on the Cuisinart. The aji dried more quickly and more evenly compared to the jalapeno peppers that were shredded.
4) Another funny thing was that I ended up running out of drying frames when loading up all the jalapenos and aji to dry out. Right now I’ve got four frames that are covered in aluminum screen material, and two frames that need to be covered. So that means that I’ve only got three frames available for drying, since the forth one is used as a cover for the drying stack.
It crossed my mind in the past, to upgrade my drying set-up, but I never saw a compelling reason, until I had to dry out these peppers. Over the last couple of years, I’ve written down a couple of ideas for a more permanent design. So I might actually have to follow-thru this winter in executing it. Since each year I seem to be drying more and more items, without any real capacity to expand. I did get a couple of books from the 1970’s at the last used book fair that I attended, that have homemade food dehydrator designs. It’s about time to start reviewing the designs listed in those books for some ideas for a bigger setup.

Update 10/29/10 @ 11:50pm
The aji are basically dry after a single day in the dryer, but the jalapeno aren’t doing so hot (pun intended), since all the shredded jalapenos are sticking together on the frame, while the aji are flaking perfectly. Another day or two and everything should be completely done. By the way, when I walked into the house the next day after work, it was like getting slapped in the face with hot pepper fumes. The fumes ended up being so strong in the basement (where the peppers are drying) that I had to turn around a couple of times and leave the house, to get some fresh air.

After giving all the plants a quick once over, I picked all the Aji that were fully yellow or over 50% yellow. There still seems to be about another pint jars worth of green Aji spread among all the plants. So for now, I left all of those alone to see if they would ripen before the garden fully dies off, or I might try to dry them into Aji flakes, depending on the weather forecast this week. Since I’ve already heard word about frost again on Wednesday night. So I’ll have to make a decision pretty quickly, on whether to let them ripen, or dry them out.

But for this being my first Aji Limon crop, I have to say that I was pretty satisfied with the yield results. And thinking ahead for next years crop, I made sure to save the seeds from about a dozen peppers off of the highest yielding plants, just to have some strong plant genetics for next years plants. I only have about a dozen seeds left over from the original peppers that I received. So I was worried big time this year that I wasn’t going to be able to harvest any peppers, since then I would be really SOL for next year. Seeing how I’ve never seen Aji Limon seeds for sale in any of my seed catalogs, let along at the local garden center, but lucky for me that wasn’t the case this year.

In canning this year’s batch of Aji Limon, I went a different route from last year. In that I didn’t do an overnight pre-brining of the peppers before canning them. This year I just sliced them up, packed them into jars, covered them with onions and pickling liquid, and processed them like I would a batch of jalapenos.

On kind of a side note, I finally cracked open a jar of the Jalapeno hot sauce that I made a few months back, and it tasted awesome. So for canning the Aji, I used the same pickling liquid as for the Jalapeno hot sauce. But instead of making the Aji into a hot sauce with the pickling liquid, I just pretending like I was making pickled jalapenos rings instead.

And without further ado, the details on canning this years batch of Aji Limon:

The Peppers:

• 1lbs 6.6oz of Aji Limon peppers, sliced into rings (final trim weight 20.2 oz)

Pickling liquid (makes one batch):

• 5 cups white vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 4 tsp canning salt
• 2 TB sugar
• 5 cloves garlic
• 3 TB Lemon juice
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced

Quick step-by-step:
Wash the peppers, and trim off their stems. Then slice each pepper into 3-4 rings, and set aside. While cutting up the peppers, bring the pickling liquid to a boil, and simmer for at least 15 minutes. Once the peppers are trimmed and sliced, and the liquid is done simmering. Pack the peppers in the jars, top with some of the cooked onions and the pickling liquid. Remove any air bubbles, and process using the time listed below.

Process:
10 minutes in a boiling water canner

Final yield:
3 pints

Side Notes:
1) My original estimate was that I would only need 4 cups of pickling liquid. But seeing how I didn’t want to do the math to recalculate the pickling liquid recipe for 4 cups, I stuck with the original recipe for 6 cups. And it was a good thing that I did. Since I ended up using all 6 cups between the three pint jars, with no waste.
2) As something a little different for this year, I topped each jar with about a 1-2 TB of the onions that were boiled with the pickling liquid. Who know what it will add to the final product, but I though that I would test it out, rather then threw them in the trash.
3) Surprising I wasn’t too effected by the vapors while cutting up the Aji. But it probably helps that I didn’t cook the Aji beforehand. Because if I did, it might have been worse then my reaction to the red jalapenos that I made into hot sauce.

