The amount of salt and vinegar will vary according to the amount of chiles, and the amount of chiles I use is generally what I have on hand. But, I'll take a stab at being a little more specific: I usually use 1.5 pint canning jars...the freezer type with the tapered "a bit wider at the top than bottom" mouth. Each jar should hold about a pound of chopped chiles, so if I had a pound of chiles on hand, I'd take a few out to allow for some space between the chiles and the jar top. BTW -- that includes seeds, I just wash 'em, cut the stem out, and throw 'em whole into a food processor. If you want, you can clean out the seeds, in which case you might get the whole pound of chiles into a single 1.5 pint jar (if you packed 'em a bit). I measure the coarse salt by my fingertips and thumb...as in, whatever I can pick up with 'em. Two fingertips full on the bottom of the jar, one between each layer of chiles (each layer being about 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick) and two or three on top. All totaled, I'd guess it amounts to 4 to 5 teaspoons per pound of chiles. BTW -- I suggested individual discretion as to how long to leave the chiles to ferment in the salt. For me, that's usually 5 or 6 days. Longer might mellow out the flavor, but I can't get over the worry about mold or other spoilage...so I don't let it sit for too long. When it's time to add the vinegar, I had however much it takes to cover the chiles by about 1/4 inch...don't have a clue as to how much that'd be.

From: Rich McCormack
Posted By:Rich McCormack
Post Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997