Pickled Asparagus (3 Ways!)
Pickled asparagus is a real treat, and while asparagus season is short-lived, homemade asparagus pickles are delicious all year round. These recipes work for both refrigerator pickles as well as home canning.
Servings: 6 pints (approximate)
Ingredients
- 6-8 lbs fresh asparagus trimmed (see note)
Basic Pickled Asparagus
- 4 cups white vinegar 5% acidity
- 4 cups water
- 1/2 cup pickling and canning salt
- 1 onion thinly sliced
- 6-12 garlic cloves
- 6 tsp mustard seeds
- 6 tsp black peppercorns
- 6 tsp coriander seeds
Bread and Butter Pickled Asparagus
- 7 cups cider vinegar 5% acidity
- 1/2 cup pickling and canning salt
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 onion thinly sliced
- 6-12 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp turmeric ground
- 6 tsp mustard seeds
- 6 tsp celery seeds
Spicy Pickled Asparagus
- 5 cups white vinegar 5% acidity
- 3 cups water
- 1/2 cup pickling and canning salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 onion thinly sliced
- 6-12 garlic cloves
- 6 tsp to 6 tbsp dried crushed red pepper see note
- 6 tsp mustard seeds
- 6 tsp coriander seeds
Instructions
- Prepare a water bath canner, if canning. Skip this step for refrigerator pickles.
- Wash and trim asparagus, removing woody ends.
- Cut asparagus to fit in jars, leaving 1-inch headspace.
- Add sliced onions, garlic cloves and whole spices directly to each jar (1 tsp per jar for most spices).
- In a large saucepan, heat liquid brine ingredients (vinegar/water) along with sugar, salt and any ground spices. Allow the mixture to come to a rolling boil, then remove from heat.
- Pour the hot brine over the asparagus spears in jars, leaving 1-inch headspace.
- Cap the jars with 2 part canning lids.
- If canning, process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes for shelf-stable asparagus pickles (12-18 month shelf life).
- For refrigerator pickles, allow the jars to cool to room temperature before storing in the refrigerator (roughly 1-month shelf life refrigerated).
Notes
Yield: It usually takes slightly over 1 pound of asparagus for a pint of asparagus pickles. Recipes usually call for 7 pounds asparagus for 6 wide-mouth pint jars. This assumes you're trimming quite a bit off the bottom, which is often necessary with store-bought asparagus. If you're using fresh garden asparagus, the bottoms will be more tender and your yield much higher.
The above recipe has 3 different variations, each starting with 6-8 pounds asparagus to yield roughly 6 pints per batch (or 4-5 pint and a half jars).
Canning Safety: Do not lower the amount of vinegar used in these pickles. You must use at least half vinegar for the brine (5% acidity), and anything less will not properly pickle the asparagus. Spices, sugar and salt can all be adjusted to your taste. And of course, feel free to increase the amount of vinegar used, replacing water in recipes with all vinegar for a more tart pickle. Also feel free to substitute other types of vinegar (Cider vinegar, etc) so long as they're 5% acidity. Check labels, some varieties (balsamic, rice vinegar, etc) are diluted to lower acidity.
Hot Pack v. Raw Pack: Some sources recommend that you blanch the asparagus before canning and "hot pack" it into jars. Hot packing supposedly makes for a prettier jar of pickles, but I find this completely unnecessary and it overcooks the asparagus in my opinion. (It also makes it nearly impossible to pack the jars since the asparagus is hot!) All these pictures were raw packed, and I think they're awfully pretty, so no need to bother with the hot pack.