The likely scenario would be that you did not pack the jars real tightly, leaving a lot of space.

But your remedy, to make additional solutions is just fine. Actually it is more on the safe side (high liquid to solid ration).

BTW: your pickles look mouth watering >

Double check your recipe. I think you might has crossed them. NCHFP has 2.

One calls for 7 lbs peppers with 3 c vinegar and 3 c water. The other calls for 5 cups vinegar and 1 cup water but only 4 lbs of peppers.

Either way, making more brine is fine. It is better to do that rather than over-packing the jars with solids.

Dave

Thanks for the reassurance. I don't see how I could've packed any more peppers in those jars! Maybe I should've cut them into smaller pieces? I guess practice makes perfect right?
Dave, I took your advice & looked at the recipe. Here it is :

Hungarian, Banana, Chile, Jalapeno
â¢4 lbs hot long red, green, or yellow peppers
â¢3 lbs sweet red and green peppers, mixed
â¢5 cups vinegar (5%)
â¢1 cup water
â¢4 tsp canning or pickling salt
â¢2 tbsp sugar
â¢2 cloves garlic

Yield: About 9 pints

NCHFP has 2.

One calls for 7 lbs peppers with 3 c vinegar and 3 c water.
The other calls for 5 cups vinegar and 1 cup water but only 4 lbs of peppers.

%%%%%%%%%%%%

How come so much difference ?
The second one obviously has way too much vinegar. That will be almost a 4% acidity vinegar with a pH of about 2.45.

A 50/50 w/v will have a pH

Seysonn, some people like more vinegary pickles. I'm one of them. It's NOT just a safety issue, but taste.

NCHFP has several different recipes, each with different ingredients, and you have to look at the entire recipe not just the amount of peppers and vinegar. So each recipe will be different. Those that also contain garlic for example require more vinegar.

It isn't just a matter of the amount of vinegar when figuring pH. You also have to factor in the amount of water in the fruit, the density of the ingredients, and the bacterial risk associated with a particular ingredient.

Otherwise as myfamilyfarm said, it is a matter of taste.

Dave

I am still questioning the amount of liquid to pepper ratio, I had to make a second batch of the liquid to fill all the jars & I really packed those jars tightly I thought (based on the pic, do they look full?). Again, I am complete beginner, but I also did a few batches of pickled peppers from the Ball recipe book, and the ratio of peppers to liquid was perfect--no more no less than needed to fill the jars.
NCHFP recipe calls for 7 lbs of peppers to 6 cups of liquid, Ball calls for slightly under 3 lbs of peppers to 8 cups of liquid. I'm happy with the taste of both, but am still questioning the proportions.

I pickle things like pepperoncini, Hungarian hot wax, Jalapeno. I pack them whole. But I make a slit on them. This way I can bet that more brine will be used.
So that the ration of pepper to brine does not matter to me. I'll just make little extra brine, for just in case.

Seysonn

Did the Ball recipe make 9 pints? Or something less? Obviously the peppers couldn't have been packed as tightly if 6-9 pints.

But it's always good to make more brine - you can store it if you don't use it all. The NCHFP Sweet Green Tomato pickles don't seem to have nearly enough brine for my comfort, so I double that.

But always make the *strength* of the brine according to the individual recipe, don't mix recipes. As Dave said, some recipes have additional low-acid ingredients like garlic or fresh herbs, even if the main ingredient looks to be the same.

As long as you keep the ratio/strength the same, you can make more brine from the start. I always do. Even small things, like whether you're using wide-mouth or regular-mouth jars, can make a difference.

Sherm - over the years we all run into recipes that just don't seem to jive proportion-wise and this may be one of them. Whether it is due to the way we weight or cut/chop or measure, or pack or if it is just because it is a mis-print we can't say.

But they are still generally safe to do so most of us just make a note on the recipe (if we like the results) to double the brine batch or whatever the focal problem is. Sometimes that means reducing the amount of solids, sometimes increasing the amount of the liquids. With pickling recipes sometimes it is a bit of both.

Dave

Ok thanks, Dave! I don't have the over the years' experience, and I am very cautious about my canning endeavors, and lacking confidence! So, good to know--I'll make my first note in my recipe book: double the brine. Thanks again for everyone's help. I think I could get addicted to canning, and am a little sad I didn't start earlier in the season. Oh well there's next summer! My husband and I actually went through my brand new Ball recipe book & put post-its on all the recipes we're going to try next year!