Safety question for canning pickles and peppers

[ubelongoutside]

Hi all,

The wife and I canned some pickles and peppers using the following brine recipe: 1 cup pickling salt to 1 quart vinegar to 3 quarts water.

We got this from my family who uses it for "open air" pickles.  They don't can them just let them sit in this on the counter for a couple days then put them into the fridge without sealing.

We however sealed them, and while reading some stuff elsewhere I became concerned that the brine we used may not be acidic enough to prevent botulism.

Can anyone help us out here?  Should they be OK, or should we toss them.  All of them sealed, but we did have one pop a seal a few days later and became cloudy.  We tossed that one.

Thanks,

Don

 

[daveomak]

The proper acidity is very important.... It keep pathogens from growing.... At minimum 1:1... I always use more vinegar to be safe... 5:4 or 5:3... on some stuff like pickled fish, I use 5:1 and extra sugar... sugar:salt .. 1:1.... All of this is in the event the acidity of the vinegar is not what it says.... In chemistry class we tested many vinegars as an assignment... we found one brand to be incorrect.... the teacher contacted the right folks and it was pulled from the shelves.... low acidity can be very bad.....

There are some reads in the link below....

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=proper+mix+of+vinegar+and+water+for+pickling