An interesting choice. Preserving ram’s horns à la jalapeño

Almost everyone grows chillies in their garden. Growing this wonderful vegetable is definitely worth the effort. Many can be picked straight from the patch and eaten straight away. Others are better off being preserved. Ram’s horns are a classic example in this regard. These thin, elongated peppers are delicious, but are often incredibly hot. That was the case for us too, which is why we decided to preserve them. Not just whole, as is traditional, but also chopped up like classic jalapeños. We’ll share the recipe, method and photos with you.

Ram’s horns with a twist

Ram’s horns are traditionally preserved whole. They are placed in jars and then covered with brine. However, they often break, and eating them isn’t always straightforward given their size. That’s why it’s no problem to slice the peppers crosswise, just as you would when preserving classic hot jalapeño peppers. We did just that, though we sliced the ram’s horns into slightly larger pieces. After all, they’re not as hot that way and are easier to eat. They didn’t disappoint visually either. In fact, you can see for yourselves.

Photo: Radek Stepan

A simple brine with all the trimmings

That’s right, there’s no need to look for anything complicated. We used the following ingredients to prepare the brine:

– 2700 ml of water,

– 450 ml of vinegar,

– 120 grams of sugar,

– 45 grams of salt.

We mixed all the ingredients together and brought them to the boil.

Tip: How to dry peppers? Nothing special.

Be careful with the pickling time for ram’s horns

That’s right. Once we’d arranged the ram’s horns in jars along with allspice, pepper and mustard seeds, we poured the hot brine over them. We then preserved them for about 5 minutes in a large saucepan at 80 degrees Celsius. This time was more than enough for us. You definitely don’t want the peppers to go soft.

Sources: Author

Photo and gallery: Radek Stepan