Preparing the brine

Once I have chopped all of my chiles, I prepare the brine.

Although some people add water to the brine, I do not. I use only distilled white vinegar, salt, and whole spices to make the brine.

The advantage of using whole spices over ground ones is that ground spices will cloud the brine later. Cloudy brine for pickles is not very enticing.

On this particular day I started with whole cloves and whole black peppers.

Pickling salt is better than regular table salt. The iodine in table salt can make the pickles soft.

Boil again

The exact amount of salt, pepper, and spices I use will vary according to how I want the finish product to taste.

As you can see here, I decided to toss a whole stick of cinnamon into the boiling vinegar. It should harmonize with the cloves.

The next stage is to put the chiles into the jars.