Pickled Asparagus

Pickled Asparagus - YUM!

Last night I pickled 6 pints of asparagus spears - the season is coming to an end and I wanted to get some done before, suddenly, there's not enough to work with. We've been using a recipe we found online at AllRecipes.com, but have made some alterations to suit ourselves.

First, and probably most importantly, there does not seem to be enough vinegar called for - it asks for 1 2/3 cups to put up two pints. I tripled the recipe for 6 pints and ran short of pickling liquid, so I made a note to increase the vinegar for 2 pints to 2 full cups.

Second, we found another reference to putting a clove of garlic into each jar, which works out great.

And finally, the 2/3 cup of sugar made our first batch (two or three years ago) a little too sweet, so I have a notation on the recipe to use 1/3 cup per 2 pints. You can be the judge of how sweet you want it.

The red pepper flakes make it fairly spicy, so you can judge your own usage - on a scale of 1 "mild" to 10 "hot", I'd put this at about a 4 or 5.

These make a great snack, and a jar of pickled asparagus is a great Christmas gift to someone!

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