Pickled Garlic Scapes – Recipe for Canning (2024)

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by Ashley Adamant 30 Comments

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If you’re growing enough garlic to feed your family, you’re also growing enough garlic scapes to feed an army. When the garlic scapes start popping up, it’s hard to use them all fresh. Sure, they’re good in scrambled eggs and they make a spectacular fresh garlic scape pesto but even after you’ve used them every way imaginable, they’re still coming…

Pickled Garlic Scapes – Recipe for Canning (1)

It’s time to pull out the canner and make pickled garlic scapes. Home-canned pickled garlic scapes taste like extra garlic-y pickled dilly beans, with an extra crunchy snap. While green beans can sometimes get a bit soggy in the canner, garlic scapes barely even feel it, coming out crisp and flavorful every time.

Garlic scapesare long, and it’s a shame to cut them down to size for canning jars. Try using extra tall pint and a half jars for a more dramatic finished presentation on the table. They also make really pretty gifts that way.

I’ve found that you can pickle them in two shapes. The long straight stems can be cut to length for tall canning jars, but the curl above the straight portion fits perfectly into a wide mouth jar. Try canning up both versions, the straight pickles and fun curly Q’s.

Pickled Garlic Scapes – Recipe for Canning (2)

Pickled Garlic Scapes – Recipe for Canning (3)

Yield: Roughly 3 pints

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Canning Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Pickled garlic scapes preserve short-livedgarlic scapes for year-round eating.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound garlic scapes, 3 to 5 bunches if you're buying them at the farmers market
  • 2-3 teaspoons dill seed, one teaspoon per jar
  • 1 to 1.5 teaspoons whole peppercorns, 1/2 tsp. per jar
  • 1 to 1.5 teaspoons whole coriander seed, 1/2 tsp. per jar
  • 1.5 cups apple cider vinegar
  • 1.5 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons pickling salt or kosher salt

Instructions

  1. Start a water bath canner and bring it up to a boil.
  2. Trim each end of the scapes, removing the blossoms and reserving them for another use, and trimming the tough bottom end off. Start with a single scape, and trim it to the size of your jar, fitting it in with just over 1/2 inch of headspace. Use this as your measuring stick, and trim the rest of the scapes to the same length.
  3. Pack the scapes into pint or tall pint and a half mason jars. Add 1 teaspoon dill seed and 1/2 teaspoon of peppercorns and coriander seed to each jar. For spicy pickles, add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional).
  4. Mix the water, cider vinegar and salt together in a pot and bring to a boil. Stir to incorporate the salt.
  5. Pour the hot vinegar brine over the garlic scapes in masonjars, filling to within 1/2 inch of the top rim.
  6. Seal with 2 part canning lids and process in a water bath canner: 10 minutes for pints and 15 for pint and a half or quart jars.
  7. Wait at least 2 weeks for the flavors to infuse before eating. I find they're best at least 6 weeks later, so try to be patient.

Notes

Yield: Roughly 3 pints (or 2 extra tall pint and a half jars) Canning Method: Water Bath Headspace: 1/2 inch Process Time: 10 Minutes for pints and 15 minutes for 1.5 pint or quart jars

Pickled Garlic Scapes – Recipe for Canning (4)

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Comments

  1. Kristina

    Have you ever tried this with white vinegar? I wonder if it would work.

    Reply

  2. Diana Schulze

    Wow! Such a wealth of information! Love it! Thank you. Diana

    Reply

  3. myna lee johnstone

    Are you cutting off the bulb part? What do youb do with it?

    Reply

    • Ashley Adamant

      We generally eat those scrambled in eggs for breakfast, they’re my favorite part. You can pickle those too though!

      Reply

  4. Julia Sanders

    Do you have to use dill? I personally don’t like dill.

    Reply

    • Admin

      I used dill seed in this recipe, but you can omit it.

      Reply

  5. Angela Meier

    Can I pickle the stem part as well? I’ve cut them, and they kind of remind me of asparagus, so I’m hoping they will soften INV a pickling brine as well?

    Reply

  6. Kaitlyn Lauzon

    Can I use fresh dill instead of seeds?

    Reply

  7. Heather Fairley

    Hello, I made these and they’ve been in my pantry for 3 weeks.
    When I processed them in pints, I boiled for 10 minutes, then turned the heat off and removed the lid, and left them in there for another 5 minutes before pulling them. All the cans “popped” on my counter properly. 24 hours later, I removed the rims and wet-wiped off the lids and threads before putting them in the pantry.
    Since storing them, my pantry smells a lot like garlic. I’ve never pickled anything that I can smell outside of the sealed jars before. We have checked that the centre of each lid is still firmly in the down position, it won’t budge when we press on them, so I think none of them have a broken seal. Do you think it’s okay that I can smell the pickles? Does this ever happen to you?
    TIA

    Reply

    • Administrator

      I have never experienced anything like that before. That’s definitely very odd. As long as your seal seems good, then they should be ok to eat.

      Reply

    • François Cantin

      Try washing with soap all outside surface of all jars.

      Reply

    • Rebecca Marshall

      Most likely some of the brine siphoned out during processing. If you wash your jars with warm, soapy water after processing, the residue will be gone (and the smell, too!).

      Reply

  8. donna-mae mcquaig

    How can you use the blossoms off of the garlic scapes?

    Reply

    • Administrator

      Here is a great article that I found that gives a lot of great ideas for using the blossoms. They can be cooked or eaten raw in a variety of dishes.

      Reply

    • Jackie

      I save them in my scrap freezer bag for making stock.

      Reply

  9. Lucy V.

    Looking for recipe to make butterscotch syrup for a friend that love love loves butterscotch anything. Want to give as Christmas gift.
    Thank you
    Lucy

    Reply

  10. Emily

    Thank you for this post! I plan to follow this recipe for some leek and onion scapes. I just have one question. What does the salt you use weigh? A bit of research has shown me that if substituting a different type of salt, you need to go by weight as the grains are different sizes, and I would like to use sea salt. Thanks!

    Reply

    • Administrator

      The conversion for pickling salt and sea salt would be about the same. They are both larger grains of salt.

      Reply

  11. Shelly Merritt

    I have left over vinegar mixture…can I save it and use at a later time?

    Reply

    • Administrator

      If you have leftover vinegar mixture then it should be fine to save it for later in this particular case since this is a raw pack method and the vinegar solution has not had contact with the vegetables. If the vinegar solution had been mixed with the vegetables, then it would not be safe to reuse.

      Reply

  12. Enid

    I canned my first scapes on Sunday and a friend said I just needed to pour the brine over and not process. I’m concerned that is wrong advice. Can I process them now, two days later or are they unsafe. Please advise. Thanks

    Reply

    • Administrator

      How many jars did you make and where have they been stored?

      Reply

  13. chantale

    Hi! I’m opening some jars that I made from this recipe. There is a film or deposit on the inside of the lid, and in one case along the inside of the jar where the headspace is. It doesn’t really look like mold – but I’m trying to be sure. It looks more like a salty or otherwise hardened film… some light brown spots, and some sort of white. It is raised from the lid, but not by much. The product looks and smells fine, and I see the oily film from the scapes so wondering if it could be that that has stuck to the lid and discoloured.. I’ve been informed of “pinholing” but i don’t really think it’s that. I know this is difficult without a photo, but has anyone ever experienced something similar on the lids of their scape pickles? Thank you!

    Chantale

    Reply

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Pickled Garlic Scapes – Recipe for Canning (2024)

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