So using the newest hot sauce recipe on file as a starting point, here are the results:

The Peppers:

• 3lbs 5.1oz of Red Jalapeno peppers, with the stems removed and roughly chopped (final trim weight 48.4 oz)

Pickling liquid (makes one batch):

• 10 cups white vinegar
• 2 cup water
• 2 TB + 2 tsp canning salt
• 4 TB sugar
• 8 cloves garlic
• 6 TB Lemon juice
• 2 medium yellow onion, diced (final trim weight 21.4 oz)

Quick step-by-step:
Place all the ingredients into a large pot, and bring the mixture to a boil. Once boiling, simmer for at least 30 minutes until the pepper fall apart easily when mashed with a wooden spoon. Then process with a blender/food processor/or stick blender until smooth. Then either strain or not, into hot quart jars and process using the time below.

Process:
10 minutes in a boiling water canner

Final yield:
5 quarts

Side Notes:
1) Holy mackerel was it a mistake to cook this stuff inside the house. I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal, since at first I thought that it was a pretty small batch. Well it turns out that 5 quarts of hot sauce can make a very strong capsicum “bomb” in an enclosed space. Since during the hour that I was cooking the mixture on the range, I couldn’t stop coughing/sneezing. And even now, two hours later, I’m still have a pretty strong coughing fit. So after this, all hot sauce cooking in now going to be done in the backyard only.
2) I didn’t get a chance to taste the hot sauce before canning it. It probably had to do with all that coughing I was doing. But if this stuff is anywhere close to the regular jalapeno variety hot sauce that I made, I’ll be happy.
3) In going with the trend for thinner hot sauce a la v2 of the green hot sauce. Instead of using 10 cups of liquid (if using the 10.5oz pepper to 2 cups of liquid ratio.) I went with 12 cups instead, making this hot sauce about 5% thinner then v2. It doesn’t seem too much thinner. But the proof will be in about a month or two, when I crack open a jar.
4) Something else new for this batch of hot sauce was that I actually canned it, instead of just refrigerating it. Part of this, was due to the lack of refrigerator space from the 6 quarts of the original hot sauce that I made. And another part of me just wanted to see if it was possible, which it appears that it is. So this should free up a ton of fridge space for next years hot sauce.

Brine ratios:

• 1 quart of cold water
• 3 TB of canning/pickling salt

I ended up needing three quarts of brine to cover the submerged cucumbers, and 1 quart of brine for the plastic seal.

Remaining ingredients:

• ~8 lbs of cucumbers, both ends removed, and cut in half length wise
• 3 TB pickling spice mix
• 2 TB Dill Seed

The process couldn’t be more easier then cleaning (and sanitizing) a 2 gallon food grade bucket and adding all the cucumbers and spices, topping it off with the brine mixture. I then sanitized a glass dinner plate, and used it to weight down the cucumbers. Finally I sanitized a small sheet of plastic and placed it on the surface of the brine, filling it with a quart of brine. I then placed the bucket down in a cool/dark spot in the basement and let mother nature do her magic (making sure to check the brine about every day for any scum or mold formation.) To be on the safe side, I swapped out the glass salad plate for a new sanitized plate once a week, just to help prevent any mold formation. (see side notes below on mold/scum.)

The “Joy of Pickling” recipe listed that the pickles should be done in after about two to three weeks of fermenting, and they should look olive colored at that point. I ended up letting them ferment for 3 1/2 weeks (25 days), and I think that I was pushing my luck with those extra 3 to 4 days past 3 weeks, since it started to look like the brine on top of the plastic sheet was starting to get an “infection.” So having caught the pickles just in time, I then tossed out the “sealing brine” that was infected. I then separated the pickles from the brine.  Giving the pickling two quick soaks (30 secs to 1 min) in cold water, draining out the rinsing liquid to get the pickles as dry as possible. While the rinsed pickles are draining in the sink, I double strained (first a coarse strainer and then a coffee filter) the pickle brine. At this point I brought the pickle brine to a boil and boiled the brine for 7 mins, skimming off any scum that forms on the surface, then cooled it to room temperature. I used an ice bath in the sink, which takes about 5-10 mins. While the brine is cooling in the sink, pack the drained pickles into into a one gallon jar that has been cleaned and sanitized, topping it off with the cooled brine. You can then store the pickles in the fridge for about a year (or so the recipe says).

