Spiced pickled day-lily buds
6 servings
Ingredients
| Quantity | Ingredient | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | quarts | Day lily buds, freshly boiled and drained |
| 3 | cups | White vinegar |
| ¾ | cup | Light brown sugar, packed |
| ½ | teaspoon | Salt |
| ½ | teaspoon | Whole allspice |
| 2 | Two-inch sticks cinnamon, broken up | |
| 10 | To 12 whole cloves | |
Directions
Rinse and drain unopened day lily buds; clip off any stem remnants.
Put buds in a saucepan; add water barely to cover. Bring quickly to a boil, cover, and simmer 20 minutes. Drain. (At this point, the buds can also be served as a simple vegetable dish after adding salt, pepper, spices, etc. Another thing I do with them is to stuff them with ricotta cheese and serve them that way.) Anyway, back to the canning recipe!
Pack hot buds into 8 sterile half-pint canning jars.
Combine vinegar, brown sugar, salt, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves in a saucepan and bring to a boil; boil 3 minutes.
Pour pickling solution over buds, distributing spices equally. Seal at once.
Yield: 8 half-pints. Let these stand for a few weeks before using, to further develop the spicy flavor.
Note: Don't harvest day lilies within 50 feet of roadways due to automobile emissions.