Pickled Hot Peppers

As I sat the table for dinner this evening, a few quick photos were snapped of yesterdays Hot Pepper canning project. The project actually started on Sunday. The recipe suggested leaving the peppers whole. I chose to cut the tops off, leaving some seeds, and cutting the peppers in half. The next step was to place the peppers into a huge stainless steel bowl, to which I added the specified amount of canning salt and water. This brew was to sit for 12 to 18 hours.

It was pepper extravaganza on Sunday. Under the watchful eye of Mister and our buddy Steveo, 10 more jars of goodies were added to the pantry.

Serious business now.....read the warning....wear the gloves!!

In my cockiness, I was convinced that although rubber gloves would be nice, they were not a necessity. I was wrong! Let me say this in another way...my hands burned like fire until around 2AM that night. Yes, I had great confidence because, I have chopped plenty of peppers and never worn gloves. My kitchen has cranked out tons of homemade salsa, chile rellenos, etc. This was a whole higher level of pepper extravaganza. With the addition of the project of grilling 24 poblanos and skinning them for homemade Enchilada Sauce this was not a job for a sissy.

The burning sensation came on gradually as the evening progressed. My hands looked normal and there were no actual burned marks on my hands. I did however feel as if they had been placed in boiling water. Here is a list of things I tried to ease the pain.

Soaking them in milk. (helped at first, I had to keep changing the milk because the capcasian came out into it.)
Soaking them in yogurt ( nice and cool, same thing as the milk though)
Washing them with every soap we had in the house many times.
I poured straight vinegar on them.
I took ibuprophen.
Rubbed olive oil on them.
I poured straight rubbing alcohol on them.
I went to bed with an ice pack on each hand.
None of this worked...they were all suggestions that I had found online.

What finally worked? I slathered my hands in Vaseline and carefully rubbed in one motion to remove the Vaseline, in hopes that the petroleum would capture the capsacian from my skins pores. I repeated this several times. The pained eased, I feel asleep, the next morning I had the cleanest hands and nicest cuticles ever and finally the pain had stopped.

I was not so anxious to handle those peppers the next morning and process them in the canner. I did it though. I think I will forever more call this recipe... Hands on fire Peppers!

Peppers I used.

Hot Hungarian

Jalapeno

Banana

Anaheim

Poblano

Aren't they gorgeous in the jars though!!