Side notes:
1) I tried one of the “pickles” after about 10 days in the brine. And it was close to being done, but it still needed about another week or two to finish fermenting. Since when you looked at the pickle, it only looked about half way cured. (see pics below)
2) I really have to find a better weight other then a glass plate, like a weight lifting plate. Since a glass plate just isn’t heavy enough to keep stuff weighed down in the brine. I’ve been keeping my eye’s peeling for a good and cheap weight lifting plate, but I just haven’t found the right one yet.
3) In the original recipe it called for adding in a couple of stalks of celery, one sliced onion and 1/2 cup of horseradish to the fermentation crock. Next time I might have to actually follow the recipe and try out this combination.
4) Next year, I’m going to have to grow dill, even though I forgot to do it the last two years. But with all these pickles that I’m making, I think the end product would be better served with fresh dill compared to using dill seed.
5) I’d never seen this before, but the recipe called for using fresh grape leaves to line the bottom of the crock. As well as to layer the grape leaves with the pickles. At the time I started the fermentation, I didn’t have any fresh grape leaves on hand. It wasn’t until later on that I realized that my neighbor in the back had a couple of grape vines. Another thing for me to remember for next year.
6) The pickles have been sitting for about a week in the fridge, and I’ve noticed the strangest of phenomena. In that the particles (proteins?) suspended in the brine that makes it cloudy. Separates out from solution and settles on the pickles, making the brine less opaque. Personally I haven’t seen this happen before, so if someone can provide some insight into why this happens, it would be appreciated.

After doing a quick walk around to gauge the prices, I finally found a vendor that was selling 1 1/2 pint containers of pickling cucumbers for $2.00 each. Wanting to get the price even lower, I offer them $15 for 10 containers. We eventually settled on $18 for 10 containers (a $2 total discount). I have a feeling that if I had waited until noon (when the market stops) instead of when I was there at 11am, I could have gotten them for $15.

But I still got a hell of a good deal, since the two bags of cucumbers ended up weighing ~15 lbs, so at ~$1.20 lb it was still a great deal. Later on I didn’t realize how much ~15 lbs of cucumbers were until I started to process them. After getting through the first ~7 lb bag, I decided to make the pickles two different ways, fermented/brined and hot processed vinegar pickling (like v1.) Below you’ll see the recipes that I used for versions 2 and 3 of the vinegar pickles. The brined pickles (version 4) will be getting their own separate post.

Version 2.0

Brine:
(note: less vinegar & more water compared to v1)

• 3.5 cups vinegar
• 4.5 cups water
• 2 TB pickling spice mix
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup canning salt

Bring Mixture to a boil, then simmer for 15 mins.

Per quart jar add:
(note: added black peppercorns & celery seeds compared to v1)

• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 3/4 tsp celery seed
• 2 tsp mustard seed
• 3 tsp Dill seed

Process 15 mins in a boiling water canner
Yield: 3 quart jars

Brine:
(note: less vinegar & more water, also removed the pickling spice compared to v1 & v2)

• 3 cups vinegar
• 5 cups water
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup canning salt

Bring Mixture to a boil, then simmer for 15 mins.

Per quart jar add:
(note: increased the red pepper flakes to 1/2 tsp, and increased the celery seed to 1 tsp compared to v2)

• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 1 tsp celery seed
• 2 tsp mustard seed
• 3 tsp Dill seed

Process 15 mins in a boiling water canner
Yield: 4 quart jars

Version 2.0 & 3.0

• 3 lbs 6.9 oz fresh green, un-trimmed weight, divided between four quart jars

Brine:
(I used the same brine for v2 & v3, and this is enough brine for four quart jars)

• 5 cups white vinegar
• 7 cups water
• 3/4 cup pickling/canning salt

Per pint jar for v2:

• 3 whole clove of garlic
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Per pint jar for v3:

• 4 whole clove of garlic
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Process for 10 minutes in a water canner.
Yield: 4 quarts

