Southern Pepper Vinegar (Virginia Willis)
The diner-table bottle of the South: slit hot chiles packed into a jar and covered with simmering cider vinegar, then left in the refrigerator three weeks before it is opened.
Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Peppers and Hot Sauce pages and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.
Ingredients
- 6 to 8 hot chiles (such as jalapeño, cayenne, or banana)
- 4 cups apple cider vinegar
Directions
- Wash the chiles, wearing gloves. Make 2 or 3 small slits in each chile and pack them tightly into sterilized jars.
- Heat the vinegar to a simmer and pour it over the chiles. Seal the jars and refrigerate them for 3 weeks before opening. The vinegar keeps up to 1 year refrigerated.
Notes
Source Adapted from Virginia Willis, “Hot Pepper Vinegar,” published on Bon Appétit and Epicurious (2011) from her cookbook. It makes 4 cups. Willis: “Almost every diner and ‘meat and three’ establishment across the South has a jar of hot pepper vinegar on each and every table. A dash or so… on greens is a revelation,” and “The longer the mixture sits, the more potent it becomes.”
Topping up The table tradition of refilling the bottle with vinegar as it empties is not in this recipe.
Storage Sealing a jar is not canning: this is a refrigerator product and stays chilled, as the source says.
The dish The Peppers and Hot Sauce section (/hot-sauce/) covers pepper vinegar on the Southern table and its cousins in Thailand and the Philippines.
The photo The photograph shows small hot peppers in vinegar in a jar, not this exact recipe.