First night of canning: a success! And, Q on brussels sprouts

12 years ago

Last night I put up 14 pints of food.... two kinds of salsa (red and green) and plain old canned tomatoes. It was such fun! The next thing in my garden that needs attention is brussels sprouts. I've bought them pickled and love them. I googled and found these two recipes-- do they look OK? Or, does anyone have one they've used and loved?

I'm hooked now! The only problem is, I learned that I'm not supposed to can on my glass cooktop stove. Luckily I was able to maintain a boil even with a ridged bottom canner and I did not do damage to the cooktop. But, for future canning I will use my Coleman camp stove. I wish I had gas in my house!

Anyway, recipes for pickled brussels sprouts. One below, one at link.

Pickled Brussels Sprouts

2 lbs brussels sprouts

2-1/2 cups water

2-1/2 cups vinegar

3 tablespoons salt

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

4 cloves garlic

4 heads of dill or 4 teaspoons of dried dill seed.

Cook brussels sprouts until just tender, leaving whole. Combine water, vinegar, salt and pepper; boil 5 minutes. Pack Brussels sprouts into hot jars. To each pint add a clove of garlic and 1 head of dill. Pour hot liquid over brussels sprouts, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Remove air bubbles. Adjust caps. Process pint jars 15 minutes in boiling water bath.

Yield: about 4 pints.

From the Ball pickling catalogue

Here is a link that might be useful: Another pickled brussels sprouts recipe

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Comments (8)

digdirt2
12 years ago
What is the source of your posted recipe? Same as the one you linked? That alone will usually determine if it is safe or not. The site you linked has some safe recipes but it also has many unsafe ones.

There are literally thousands of UNsafe canning recipes available on the web and those new to canning really need to use only approved sources until you get enough experience to evaluate recipes and sources.

The safe and approved recipe for Pickled Brussel Sprouts is linked below. Note the difference in the amount of vinegar required. The recipe you posted is vinegar diluted with water - 1/2 and 1/2. While that is the MINIMUM approved for canning and so probably is safe, the approved recipe calls for no water to dilute the vinegar.

Enjoy your canning experiences, it is great fun, but do it safely too. :)

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Pickled Brussel Sprouts
readinglady
12 years ago
The one at the link is totally fine. It's from the most recent USDA edition.

The posted recipe is a bit odd. I see it appears on numerous sites, but I never heard of the Ball Pickling Catalogue. AFAIK, there's no such book. I did check the Ball Blue Book back a couple of issues and also the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and saw no such recipe. I have no idea where that came from. It may be OK. The vinegar ratio is the acceptable minimum, but unless I found a reliable attribution of source, I would stick with the USDA recipe you linked to or the NCHFP one Dave linked to. (They may be the same - I haven't checked.)

Carol
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tracydr
12 years ago
I just saw little 10 ounce jars of pickled brussel sprouts and pickled green beans at the high end grocery store while looking for something with my husband. We went home, had Bloody Mary's with our pickled green beans and he asked me to make more.
The one's in the store were $8.99 a jar. He wants me to try the pickled brussel sprouts, too. He was amazed those things could be so expensive at the store!
denninmi
12 years ago
Wow, why would anyone voluntarily dilute their pickling vinegar with water. Isn't a pickle supposed to be sour? ;-)
bananastand
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks everyone! And I completely forgot, thanks to LindaLou for the green tomatillo salsa recipe she shared on my earlier post. It is DELICIOUS with my green tomatoes! Much more exciting than the red tomato salsa. I think using Brandywines in canned salsa was a mistake-- there's just so much water. Not much chunkiness to it. But the green tomato version.... PERFECT!

I've googled to try and figure out where I got that first recipe link and now I can't find it again. No mind, I'll use the NCHFP one, and will note to not rely on web versions from here on out.

One more question: does adding dill affect a recipe? I would like to add dill to that NCHFP recipe but I don't want to mess it up. Does pickling salt add dill flavor or just "pickle" it? I'm guessing the latter.

I can just taste them in my bloody mary now.... tracydr, that is just ONE of the ways I enjoy them! Eating them straight up is pretty fantastic too. :-) I agree, they are really pricey in the store. I can't wait to make some of my own!
readinglady
12 years ago
For a quick pickle salt is principally for flavor so you could increase or decrease (though I'd be reluctant to get too creative with amounts) as wished without affecting safety.

In a fermented pickle (like sauerkraut) the amount of salt has to be carefully calibrated and shouldn't be messed with.

Fresh herbs in large amounts can have an effect on safety, though for a 100% vinegar recipe I don't personally see a problem in adding a sprig or two. Dried dill or dill seed can always be added without concern.

Carol
bananastand
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks! To clarify, I don't want to adjust salt amounts... just wanted to ensure I got my dill flavor in there!
macybaby
12 years ago
Of course you can Water Bath can on your flat topped stove. What you aren't suppose to do is use a pan with a non-flat bottom, and you should not have a pot that is more than 1" wider in diameter than the element. The ridge bottom won't ruin the stove, but the heat transfer is horrid.

So just take the right sized flat bottomed stockpot, find something that fits into the bottom (like a round cake cooling rack) and you are good to go.

It's no different than simmering a big pot of soup for an hour, or boiling up a big pot of potatoes.