Side notes:
1) I added the loose spices after running the jar with the food saver. I learned my lesson with the pickles from v2 & v3.
2) I changed around the water/vinegar ratio from 50%/50% to ~60%/40%, to see how it will effect the final product. I’ll let you know the results.
3) Since I was using quart jars instead of pint jars, I had to look in the Blue Book for some guidance on processing times. And interesting enough, it listed the same processing time for pints and quarts, of 10 mins. Check out the update from the beans in v1, regarding the 5 minute processing time.
4) For some reason, version 3 with the cayenne pepper looks like it is going to be crazy hot. The funny part, is that I was originally thinking about only using 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper per quart jar. But when I looked at the Blue Book recipe for “dilly beans”, it listed 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper per quart jar. So I threw caution to the wind and went with 1/2 tsp per jar. It’s only for two jars, so I really don’t have much to lose in testing it out. But this kind of makes me wonder if I should try adding some cayenne pepper to the vinegar-based pickles. I guess something to think about for next time.
5) I had about a pint of brine left over that I didn’t want to pour down the drain. So I filled a pint jar full of garlic (with any bad spots removed), and topped it off with the brine. This idea was inspired by a recipe from the The Joy of Pickling for “Chinese Pickled Garlic”, except that recipe had a brine mixture of: 1/2 cup vinegar (rice, white wine or distilled white), 1/2 tsp sugar & 1/2 tsp pickling salt. So mine is close except no sugar and I added water. I’ll let you know how this turns out.

I ended up filling up, three quart jars of tomatoes. But after processing, it looks like I should have gone with two jars instead of three (see the pics below.) Anyways, once again this year I’m going to be using the Ball Blue book recipe for raw packed tomatoes. So per quart jar I added:

• 1/2 tsp citric acid
• 1 tsp canning salt
• And hot water to top of the jar

Then process the jars in a boiling water canner for 45 minutes.

The only “tough” part about this recipe. Is taking the time to remove the skins from all the tomatoes (by dunking them in boil water) and cuting out any bad parts. But other then that, this recipe is smooth sailing.

With all the jalapenos on hand, it was now time to scale up the recipe by about nine times compared to v1 that I made last year.

Ingredients:

• Jalapenos, stems trimmed and cut into rings (pre-trim weight 6 lbs 0.4 oz, final trim weight 5 lbs 6.1 oz)
• 1/2 cups + 1 TB Lemon Juice
• 5 yellow onions, diced (pre-trim weight 2 lbs 3.8 oz, final trim weight 1 lb 13.8 oz)
• 15 cups White Vinegar
• 3 cups Water
• 1/4 cup Pickling Salt
• 6 TB White Sugar
• 10 cloves of garlic (trimmed weight 1.4 oz or 38 grams)

Final yield:
5 quarts – filtered hot sauce
1 quart – un-filtered hot sauce
1 pint – all the pulp from the filtered sauce and a little bit of un-filtered hot sauce to top off the jar

Side Notes:
1) I cooked this batch for about 45 mins, instead of the 30 mins listed in the V1 recipe. When I was mixing the hot sauce while it was cooking, it just looked like it need the extra cooking time.
2) Once again I really won’t know how this stuff tastes for at least a month, just so that the vinegar has the necessary time to mellow out. But just giving it a quick taste in the cooking pot, it seemed pretty good.
3) I kind of made a mistake in calculating the scale up factor, since I scaled up the recipe using the pre-trim weight on the jalapenos (9 times the base recipe, when it should have been scaled up 8 times for the jalapeno trimmed weight.) So in essence, there is an extra unit of brine/liquid compared to the amount of jalapenos in the recipe. I didn’t realize this error until after everything was completed, so it was too late to make a correction. So if the aged product comes out runny, or it comes out awesome, this is the reason why.

Links:
Jalapeno Hot Sauce V1
Jalapeno Pickling recipe

So on to rest of the recipe:

Brine

• 1 qt (4 cups) vinegar
• 1 qt (4 cups) water
• 2 TB pickling mix
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup canning salt

Bring Mixture to a boil, then simmer for 15 mins.

Per quart jar add:

• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp mustard seed
• 3 tsp Dill seed

Remember to make sure and use to plastic knife to get out the air bubbles. I also use the mason jar attachment for the food saver to get all the bubbles out.

Yield: 3 quart jars
Process 15 mins in a boiling water canner

Side Notes:
1) Since these pickles were the first canning experiment of the year, I forgot a bunch of steps that I would normally do. The big one being to get the air bubbles out the jar before processing. I was lucky that all the jars sealed after processing. But I guess this is what I get for the first canning session of the year.
2) The brine amount in the recipe ended up being the prefect amount for three quart jars, with no waste.
3) Since I forgot to grow fresh dill this year to add to the pickles, I went with dill seed instead.