[micsager]

Last night, I was cleaning out the pickle jars, as we are making about 6 dozen quarts of dill pickles this weekend.  And I look up, and see all these nice cones on my hop vines.  And I wondered......

what would happen if we through a few cones into some of the jars. 

We're gonna give it a go.  Has anyone ever done this? 

[bluefoxicy]

what would happen if we through a few cones into some of the jars. 

Nifa Fifa will start drinking your pickle juice.

[theDarkSide]

Micsager...sorry to thread jack but do you need to use a pressure cooker when jarring your pickles.  My wife wants to do some pickling with the ton of cukes we grew this year.  She bought the canning jars but I thought you need to use the pressure cooker to sterilize for long term storage.

I have no clue.

Hop pickles...I'm not sure about that one, but then I don't like pickles that much.  Good luck.

[micsager]

Micsager...sorry to thread jack but do you need to use a pressure cooker when jarring your pickles.  My wife wants to do some pickling with the ton of cukes we grew this year.  She bought the canning jars but I thought you need to use the pressure cooker to sterilize for long term storage.

I have no clue.

Hop pickles...I'm not sure about that one, but then I don't like pickles that much.  Good luck.

We do not use a pressure cooking.  We don't process most jars in a water bath.  Just heat the brine to almost boiling, run the jars through the hottest cycle in your dishwasher (with no soap), have the lids in a pot on the stove with likewise very hot water. 

Fill the jars with pickles, dill, peppers, ext, then fill with brine to about a 1/4 inch from top, put on the lids on screw a ring on.  As tight as you can.  Let them cool.  most will seal just fine.  you can tell by tapping the lid.  Plus, you will hear them "ping" as they seal.  If any do not seal, process in water bath for 10 minutes and repeat the cooling. 

Out of the 91 jars we did Sunday, only two needed a water bath.  That's better than normal. 

Like brewing, cleanliness is quite critical.

[morticaixavier]

The decision to process in a water bath or in pressure has to do with the pH of the food you are canning. cucumber Pickles, if made from a trustworthy recipe with vinegar of known acidity is safe to preserve with a water bath but if the pH is too high there is risk of botulism and you need to get the processing temp up there well above 212 to be safe.

That's when the pressure canner comes in.

[micsager]

Interesting Mort.  I never knew.  I been using an old family recipe for many years, but never even considered looking at what level of acidity in the vinegar.  The brine is quite simple

12 cups distilled water
4 cups distilled white vinegar
1 cup canning (pickling) salt

That should make 7-8 jars, so scale up as required.

[morticaixavier]

Interesting Mort.  I never knew.  I been using an old family recipe for many years, but never even considered looking at what level of acidity in the vinegar.  The brine is quite simple

12 cups distilled water
4 cups distilled white vinegar
1 cup canning (pickling) salt

That should make 7-8 jars, so scale up as required.

The distilled white vinegar is of known acidity. Look on the label. It's probably around 6%

[1vertical]

To answer the OP question and thread topic, dry your hops and BREW beer with em....

[denny]

To answer the OP question and thread topic, dry your hops and BREW beer with em....

THIS^^^^^

[mwpruett]

Someone in my club made and fed us hop pickles.  There are recipes out there for them.  Soooo good.

[denny]

Someone in my club made and fed us hop pickles.  There are recipes out there for them.  Soooo good.

Hops or hop shoots>  I have made pickled hop shoots before, but not pickled hops.  I'm not sure I even wanna think about that!