Mean Green Beans and Pickles

Looking back on it, I see that this recipe is strictly vegetarian!  Oh well, I make it a lot and they go GREAT with meat dishes so... pay attention!  This recipe will make some awesome hot & spicy pickles, in a one-gallon container.  I like it because I happen to have a glass jug with a tight lid, that holds a gallon.  It's tough to break this recipe out to 8 pint sized mason jars, but you can try if you want.

You'll need:

• For the brine:
• 1 Gallon Container 
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 3/4 Cup Salt
• 6 Cups Distilled White Vinegar
• 6 Cups Purified Water
  
• For each mason jar:
• Baby Cucumbers, Green Beans, asparagus, or carrots
  
• 1 disk of a sliced Red Onion
• Some whole cloves of garlic
• 3 Sprigs of Fresh Dill
• 2 Fresh Jalapeno Peppers, sliced into Rings
• 1 Fresh Habanero Pepper (or Ghost pepper if you like it super hot), sliced in half
• 12 Whole Peppercorns

In a heavy pot, add the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar and stir to dissolve.  You can dissolve it faster if you use pickling salt, and if you heat up the solution.  However, you'll need to cool the solution to room temperature before you use it.  Pour it into a gallon container and top off the rest of the container with purified drinking water.  Label this "Bean Juice" and keep it stashed in the pantry.

Meanwhile, find a helper who is creative and who has small hands (hands small enough to fit through the portal of your pickling jar).  Place a ring of the onion on the bottom of any sized mason jar, and stand up the green vegetables around the edge and in the middle of the jar.  They tend to fall over, so you'll need some patience.  You might find that it helps to lay the jar on it's side first, to send in the first "troops."

Once the bottom layer of your beans (or cucumbers) is packed in and standing at attention, add a layer of dill, garlic, peppercorns, and chili peppers.  Repeat the process with another layer of beans/cucumbers followed by the spices and peppers.  Once your jar is packed with veggies and you don't have enough space left to slide in even one single additional green bean, you're ready to pour on the liquid.  Make sure the liquid isn't hot or you'll cook the contents of the jar, and things will end up mushy instead of crunchy!  Pour the "bean juice" in until it's almost to the top of the jar.  I like to leave a bit of space for things to move around in there.

Hold back one last "disk" of red onion for the tippy-top, just before screwing on the lid.  Now, you're done!  Leave it out on the counter and spin it upside down every 12 hours or so.  After 3 days, put the jar in the refrigerator and eat them whenever you feel like it.  When you unscrew the jar for the first time, you'll find the onion there, on top.  That's the best!  Make sure it goes to the guest of honor at the table.

Don't worry if the garlic cloves turn blue.  It's a reaction of the sulfur in the garlic to the pickling liquid.  It is perfectly safe to eat.

Note: As you might surmise, the level of "meanness" or HEAT for each jar will vary according to what type of chili peppers you use.  I strongly suggest two things:

1. Wear gloves when you deal with them, especially if you use Ghost peppers or Carolina Reapers!  Handling these peppers bare-handed after you cut them open can turn your next bathroom visit into a long moment of pure agony.
2. Try to cut and portion the white pith inside as carefully as the papper's  flesh.  That's where the heat is.