[catllar]

I've been give 10lbs of red peppers. So far I' have grilled them and removed skin and seeds etc. I want to preserve them for the winter but can I do it using ordinary jam jars with a screw lid and no disc (a la Bonne Maman) or should I go and buy a few proper preserving jars?

Once that hurdle overcome, and I' have filled said jars with peppers and olive oil and garlic - what happens next??

[Yorkie]

I haven't preserved in that particular way, but for jams I've reused jam jars.  I like the ones with a poppable lid, so that you can tell when the vacuum has been formed.

To sterilise them I rinse in hot soapy water, rinse, and stick in the oven for 10 minutes at about 120C.

No idea about what to do with the olive oil.  I do remember some risk of botulism being mentioned on here before in connection with olive oil, but I think that was in particular circumstances.  Might be worth a forum search if nobody comes up with the details.

[mumofstig]

Val's advice is here
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=65925.msg752882#msg752882

I think you'll find it's the garlic in oil that can cause a problem.
Italian's always preserve peppers in oil and vinegar for antipasto, they then store all winter

[LotuSeed]

If you're planning on heat processing the jars, I'd get new jars simply because you'd be getting new lids as well (I think they'd have a better chance of sealing properly)
If you're going to freeze the peppers alone or refrigerate them in oil, reusing jars should be fine, just sterilize them first (I leave mine in boiling water for 10 minutes). 

Garlic in the oil is asking for trouble though the ph of garlic is high and botulism would thrive in that oxygen free, basic environment. I think you'd be fine with giving the peppers a good long soak in vinegar, packing them into a hot jar and then covering them in olive oil that's been heated.  I'd be inclined to keep it in the fridge though.

[catllar]

Thanks for all the advice - I wasn't aware of the deadly garlic - fortunately I didn't put any in the peppers. ( I was planning to but I forgot - luckily so it would seem!) In the past,I've tried storing  only in olive oil in the fridge and they last a couple of weeks or so before going all bubbly. 

 I did get new kilner type jars with the clip down lids - I was unsure about sterilising jam jars, mine aren't the fancy pop top  ones - bog standard screw tops are what I have, so I think I'll keep them just for jam.

What I did was - grill the peppers till black then peeled and de-pipped when cool. I put them into the kilner jars,which I'd had merrily boiling away for 10 minutes. Then topped up with oil, clipped the lids down and back into the boiling water for 10 minutes. When they were cool I checked the seal and all is OK.

[LotuSeed]

Hmmm... As far as I know, hot water bathing them in olive oil isn't recommended for safety issues (olive oil has a high pH and is fat basically fat) peppers should be bottled in a pressure canner after having added bottled lemon juice and water to each jar.

As far as processing them in a boiling water bath canner in oil, I don't know how safe or effective that is. The vinegar soak I mentioned in my earlier post was to aid in acidification before it's packed in oil and then refrigerated. I think something similar is done with storing sun dried tomatoes before they're packed as well.

I think the only recommended preparation for processing them in a water bath canner is if they are pickled.

Maybe someone with more experience in preserving in oil can chime in on this one.

I'm attaching a link to an extension office website that explains the different ways of preserving peppers.

http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8004.pdf

[catllar]

Thanks for that article Lotuseed - some useful info there. I often freeze small chilli peppers but I'd never  even considered freezing bell peppers. Think for next time I'll roast and skin them then open freeze and bag them. Gotta be less messing about than the bottling business!