I’m making a couple quick batches of pickled baby carrots today, to see what variations on Alton Brown’s recipe do. For the first batch I’m using the recipe straight from Alton Brown. For the second batch I’m adding 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, doubling the crushed chili peppers, adding 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and using white vinegar instead of cider vinegar. Oh, and I added a dash of cayenne, because why not.
The hard part will be letting them sit for a week before trying them. The last batch I made, I ate within the next 48 hours. It had no discernible heat, though, and in theory letting Alton’s recipe sit for a week could have brought that out. So these two batches I will do my best to leave alone at least until the weekend.
Note to self: the jar with the black tape on it is the experimental batch. Also, Alton’s recipe calls for 1/2 pound of carrots, which is nuts. That amount of liquid is more than enough for a whole pound.
Conclusion: I think the garlic was a mistake, but doubling the chili was a good idea. I think there’s so much sugar that any difference between plain vinegar and cider vinegar is getting masked, so might as well use plain. The biggest difference was in letting them sit for at least a week. I tried one carrot each day for a week, and the flavor really improved over time. I think probably the recipe should call for leaving them in the fridge for at least a week before eating.
But it turns out what I really want is taqueria style pickled carrot slices with jalapeños and onions. And I was recently given a jar of home pickled jalapeño slices. So I know what I’m making this weekend.