New & Improved Pickled Ramps

The New & Improved Pickled Ramps

For those of you that have been following this blog for a while know that about this time last year I was looking for a way to persevere my ramps longer. While on a fishing trip last year I found a way but for more on that story you can read it here. After doing some brief research I found a recipe, from none other than Martha Stewart, for Pickled Ramps. This was the recipe I used last year, it was good but I thought with more research, asking some friends, and a little tweaking on my part I could make it better. That is exactly what I did and here it is:

Ingredients:

• +/- 2 lbs Ramps (Cleaned up and trimmed with only the stem and bulb intact)
• 1 cup White Wine Vinegar
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Water
• 1 teaspoon Mustard Seed
• 1 teaspoon Coriander Seed
• 1 teaspoon Fennel Seed
• 1 teaspoon Black Peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper
• 1 tablespoon Kosher Salt

Directions:

Step One: Blanch the ramps for thirty seconds to a minute.

Step Two: After blanching the the ramps, drain them and place them into previously prepped mason jar(s). I prefer to use pint jars as this recipe will roughly four full pint jars, but any size jar or jars will do. Also to add a little more favor, at this point I add one whole dried chile pepper to the jar as well as the ramps.

Step Three: Combine the vinegar, salt, sugar, and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

Step Four: Add the crushed red pepper, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, and fennel seeds to the boiling pickling brine.

Step Five: Pour the pickling brine over the ramps in the mason jar. At this point there are two choices to make, you can seal the jar(s) and place them in the fridge to cool and you can continue with the proper "hot bathing" technique. If placed directly into the fridge they will last for a few week up to a few months, if properly canned they can last substantially longer.